Over the last few months, a YouTube user who goes by the name ‘Chicken Connoisseur’ has recently come into the public eye due to social media like Instagram and Facebook. Within a year, the teenage looking Elijah Quashie (who has shockingly been reported as 23) has amassed almost 19 million video views and 460,000 subscribers. This channel who is managed and presented by Elijah Quashie, aims to review strictly chicken shops within the London area. Quashie assesses chicken shops over four sections during his online videos which are the store’s chips, chicken wings, fillet burger and the overall layout and service giving each a rating out of five within his ‘Pengest Munch’ series.
Last year Elijah Quashie uploaded a video that reviewed a chicken shop that was under the ‘Dixy’ franchise license located within Tufnell Park. After purchasing his usual chips, chicken wings and fillet burger alongside a strawberry Mirinda, the fried chicken shop critic suggested that you should walk for 15 minutes down to archway. Quashie was highly critical of his entire meal claiming the only aspect he couldn’t complain about was the drink, he acknowledged the nice crunch of the chips however said they lacked absorption and flavour giving them a score of 2 out of 5. He went on to say that the store’s chicken wings were a “joke ting” as they were tiny, lacked crunch as well as crispiness and he added that usually he could get 4 wings for the price he paid which made him give the wings another 2 out of 5. Moving on to the fillet burger he commented on its lack of flavour and its overall thinness giving it a 3 out of 5. Finally, he gave to overall shop a 2 out of 5 calling it the “deadest place” and emphasised the overpricing of its food.
After this episode of ‘The Pengest Munch’ was released it saw the biggest reception to a Chicken Connoisseur video quickly gaining over a million hits on YouTube and going viral. Just over a year later the ‘Dixy’ chicken shop has been permanently shut down which shows the influence of a down-to-earth and teenage relatable food critic. The timing of this the video was the biggest reason for the chicken shop’s foreclosure as at this time Quashie’s videos were beginning to shared virally over multiple forms of social networking. The whole situation just amplifies how impactful Facebook, Instagram and YouTube can be in this day and age. Chicken shop owners you better take note of who you are serving because once you give the Chicken Connoisseur a bad meal you won’t be in business for long or as he would put it “that can’t run”.
