Tastemakers: Restaurant owner and chef turns social media influencer at 49

SINGAPORE – When he decided to produce a supermarket series of TikTok videos on the best-tasting brands of pasta, olive oil and butter, little did restaurant owner and chef Gero DiMaria expect it to kick-start his second career as a social media influencer at age 49.

The Singapore permanent resident from London started producing social media content in April 2022 – @kucinaitaliansg on TikTok – to drum up business for his halal-certified Kucina Italian Restaurant.

He realised his 269,000 TikTok followers craved educational and informative content when his cooking tutorial on aglio olio pasta scored 2.7 million views, and one on classic carbonara served up one million views.

Following his carbonara video, his restaurant at Kinex in Tanjong Katong sold 400 plates of the dish within a month.

He had removed aglio olio from his menu in 2020 because he felt the dish was too basic, but customers who watched his video showed up asking for it. It is now available off the menu for $18.90++, but will be reinstated officially in 2025.

Chef DiMaria, who turns 50 in December, recalls: “When the aglio olio video went viral, I knew people wanted to learn and understand how to cook Italian food properly. I have always wanted to teach people and TikTok gave me the platform to do it.”

Born and raised in London, chef DiMaria, whose family is Italian in heritage, came to Singapore in 1996 on a holiday to visit an aunt living here at the time. He decided to stay on when he found a job as a chef at Italian restaurant chain Pasta Fresca.

He had taken a culinary course at East Surrey College in Britain and worked at a few restaurants and hotels in London before coming here. 

He met his Singaporean wife Rohana Yusof on a blind date in 1999 and became a Muslim in 2001. His father refused to speak to him for eight months, but eventually relented and flew here to attend the couple’s wedding in 2002.

Ms Rohana worked as a primary school teacher until 2015, when she quit to help her husband with the accounts for Kucina Italian Restaurant, which he started in 2016.

The couple have two daughters, aged 14 and 20. 

Before opening his own restaurant, chef DiMaria, who became a Singapore permanent resident in 2003, worked as a head chef for Da Paolo Group from 2004 to 2008 and took on the role of executive chef at Italian restaurant Ricciotti from 2008 to 2015.

He wanted Kucina to serve authentic Italian classic fare that is halal. He had no marketing budget for the first two years and relied on word of mouth to attract customers. Some were distinguished guests, such as diplomats and Singapore’s former president Halimah Yacob.

By 2022, he decided to jump on the TikTok bandwagon to market Kucina upon the suggestion of a digital marketing company.

In December 2023, on the spur of the moment, he decided to shoot his supermarket series on the best Italian ingredients to pick up. He asked the videographer to meet him at the CS Fresh outlet at Parkway Parade, a five-minute drive from his restaurant.

Clad in the green polo T-shirt and faded jeans he was already togged in, he checked out the aisles and dished out random advice, recommending olive oil in glass instead of plastic bottles and pasta that is pale over yellower ones.

A video titled This Or That? Pasta Edition – which shows him comparing different brands of pasta and landed on Christmas Eve in 2023 – racked up one million views on TikTok and a whopping 7.6 million views on Instagram. 

He did not anticipate the impact of that video and the others in his supermarket series.

He recounts: “I woke up to 20,000 new followers on Instagram. In one week, our followers went from 17,000 to 250,000 on Instagram. On TikTok, our followers increased from 80,000 to 250,000.”

It was a turning point, he says, as supermarket and appliance brands such as Cold Storage and KitchenAid began approaching him for collaborations.

He reckons he earned the influencer moniker in April when he partnered Cold Storage and its upscale concept, CS Fresh, for six cooking tutorial videos on dishes such as porcini risotto where he shops its aisles for ingredients.

He also secured a year-long contract to be a brand ambassador for Italian pasta producer La Molisana.

In September, he printed new name cards – influencer is one of his job titles.

While he declines to reveal his rates, he says that his income as an influencer has been on a par with what he makes from the restaurant over the last six months. 

Chef DiMaria says: “Being an influencer has changed my life in several ways. Not only do I have a restaurant, but I now have a side income as well.”

His online fame has reaped dividends for his restaurant too, boosting receipts by up to 40 per cent. 

He stepped away from cooking at his restaurant in late 2022, but remains involved with its daily operations as managing director and executive chef. The restaurant now has 19 employees.

On average, he churns out 20 videos a month, sometimes as many as 30, for clients and his restaurant’s social media accounts. He usually shoots three to four videos in a day, waking at 7am and going to bed around midnight.

Busy as he is, he still finds time to cook for his family at home. His daughters love his signature dishes, which are available at his restaurant – Orrechiette E Grancho ($31.90++), ear-shaped pasta in a creamy tomato sauce with crabmeat and topped with soft-shell crab, and Gnocchi Al Salmone ($31.90++), potato dumplings in a dill cream sauce with peas and grilled salmon.

He is now hatching plans to grow his own Chef G brand and launch a line of cookware. He has also started writing a cookbook, with the intention to publish it in 2025.

While he has no plans to open another restaurant in Singapore, he is not ruling out the possibility of opening one in Kuala Lumpur, where he has many fans. 

He also recently embarked on a health and fitness journey, and started documenting his progress on his Instagram account @chefg_media in late October. 

Being a social media celebrity has its perks, such as getting free upgrades at hotels when he travels. Many suppliers clamour to provide him with sponsored kitchenware and ingredients.

He gets recognised on the streets too. On a recent trip to Tokyo, fans asked for his autograph and to take photos with him. They call him Chef G or Chef Omar – his Muslim name.

He says: “As a chef, I am used to being in the background, so it was strange at first to get all this attention and be in the limelight. Some of my followers get star-struck when I reply to their comments on social media.”

But his family keeps him down to earth. He says with a chuckle: “My daughters are not impressed with my fame. I am still just dad to them.”