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Cooking with attitude: Jenison mom becomes mega-viral TikTok sensation

Jessica Secrest created her TikTok account @applesauceandadhd in January to film the meals she cooks for her two kids as a hobby. She now has 1.3 million followers, and counting.
Jessica Secrest viral tik tok aggressive chef
Posted at 3:59 PM, Dec 13, 2023
and last updated 2023-12-14 07:28:54-05

JENISON, Mich. — Move over Ryan, there's a new Secrest in town.

This one spells her name without the "A," but trust us, she has plenty of Attitude to make up for it.

Cooking with attitude: Jenison mom becomes mega-viral TikTok sensation

Jessica Secrest, who lives in Jenison, has become a mega-viral social media sensation for her cooking videos. However, it's not what she's making but how she does it that's caught people's attention.

She uses a snarky, sarcastic and aggressive tone when teaching viewers how to make a dish.

Secrest assured FOX 17, though, the person she is when the camera's off is less potent.

“I'm actually a super nice person," she said. "I am not usually aggressive. I think the aggressive tone is just my inner monologue coming out through my mouth.”

Secrest is a stay-at-home mother of two young children: 3 and 5 years old. Like a lot of moms, she makes meals for them every day.

In January, she decided to start filming the process as a hobby.

Chef Mild Tone by Jessica Secrest

The tone has changed a bit since then.

"It all started when I taught people how to make an Uncrustable the right way," Secrest said. "Once I did that, people really wanted to see me making everything aggressively.”

Chef Uncrustables by Jessica Secrest

In less than a year, that hobby has turned into a full-time job. Secrest, who's from the small town of Tawas in Northern Michigan — with a population fewer than 2,000 — now has more than 1.3 million followers on TikTok.

“I remember when I hit 100,000, I thought, 'There's a number larger than 100,000?' I had never considered that before," Secrest said. "Very quickly, I was at 500,000. Now I'm over a million and I can't fathom any more followers.”

Her account is called @applesauceandadhd. As Secrest explained, her children love applesauce, and she ... well, you can probably guess what comes next.

“I have ADHD, and I use it as my superpower," Secrest said. "I know about how long I can keep people's interest for before I need to switch something or change something or cut. It just gets people kind of sucked in.”

Whatever she's doing, it's worked.

It's also a lot of work.

Secrest makes five to nine videos every day, and hasn't missed a single day since March.

They're not all aggressive. Some are about motherhood and body positivity, but this sarcastic cooking style seems to be sticking with people the most.

“Every one of us, especially in Michigan, knows a mom who talks just like I do, who has the attitude that I do, who's just done when she is making dinner," Secrest said. "I just kind of, like, think people relate to that.”

Despite the unexpected fame, Secrest knows humility is the secret to any successful creation.

"I'm always grateful," she said. "I always keep in the back of my mind the very next follower could be my very last follower. It all could go away tomorrow. So, I just try to live every day and, you know, post the content that I find enjoyable and that I think people will like, because that's what I'm here for — to just have fun.”

You can find Secrest's TikTok, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube channels by clicking each of those individual links.

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