Here’s How Delish Makes their Crazy Theme Park Videos
A year ago they were reuploading minute-long recipe videos. Today, they’re producing longform content for YouTube — and have become celebrities
Tess Koman was travelling back from Jersey at the end of the holiday season when someone took a photo on the train. “I looked like a dumpster,” she says. “I was not cute.” But it’s something that happens increasingly often — alongside being greeted by strangers with a cry of “You’re Disney Tess!”. It even happens in Delish’s office building, which they share with other Hearst publications in New York. “It’s been very pervasive in a way that is both fun and terrifying.”
Koman is senior editor at Delish.com, the food publication from the publishers of magazines including Esquire. But she’s also the host of YouTube series Iconic Eats, whose journeys through the theme parks of America are seen by millions of people at a time. Becoming a public figure — a digital celebrity — wasn’t something Koman thought would happen when she joined Delish. “The short answer is no, I didn’t think this was going to happen, and yes, it’s very weird that it did.”
Life in front of the camera has had odd impacts on Koman’s life: “My actual friends have stopped engaging on any of my channels…
