Vlogging helped her pay off culinary school debt
If she hadn’t pursued vlogging as a full-time job, Hazel Añonuevo would probably still be paying off her debts from culinary school.
“I borrowed money to pay for my tuition. So, for a time, I considered working abroad or on a cruise ship, to earn more. I thought that if I stayed here in the Philippines, it would take me years to get myself out of debt,” she told Lifestyle.
While she worked at professional kitchens—first in an executive village and then at two hotels in Metro Manila—she would often post photos of her dishes on social media, or hop on the latest food trends.
That got her thinking: “Why not take vlogging more seriously?”
She wasn’t an overnight success. But thanks to her no-frills presentation of home-cooked Filipino meals and other dishes (she’s like a hilariously candid friend barking instructions over your shoulder), she steadily gained steam. Now, Añonuevo goes by the name “Hazel Cheffy” on TikTok, where she has 3 million followers and 69.2 million likes. On Facebook, she has 2.4 million followers.
It didn’t take long for food brands and companies to take notice of her growing reach. “It opened new doors for me. I never imagined that I would end up working with brands, or doing sponsored content,” said Añonuevo, who bagged the Top Foodie Creator trophy at the 2022 TikTok Awards.
Debt-free
But in achieving her dream of becoming one of the biggest food vloggers in the country, she had to let go of another—becoming an executive chef.
As a sous chef at the previous hotel she worked at, she was just a step or two away from realizing that goal. If she could have it her way, she would try her hardest to juggle both worlds. But as time went by, it became increasingly apparent that content creation—which entails planning, filming, editing—was more than enough to keep her hands full.
She had to make a difficult decision.
While having a French job title sounds fancy to some, the pay, she admitted, didn’t necessarily reflect that. Yes, she earned “slightly more” as a sous chef than those below her in the kitchen brigade, but what she ended up getting was still hard to budget for all her family expenses.
“I think other people have this idea that chefs earn really big money,” she said.
If it were stability and prestige she was after, Añonuevo would have probably stayed on that path. But something told her that she still had a lot to give as content creator. And so, she took a leap of faith.
Bigger picture
“I mustered the courage to resign from my job. I felt like I had so much more to share with my followers. I believe I made the right decision,” she said.
“Sometimes, you have to make sacrifices for the bigger picture or to make way for a bigger blessing,” she added.
Her risk-taking continues to reward her. From social media, Añonuevo has made her way into television via the new GMA Public Affairs cooking/lifestyle show, “Lutong Bahay.”
Together with main host, actress Mikee Quintos, and fellow cooks-turned-vloggers Ylyt Manaig and Kuya Dudut, Añonuevo will raid celebrity homes to see what their kitchens are like, and know more about their favorite dishes and the memories they associate them with.
“Aside from the recipes, we also hope to share life lessons from the different stories we will feature,” she said.
The show’s concept hits close to home, Añonuevo said, because home cooking is her foundation. And as she enjoys the fruits of her labor, she couldn’t help but reminisce about her childhood, and how she used to watch her lola cook dishes for her carinderia in Divisoria.
“I would always watch her cook while standing on a stool. At the age of 9, marunong na akong magsangkutsa ng karneng pang-menudo. And then, I grew up, studied culinary arts and became a professional chef,” she said. “And now I’m here.”
