FoodieJimmy is doing his part to help Memphis restaurants thrive
Fresh off a flight from Las Vegas—where he’d been invited as a food influencer to film content for Electric Daisy Carnival’s Salvage City Supper Club—Jimmy Nguyen, known as FoodieJimmy, was running on five hours of sleep.
In just one year, Jimmy’s life has blossomed into an array of adventures he never fully imagined. He quit his six-figure job as a physical therapist to open a performance pain clinic (called Winning Movement). At the same time, he’s become a highly regarded local food content creator highlighting Memphis restaurant culture; that work, in turn, has helped restaurant owners keep their businesses open. He has amassed over 38,500 followers on Instagram.
His deep, obsessive love for food and restaurants—a passion project he calls a “side quest”—started with his mom. He says she was the “OG foodie” in the family.
She was of Vietnamese origin and spoke no English. Because she had nine kids, she basically prepared a buffet for 11 people for dinner every night; Jimmy often would help her in the kitchen. She would make dishes like spaghetti or tacos, despite nobody teaching her; she likely learned from photos. She also worked in the kitchen at Shang Hai Oriental Restaurant for many years.
“In my household, ‘love’ wasn’t often said out loud,” Jimmy says. “It was, ‘You have a roof over your head, and you have food in your stomach.’”
As a young adult, Jimmy lost his mom to cancer. “Losing my mom was tough,” he says. “This side-questing—maybe it’s a way to run away from reality—but this helps me connect with families who have businesses, with people who might need my help showing their businesses. I do this as a sense of purpose. My mom would show love by dedicating her time. Those are things that I can do.”
Hungry for more
Becoming a skilled content creator seemed natural given Jimmy’s background. Growing up, he was known as the class clown, a self-proclaimed “Disney Channel kid,” who absorbed the myriad ways television and commercial editors keep your attention. Before he was FoodieJimmy, he went by J Smiley in high school and college, where he made educational rap videos.
The conversion to FoodieJimmy began with a prophetic suggestion from a Houston-based foodie content creator he was dating at the time. “You could do this in Memphis,” she told him.
On September 13, 2024, Jimmy posted a video he’d created highlighting a new ramen spot named Kyuramen x TBaar in Germantown. The video was complete with stylish panning shots of the warmly lit restaurant and clips of a steaming bowl of ramen, all set to the song “Life Is Good” by Forrest Frank.
The views—with new followers in tow—soared.
Since then, he’s been on the search for the “best wings in Memphis” (creating an episodic series of the same name) and making a list of “Memphis spots that are worth the hype.” He’s done videos of trying out an Indian buffet named Taste of Paradise, authentic menudo “in a little hut” called La Palapa, eating Good Fortune on the Lunar New Year, digging into the history of The Four Way, and “fighting” with three friends for the last bao at Lao Sze Chuan. He’s highlighted the Asian-fusion boom happening in Memphis right now—from Korean spot The Han to Kuya, a Filipino fusion restaurant.
“I’m still learning the social media game,” he says.
“Grand openings [of restaurants] are currently my biggest hits. The big thing is storytelling: How can I tell a story that makes people want to come through those doors?”
When Jimmy started posting behind-the-scenes kitchen content, he had to start keeping a hairnet in his pocket.
“People really enjoy seeing that content,” he says. “That’s why I always carry a hairnet or a hat now whenever I do collabs. And to pretend to know what I’m doing. And of course respecting their space while capturing the story behind the food.”
Three factors determine which restaurants he chooses to feature on his account: Do they genuinely stand out? Are they highly recommended? Can he confidently share what he finds with his audience?
“Most of the time I go in as a customer first to experience it naturally,” he says. “I do both unpaid and paid collaborations, but regardless, I only work with places I truly believe in and feel good about supporting.”
His most important mission is this: “Keeping Memphis hungry for more,” he says. “I want to show the beauty of the city—that it’s not just Black and white. Memphis is also Asian, Mexican, and Hispanic culture, as well. There is a lot about Memphis people just don’t know about.”
One of Jimmy’s first content projects revolved around the Asian Night Market, the “largest Asian food festival in the Mid-South,” according to its website. After attending the first market, in 2023, he got involved the second year. He tried to boost market attendance by promoting the event on his Instagram and visiting restaurants scheduled to have booths at the market. He decided he might as well sell something, too, so he made chè, a Vietnamese dessert.
Last year he got a team together to make bao buns, bi bim bop, bulgogi nachos, and more. For this year’s market—September 26 and 27 at the Agricenter—he’s adding Asian-inspired Rice Krispies treats and sandwiches.
Feeding the algorithm
“The restaurant game is tough,” Jimmy says.
You need high-quality content to keep up with an ever-changing algorithm that seemingly requires a team to consistently decode. You need flashy events with DJs.
With a rash of Memphis restaurants closing over the last three years, foodie content creation has generated a much-needed influx of restaurant-goers hungry for the hype. Several restaurant owners have told Jimmy that his videos have opened the floodgates to new customers.
But Jimmy worries about the longevity of restaurants after the hype, especially older restaurants in North Memphis or Orange Mound. He’s considering coordinating with other local influencers to create a schedule so they can keep the ball rolling for restaurants. And he wants to host workshops to teach small restaurants how to use their phones to handle their own social media.
“I don’t want businesses to reach out only when they are at the point of closing,” he says.
Despite those concerns, Jimmy believes Memphis will be the next foodie destination.
“With all the new talent that is coming into Memphis—of course, we get a bad rap—but with all the new businesses coming, we have to be competitive,” he says.
On where FoodieJimmy fits in Memphis’s culinary future, he laughs: “I say this as a joke, but I will keep going until I get canceled. The more real I wanna get—who knows—I may say the wrong thing. I don’t know. It’s hard to make everyone happy. But let me show you through my eyes, through my camera, that this is a good thing.”
Zack Orsborn is a writer, artist, and creative energy coach originally from Mississippi. He founded the creative wellness platform Like Really Creative. He’s a member of the Ugly Art Co. Collective. @zackorsborn
Meredith Avery captures moments across worlds (events, families, food, branding). Her work lives in real time, unpolished in the best way, and full of laughter and movement. Warm, social, and in the middle of things is where you’ll find her chasing the light. @meredithaveryphotography