Jujumao’s Success Is a Testament to the Power of Community

(SPOT.ph) ‘Content’ is such a loaded word—literally, in the sense that it’s what fills our lives these days (don’t check your Screen Time records); figuratively, in the ever-growing sea of stuff to watch versus stuff that enriches; and probably a thousand other ways in the battle between genuine art forms and the corporations that wish to wield them to sell you more stuff. But for Juri Imao—you may know him as Jujumao—if what he makes can inspire even one person, it's well worth making.

It’s a quality in him that seems to have always separated him a little from other boys. Sure, he loved Power Rangers as much as the next kid, but the scales of what channel to flip to so often weighed in favor of the likes of Emeril Lagasse and Nigella Lawson. “I’m not sure what came first, but I remember always having been an adventurous eater,” he shares, “especially if other people had an immediate reaction to it. Even if they said it was gross, as long as it’s food, I’ve got to try it once.”

Here's why  Jujumao’s social media success is a testament to the power of community:

Rage Against the Algorithm

Having previously worked in hotel kitchens and real estate—not the most classic combination, even he will admit—Imao’s career path had never quite been set in stone. “You learn to deal with rejection; I think you’ve got to, no matter what you do,” he says. “I guess it adds to the sense of adventure if you let it. That’s what food is about for me, actually; the exploration, the thousand rabbit holes you can go down and come out of changes, trying something a little beyond you.” It's an attitude that has certainly helped in the act of content creation.

It could very well be that for a number of us, many of the creators we enjoy or encounter daily now were born out of necessity back in 2020 and 2021, back when the world had shut down. As the modern adage goes, you’re probably clocking into your 9 to 5 today because you were—and still are—too shy to dance on TikTok.

But Imao put his hodgepodge (but still wildly specific) skills to good use and clearly hasn’t looked back. When asked about inspiration, he can and will draw from anything: “I research until something captures my attention, or I feel I can make something interesting.” The seemingly endless war with the algorithm almost doesn’t factor in—and yet, his creations thrive.

You Can Meet Your Heroes

In the now-far-flung beginnings of his Instagram account, one can only see single photos of a dish made that day or the day before. (Does anyone have a grid that didn’t start out like that, we wonder. Perhaps it was his unique instinct to investigate that made Imao unafraid to take the plunge—in his first “official” Instagram video in 2022, currently close to 23,000 likes, he cuts his finger while chopping—and even led him to meet his heroes.

“I am a huge fan of Ninong Ry and Erwan Heussaff, and getting to work with them has been such a dream come true,” he shares. “It isn’t just about food, but that obviously plays a big part; it’s the curiosity we share. And they taught me not to isolate myself talaga, kasi learning from other creators is such an underrated part of this job.”

And that’s another thing that seems to come naturally to him, although he assures us he had to be told: the idea that competition does not equate to seclusion or gatekeeping. “Sure, I started out looking at foreign creators and sort of ‘reverse engineering’ their format, or picking out elements I liked—but that’s when I was looking for styles of videos that hadn’t quite taken off here yet, and when I was trying to figure out why that was the case,” says Imao. “But when you’ve got something good going, you’re still going to look up to others in your field; I’ve learned it can’t hurt to let them know, and you don’t know what else you could learn, or who among them is going to end up becoming a really good friend.”

“Curiosity killed the cat…”

Combining Imao’s unrelenting inquisitiveness with all the accessible information about food on the internet might sound like a parent’s worst nightmare, but in reality, it’s come back to him in dividends. To him, the pleasure in eating is almost as much of a necessity as the food itself. “In a way, I ‘travel’ through the food I encounter online,” he says, “then when I get the opportunity to actually go to its country of origin, I’m able to taste the difference between what I made and what a native chef makes, and it’s mind-blowing every time.”

Everything he does seems to be poured back into his sense of wonder and the compulsion to share; on said travels, his souvenirs aren’t fridge magnets or novelty shirts, but kitchen tools and things that can double as coasters or unique serving platters. “It tells a more interesting story, I think,” he adds. “Instead of like, vaguely remembering what year you went somewhere, you can say that, say, a matcha whisk stood out to you in a shop on this little street and you just had to take it home. It just means more.”

But Imao doesn’t only surround himself with fellow chefs and new information; he can admit that it takes a completely different part of the human brain to translate what he discovers into a highly engaging video format. With a small team of creatives who have taken his content to new heights—you need only to see the leap in pace, color grading, and energy from 2022 to 2024, just to give you a rough idea—the Jujumao identity continues to stretch its wings. (Although whether there’ll be any ranch dip for these wings is another question entirely.)

“With them, I’ve really been able to grow and expand my audience, a lot of whom are genuinely interested in my passion projects, like my Medieval meals series,” he points out. “You know how they say ‘it takes a village’? It’s true for anything. My team plus my audience—they make my passion possible. I’m really grateful for the position they’ve allowed me to be in.”

“...but satisfaction brought it back”

And, in a way, all this happened because of a little courage. As Imao advises aspiring creators, “Try to look for something no one else is doing; it doesn’t have to be a grand concept, but it could be something small like a camera angle, or lesser-known food… it may be cliché advice, but it’s cliché because it works.”

But is there any advice for the almighty algorithm? “I’m not really ‘fighting’ it, I think; in a way, yes, because some other genre of content gets more immediate traction than others, like with shock value… but I make what I love because I have something to say, and because I love it, it’s sustainable in that way. I think you can always spot clout-chasing if you really look.”

“For me, sometimes, I still struggle with thinking of the next video,” he adds, “but I can keep going because I have the foundation of being passionate and curious. And! Oh my god, this is important! Never underestimate the power of community. Not just networking, but community. I don’t think I would have ever improved or even visualized my full potential if I hadn’t connected with other creators. They helped me navigate the space; they helped me price myself fairly; they helped me improve and discover more. There is no downplaying that in any aspect of living, I think, but when you’re in a creative or creative-adjacent world, community is a lifeline.”

Photos by Hans Fausto

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