Highlights
- Irish Pekitpekit was always her dad's cooking assistant growing up.
- Food vlogging was Irish's way of honouring her dad after he passed.
- Irish shares that some of the important things to consider while doing ASMR are timing, surroundings and how noisy food items are when eaten.
WA Dental nurse Irish Pekitpekit was always a bit unsure of herself, worried about the perception of others. It was only when her father died in 2018 that she decided to throw away her inhibitions and do what other people say not to do - eat with her mouth open.
Irish as a dental nurse. Source: Irish Pekitpekit
For dad
"My dad was the first person to teach me how to cook. I was his assistant growing up," Irish shares.
Irish continued cooking even after she moved from Cebu to Perth, her father always the guiding force behind the dishes she created.
"When my dad passed away, I wanted to do something creative to honour him. I became a nurse because of his encouragement, but I've always loved editing photos and videos."
Irish with her dad, Manuel Source: Irish Pekitpekit
Love for her father and all things creative prompted Irish to create a YouTube channel mainly focused on food.
"It was through my dad that I learned that cooking was not only an art but a way of expressing myself, so I thought of sharing my recipes online. Later on, I discovered ASMR."
ASMR
Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response or ASMR is a positive, tingling-like response to visual or auditory stimuli. While there are different kinds of ASMR videos online, the two popular ones are whispering and eating.
"Some brush the microphone with their makeup brush or even brush their hair to soothe and relax the listener and viewer."
"I got more interested in eating videos, especially Mukbang which is popular in South Korea. With Mukbang, the eater eats large portions of food."
Irish admits that she used to stay up late at night watching Mukbang videos.
"I know these videos are not for everyone, but I liked them. They made me hungry," she laughs, adding, "People get validation with them - like you can really taste the food through the video and the sounds. You can taste the crab, the pickled cucumber, the crispy chicken!"
When it comes to her own ASMR food videos, the most popular to date is one which featured fried bangus [milkfish], chicharon [pork cracklings] and dried pusit [squid].
"I ate with my hands as we Filipinos like doing. You can hear the crunchy sound of the food. Our food always reminds me of home. Of course I've adapted to food in Australia, but my go-to comfort food is still Filipino."
Shooting the comfort food she eats, Irish uses a special kind of microphone that picks up the faintest of sounds.
"In ASMR, we whisper and a special microphone picks that up. It captures everything - the sound of breathing and your surrounding," she shares, adding, "There was a time we had a cyclone in WA while I was doing a video so I had to put captions on it."
"This is why timing is important as well. I usually record around 9pm when things are quieter and the neighbour's dog isn't barking."
"In ASMR, we whisper and a special microphone picks that up." Source: Irish Pekitpekit
Besides timing, Irish shares that for anyone who wants to get into creating ASMR videos, the most important thing is to find your particular niche.
"Use food items that are exciting and that create noise. Find something chewy and crispy. Find something that just by looking it at it, people will start salivating - like sour green mangoes."
"Some content creators also focus on their own themes. Some will focus on a particular type of food (like meat or seafood) or cuisine. I even saw a video with all pink food. What's important is to create videos that people will watch over and over again."
"Some content creators also focus on their own themes. Some will focus on a particular type of food (like meat or seafood) or cuisine." Source: Irish Pekitpekit
"Oh, and use a good shade of lipstick," she laughs, adding, "I usually shoot only half of my face so I make sure I use a good coloured lipstick that doesn't smudge."
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