Samantha Ricottone: Cooking is Edible Art

Food has always been central to Samantha's life. Raised in Hamilton, Ontario, in a Portuguese-Italian household, she was surrounded by good food, family meals, and the kind of gatherings that revolved around the kitchen.

"I've been surrounded. I'm Portuguese Italian, so food is a big part of my culture. I've always been surrounded by really good food."

When Instagram exploded, she saw food content and thought it looked cool. But it wasn't until COVID struck and lockdown left her with nothing to do that she decided to actually try it. What began as a way to pass the time evolved into something genuine.

What began as a casual way to fill time evolved into something more. As her account grew, the casual hobby became a genuine ambition. She now has a long-term goal of writing a cookbook, and the work has shifted from doing it just for fun to genuinely wanting to grow her voice.

Samantha's recipes lean heavily Mediterranean, with a particular love for Greek food and anything involving fresh vegetables and fish. But she's not a purist. She loves fusion, the kind of unexpected combinations that stop the scroll. Her recent repertoire includes taco poppers, a jalapeno popper-taco hybrid, and an elaborate tomato sandwich made entirely of layered tomato slices, mozzarella, pesto, and prosciutto.

Lately, she's focused on a summer snack series, experimenting with ways to make healthy food visually interesting and easy to execute at home.

"I like fusion food. I like making things look a little bougie or out of the box or just something you'd get at some crazy restaurant in downtown Toronto. But easy to follow."

The appeal isn't in making recipes complicated. It's in making them approachable.

Samantha films, edits, and posts her own content using just her iPhone. She moved her filming setup to a garage with excellent natural light, after years of learning that lighting is one of the most demanding aspects of food content creation. She's been experimenting with export settings and camera tools to achieve the crisp quality she sees in other creators' work.

She's learned to keep videos short, under 20 seconds, because attention spans on social media don't allow for anything longer. She uses voiceovers to inject personality, skips over basics like how to cut onions, and is constantly experimenting with angles and export settings to achieve the crisp, polished look she sees elsewhere. The editing process used to be her bottleneck, but now she can edit a video in an hour. It's the filming that takes time and thought.

Samantha is a supply teacher, a choice she made deliberately to prioritize time with her four-year-old daughter. Unlike full-time teaching, supply work is flexible. She works about six hours a day with no report cards to write or marks to manage. When she was a full-time classroom teacher, she realized she didn't have enough time for her family, so she switched to supply work to reclaim that flexibility.

She's realistic about her capacity. She aims for three high-quality videos per week rather than pushing herself into burnout with daily posting. She's also a nutrition coach, though she keeps that work intentionally small. Between teaching, motherhood, and content creation, she's learned to be honest about what she can actually deliver.

Food is one of the most oversaturated niches on Instagram, and Samantha is acutely aware of it. She's also aware that success isn't just about great recipes. It's about personality. She learned this partly from watching her father, who has 51,000 followers and went viral with restaurant reviews, and partly from her own experiments.

"Personality is the only way i'm going to stand out with food. Is with my particular, because nobody's like me."

She uses voiceovers to make people laugh, shares her authentic struggles with the algorithm, and isn't afraid to show up as herself.

She's had one video explode to 123,000 views. Everything else has been moderate. She knows she needs to be more consistent with her style and post more frequently. She's learning that the algorithm rewards persistence, and that her real advantage isn't a flashy trick. It's staying true to who she is.

When Samantha picks what to post, she doesn't overthink it. She scrolls TikTok and Instagram for ideas, sees something that appeals to her, and makes it. She's not picky about ingredients or cuisines. But when it comes to what she shares on her page, she filters recipes through the lens of her niche: food and family, with a health-conscious bend.

She's intentionally light on pasta, despite it being her favorite food, because she maintains a healthier vibe on her page and is acutely aware that she's a nutrition coach. She does more homemade gummy bears and snicker bars now, especially as a "mom series" because she's noticed those videos get better engagement. The algorithm is complex, but she's learning to work with it rather than fight it.

At its core, Samantha's message is simple: "Healthy food could be delicious. And fun to make and easy." She knows that many people are intimidated by cooking. She hears it from friends all the time, but she believes cooking is fundamentally accessible. That's why she keeps her recipes transparent and step-by-step, with no shortcuts and no assumptions about what you already know.

She's also a believer in what she calls edible art.

"I call cooking. Edible art. Because it's art. It's the only kind of art you can eat."

That philosophy drives everything she does, from the way she plates food to the way she films it.

Samantha is candid about the emotional toll of content creation. She compares herself to other creators. She gets upset when a post doesn't take off. She's cried over her analytics. But she keeps going. Part of it is the long-term goal of the cookbook. Part of it is that she genuinely loves the work. Part of it is watching her father and friends succeed, which makes her believe it's within reach for her too.

She's also learned that consistency matters more than virality. Quality over quantity. And that keeping your personality intact, even when you're tempted to chase trends, is what ultimately sets you apart.

Explore Samantha's recipes on Chefadora at chefadora.com/@samshungry, where she shares Mediterranean and family-friendly recipes designed to prove that healthy food is accessible and fun. Follow her on Instagram at @sams_hungry for daily inspiration and creative fusion cooking. Chefadora is proud to spotlight creators like Samantha who are making quality cooking achievable for busy families and food lovers everywhere.

Updated on 03 Aug 2026