Lockdown created a great number of social media stars. Among them was Poppy O’Toole, a then unknown chef from the Midlands. After catering college in Birmingham, her first job was with the acclaimed Glynn Purnell, whose titular restaurant held a Michelin star for well over a decade before its closure in 2024.
O’Toole went on to work in numerous high-profile kitchens in London before the pandemic hit. It was then that the young chef started creating cooking tutorials on TikTok, soon amassing millions of followers (she has another million on Instagram) thanks to her comforting, homely classics. It wasn’t long before she went full-time as a content creator and was given her own moniker — she’s been known as the Potato Queen for sometime thanks to her deep adoration for spuds.
