Gen Z woman shares dishes she makes as “private chef” for delighted parents

At 24, Claudia Harrington has gone from home chef to viral sensation.

Harrington, who is from New England, is redefining the largely stereotyped as ‘unglamorous’ concept of living with your parents in adulthood, one internet-famous meal at a time.

The Gen Z woman has always had a knack for cooking and decided to begin filming the lavish meals she’d craft for her parents and sharing them with TikTok last year. Unbeknownst to her, both Harrington’s stack of hearty recipes and her parents’ scalloped cream kitchen cabinets soon became well-known visuals on the platform.

“For the longest time I just wanted to move out of my parent’s house because I felt like I was ‘behind’, since I am 24-years-old and most of my friends live in a city,” Harrington told Newsweek.

“But living at home with my parents has created a new type of friendship with them that I have never had before. In April 2023 I started to post, on my Instagram story, what I had made for dinner every night.”

“I was soon getting tons of compliments and responses asking for the recipes! So, I decided one day to just order a strip of stick-on lights for under my kitchen cabinets and a tripod, and I got straight to it! I filmed my first video, and from there on out my cooking videos excelled,” she recounted.

Harrington’s viral videos, in which she usually brands herself a “private chef” for her parents, have captured the hearts of millions particularly young adults who find themselves in similar living situations.

In 2023, over 50 percent of 18 to 24-year-olds still lived at home with an older parent or guardian. Data from the 2021 U.S. Census Bureau revealed that one in three U.S. adults between the ages of 23 and 24 were still living at home.

While shacking up with mom and dad can serve as a nifty way to save money, plenty of young people would rather trade their older housemates in for the independence and autonomy that is often romanticized with moving out.

Harrington was no different but soon found joy in cooking sit-down family meals for her and her parents to indulge in.

She told Newsweek: “When I niched my content down and started adding the playful text ‘another day living at home with my parents being their private chef’ not only did people love the cooking aspect of the video, but they also were commenting ‘omg I am also my parents private chef’ or ‘I’m also living at home and cook for my parents!’ I brought together a community of people who didn’t even know they all existed in the same niche.”

“For so long on TikTok there were trends that highlighted being young and independent while living in a big city on your own, but the reality is that most of us still live at home! The coolest part is that we all live at home and cook for our parents, we’re paying our rent that’s for sure.”

Living at home in a fast-paced world can often feel like a step back, but for Harrington, it has so far been a step toward something profoundly rewarding.

“Cooking for my parents has opened up a new kind of relationship with them, turning our kitchen into a place of bonding and creativity,” she said.

A Self-Taught Chef’s Journey

Harrington’s journey into the culinary world began out of necessity during her college years amid the COVID-19 pandemic. With access to a well-equipped kitchen in her rental, she turned to TikTok for speedy quick cooking tutorials.

“I learned the basics online, from how to properly cook chicken to mastering the art of chopping onions,” she recalled.

Her quest to improve her cooking skills through trial and error paid off, allowing her to master a wide array of dishes that now delight not only her family but thousands of viewers online. Her most viewed dishes include seasoned steak, chicken Milanese and meatball spaghetti.

Despite her newfound online fame, Harrington is continuing her career as an event planner for a corporate company, a role that she balances with her nightly cooking duties.

“The tripod might be new in the kitchen, but the routine isn’t. I’m just sharing what I’d be doing anyway,” she explained.

“I work from home so I took on the responsibility of cooking for the family since everyone gets home in the evening and doesn’t have time to cook.”

The public’s fascination with Harrington’s home-cooked meals has turned her parents—although often absent from her videos—into unwitting social media stars, much to their delight.

“My parents love the attention almost as much as they enjoy the meals. They’re thrilled with the free goodies we keep getting, from probiotic drinks to gluten-free snacks,” Harrington noted.

The 24-year-old has always had a keen eye for social media content and clean aesthetics. Before finding an audience through her eating diaries, she’d tried her luck at fashion and beauty influencing.

“In high school I was voted ‘social media queen’, back then I was not creating cooking videos, the only thing I knew how to cook was frozen chicken nuggets,” she recalled.

“It was 2017 at the time, so I was really into Instagram and recreating photos I found on Tumblr.”

“My friends and I would take the train into Boston on the weekends to take cute photos on Newbury Street. I even once had my dad take paparazzi photos of me when we were in New York so that I could post the photos on Instagram,” she continued.

While she notes that her younger self “manifested” her current following, the shift from beauty and fashion content to cooking videos marked a significant turn in Harrington’s social media career.

Cooking, she says, is her ultimate stress reliever and a passion that genuinely reflects her true personality. The one thing that delights her more than sharing her recipes, is seeing the attempts that her followers have made at recreating her dish.

“The best part is seeing people come back to tell me they tried my recipes and loved them. It feels like I’ve truly made it.”

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