Popular YouTube vlogger and foodie Mikey Chen is most closely associated with Strictly Dumping, his channel on the platform that forms the major part of his mission to “eat everything on Earth”. Strictly Dumpling has been going since 2013, notching up over 3.7 million subscribers and over 785 million views. He also has another YouTube channel with over 1.3 million subscribers and an Instagram page with nearly 390,000 followers. His videos are watched hundreds of thousands of times within hours of uploading. In short, he is one popular eater!

Chen’s most popular videos have included one of him eating brunch at a 7-Eleven in Taiwan, a recipe for the perfect Japanese ramen noodles, and a massive pho noodle soup challenge, all of which have received millions of hits and plenty of engagement. He recently relocated from Seattle, Washington to a suburb of Dallas, Texas, where he hopes to open the first of many Korean steakhouses under the “Carne” brand name. Clearly, his ambitions are as big as his appetite!

Born in Xi’an, China, Chen moved to the United States with his family when he was eight years old. His parents were restauranteurs, and so he was brought up working in a succession of their Chinese buffet restaurants around the country. After college, he began working for an NPO, raising awareness of human rights abuses in China, a subject he is still incredibly passionate about. To pay his rent, however, he turned to filming weddings. Eventually, he hit on the idea of turning the camera on himself and filming the $5 meals he was trying to survive on. And so a legend was born.