FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WPTA) – When you scroll on TikTok, there’s a good chance you’ve seen some videos where users are talking about food and sharing recipes.
But you might be surprised to learn a food content creator with more than 400,000 followers is from and still lives here in 21Country.
Leah Kimpel is from LaGrange County, and she’s taken her love for food and turned it into a viral sensation.
But she isn’t letting her newfound fame change anything about the foods she loves.
Kimpel says she’s always been a foodie.
“Like I used to take pictures of food before I had a smartphone,” she says.
Kimpel realized her love for food in some odd moments, like when her family was planning vacations.
“I would look up places that diners drive ins and dives had been to and see if it was going to be anywhere near where we were travelling so, we could go to one of those restaurants,” Kimpel says.
That passion led her to start working in the food industry when she was 16.
“I’ve always loved working in the Food Industry. I loved working at Wendy’s, it was so fun,” she says.
Kimpel even went on to own pizza forum in Auburn for a couple years and realized she loved experimenting with recipes.
“That’s what you do when you work in the food industry, is you make these weird concoctions, you’re sick of having anything off the menu,” she explains.
But she had no idea this passion would eventually earn her more than 400,000 followers on TikTok.
It started when she made a video getting dinner with her husband.
“Literally showing his food, my food and then a waffle fry I think a loaded waffle fry. And I just took a bite of it, that was it, cut off right when I bit it. And it got hundreds of thousands of views,” Kimpel says.
But her massive following hasn’t changed her.
“I felt the need to tell people, we aren’t fancy here. If you’re looking for fancy, you’re in the wrong place,” she says.
So, maybe you won’t find her at a Michelin Star restaurant reviewing a 5-star meal.
But you will find her making childhood snacks or nods to her old jobs.
“I don’t want to change the part that makes it me, just to be getting views,” Kimpel says.
Kimpel says people that watch her videos share a sense of nostalgia.
“People care about what I grew up on, they grew up on it, we can connect in that way. And a lot of times if people comment about it, it comes with a story like oh my grandma used to make that for me,” she says.
Kimpel says she never knows what niche food or snack will land with viewers.
“I talked about fried bologna once, and people went wild for that,” she explains.
But she knows it’s not every day a girl from a small town in Northeast Indiana goes viral for taking bites of her favorite foods.
“It floors me when somebody is out living their life and they see something that makes them think of me,” Kimpel says.
If you own a local restaurant and want her to stop by, you can find her contact information on her TikTok page.
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