Mikomi Hokina has 1.8 million Instagram followers and no real idea why half of them are there.
Some comment on her recipes. Others skip the food entirely and tell her she looks great.
The 30-year-old cosplayer, who teaches men to cook while dressed as characters like Velma Dinkley from Scooby-Doo and video game cat girl Chocola, says the formula now brings in six figures a month.
Recipes, outfits or both
Mikomi posts her cooking videos free on YouTube, with a paid Patreon tier for fans who want more.
“A lot of men are clueless about cooking, but I’m here to help,” she said, as reported by Creatorzine.
“To be honest, I’m never really sure if they’re following me for my recipes or my outfits, but I think it’s a bit of both.
“Some blokes comment ‘this looks like a good recipe, I’ll try it’ whereas others just write ‘you look great’.
“It’s flattering either way.”
The self-confessed gaming nerd grew up in Brussels.
At 25 she moved to a village of around 200 people to restore the house she inherited from her late mum, which had fallen into disrepair.
She lost her mum to breast cancer, then beat the same disease herself in 2022.
A chef’s daughter who won’t touch cheese
Cooking runs in the family. Her dad works as a professional chef.
Her mum loved trying new dishes.
“I learned a lot from my mum growing up because she made lots of special courses,” Mikomi said.
“He’s very passionate about cooking but after working all day he didn’t want to come home to cook.
“So I watched my mum, listened to my dad and ate a lot of canned ravioli.”
By 12 she cooked for herself, spending evenings at home with her brother while her dad worked restaurant shifts and her mum took night classes in programming and coding.
She is also, by her own admission, a picky eater.
She hates cheese and often skips her own dishes, filming when friends are round so someone else can eat them.
“If I order or make a burger, it’s always with no sauce, lettuce or cheese,” she said.
“When the camera’s off, I often cook my favourite nostalgic childhood meal, which is plain pasta with ham.”
Six figures a month. Plain pasta with ham.
The melted pot mum never found
Not every early lesson went well.
“I had to learn fast as a kid but one time I forgot I was boiling water on the gas stove and went to my room, which was at the opposite side of the apartment,” she said.
“The whole place was filled with smoke, and the pot started to melt through the heat.
The water was gone and the handles of the pot were crackling and melting.
“It smelled terrible, like horribly bad in the whole apartment so I put it under the water.
I had to hide the evidence because I was panicking.
“I hid the pan in the pantry somewhere and mum never knew the truth.”
Blame the gym bros
What put her on camera was a gym bro’s lunch.
“I saw a video of someone mixing tuna with eggs and chicken. It was disgusting and looked horrible.
I knew men deserved a better role model,” she said.
Mikomi believes food should look as good as it tastes, because people eat with their eyes first.
“You can make even the most basic food look appetising if you want.”
Pumpkin pie as Velma
She has made everything from burgers to spaghetti bolognese, but says the costume is where it comes alive.
“I made a pumpkin pie as Velma from Scooby Doo – it was very on-trend for a seasonal theme at Halloween,” she said.
“My outfits don’t come from requests, they’re just characters I like and want to dress up as.
“I’ve also dressed as a cat and made cat cookies.”
The cooking isn’t even her main craft.
Mikomi makes hyper-realistic custom elf ears, fantasy weapons and handcrafted armour, selling pieces for up to £10,000 each.
“My cooking shows are nothing fancy but it’s another way to keep my fans happy and engaged – and another excuse to wear more cosplay.”
Why It Matters
Editorial framing: Mikomi’s setup is a neat example of a creator stacking income rather than relying on one stream.
Free YouTube videos feed a Patreon paywall, and the same audience can buy four-figure props.
She is also unusually candid about not knowing which half of the appeal does the heavy lifting, and has built a business that doesn’t need her to find out.
Fandom-led content keeps spilling into practical niches like cooking, fitness and DIY, as creators look for corners the algorithm hasn’t already flattened.
She has a wardrobe full of characters she hasn’t cooked as yet.
Whether the next video gets judged on the food is another matter.
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