Why Chefs and Foodie Influencers Are Key Partners This Festive Season
The festive season is just around the corner, and we all know what that means: food, drink, and more food. From indulgent dinners to late-night toasts, consumers lean into eating, drinking, and celebrating in a way they don’t at any other time of year.
For food and beverage brands, this is a golden moment. But standing out in such a crowded market takes more than just a pretty campaign. You need voices that people trust, admire, and love to follow. That’s where chefs and foodie influencers come in.
Why Chefs Are a Brand’s Best Friend
Chefs aren’t just there to cook, they set trends, spark creativity, and bring real authority to the table. Partnering with them can help your brand.
- Earn instant credibility. People trust chefs’ opinions, and that trust transfers to your product.
- Show off versatility. A chef’s recipe or pairing can highlight your product in new and inspiring ways.
We’ve seen this with Gordon Ramsay, when the celebrity chef teamed up with Borealis. Ramsay partnered with food tech brand Borealis Foods, joining the company as an advisor, strategic partner and brand ambassador. Read more here.
Foodie Influencers: Relatable, Scalable, Shareable
If chefs bring prestige, foodie influencers bring community. Their audiences are loyal, engaged, and eager for inspiration they can bring into their own homes. Working with foodie creators or even talent that talk about food allows you to reach bigger audiences, show everyday indulgence, make premium products feel accessible, or highlight a product that fits naturally into their lifestyle. Influencers are especially trusted when it comes to gifting, hosting, and buying.
We’ve seen this with former Love Islander Jamie Jewitt partnering with Dark Horse Wine for an Instagram campaign. Jamie spoke about his love of cooking, sharing the results on his Instagram while promoting Dark Horse’s Cabernet Sauvignon as the ultimate companion to his new creation: “It’s an unexpected pairing, but the fruity notes and smooth finish work well with the fresh flavour.” The post racked up over 13k likes in just over two weeks, proving Jamie’s talent and reach as an influencer.
’Tis the Season to Indulge
The final months of the year are all about splurging. It might be buying a special bottle of wine, treating yourself to gourmet ingredients, or building hampers full of festive treats. By teaming up with chefs and foodie influencers, your brand can be part of festive celebrations, tap into authentic seasonal storytelling, and build both brand love and sales during peak spending months.
You don’t have to focus only on food. This can extend to gifts, with talent making them feel luxurious or helping launch a product ahead of the festive season. This is exactly what we saw with renowned chef and chocolatier Amaury Guichon when he teamed up with Essence Cosmetics. As part of the partnership, Amaury created a fully-functional oversized replica of Essence’s beloved lip balm entirely out of chocolate, documenting the process and sharing the incredible results across his social media channels to an audience of millions. His mastery of chocolate sculptures, creativity, and technical genius made for the perfect showstopper.
@amauryguichon I have officially partnered with @essence cosmetics to craft this fully functional oversized Juicy Bomb glossy butter balm in chocolate! Would you use it or eat it? #amauryguichon #chocolate #juicybomb #essencecosmetics #essencePartner ♬ original sound – Amaury Guichon
The festive season is the perfect opportunity for brands to tap into the influence of chefs and foodie creators. Whether it’s through chef-curated recipes, influencer-led campaigns, live events, or creative collaborations, working with culinary talent helps bring products to life in an authentic and aspirational way. Chefs provide credibility and inspiration, while foodie influencers bring scale, relatability, and engagement. Together, they allow brands to connect with consumers in meaningful ways, elevate festive storytelling, and drive both brand love and sales during the most indulgent time of the year.