He begins each video walking into frame with a small bouquet of flowers in hand, his apron on over clean suits or sweaters, with large windows overlooking Manchester, England, behind him and a clean kitchen counter awaiting his next creation. Nigel Kabvina’s positive and therapeutic cooking videos, each with millions of views, have captivated people across the world. Now with a partnership with Nespresso, two books on the way and an upcoming secret partnership with a big brand, Kabvina’s success shows no signs of slowing. So, what makes him and his food and drink creations so unique and different?

Born in Malawi, moving to the United Kingdom at 6 years old, Kabvina has always been surrounded by bakers and cooks. At 8 years old, his mother started teaching him how to cook. He started with brownies, but, as a young kid first learning to cook, things definitely got messy.

“Everyone would go to sleep and I’d be up and say, ‘Ok, I’m going to make my own cookies.’ And I remember I decided to make shortbread cookies and, as a kid, logically I thought, ‘You know what would make this better? If I watch TV.’ So, there would be this trail of flour as I sat on the couch with an outline of where I sat while baking. The next morning, my mom wakes up and sees this mess and trail and she’s stunned in silence. She was about to get angry but then she sees this tray of baked biscuits,” Kabvina recalled, wearing a white turtleneck sweater with a red heart, an extension of the love and warmth he brings to his work. He laughed and explained how at every Christmas now, they bring up this story, “She said to me the biscuits were so good that she couldn’t get angry.”

© Nigel Kabvina

Originally planning to go into finance, Kabvina’s friend encouraged him to take up a part-time job as a bartender. This moment marked a turning point in his life, despite him  not knowing it at the time. “There’s that saying, a man often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it,” he said. He quickly fell in love with the role, finding himself getting to work early because he looked forward to it so much.

Speaking about his mentor at the time, Kabvina explained, “When I worked in the bar industry, my mentor used to say his favorite thing about bartending was that it changes lives. And it’s true, when you’re really good at what you do, you have the opportunity to really change lives.”

One pandemic and three lockdowns later, Kabvina turned to TikTok to create a visual portfolio to show off the drinks and foods he could make (including his favorite drinks of special martinis, a Martinez, negronis and Aperol spritz), with the purpose to show and teach bartenders, cocktail servers and other food and drink professionals how to add a bit of flair and jazz to whatever they’re making.

As Kabvina explained it, his presence online and his reputation as a chef and mixologist “first started slowly and then all at once.” His content often begins with him bringing fresh flowers to the table, pruning and propagating them, and setting the arrangement at the corner of the table. This subtle yet colorful and positive approach wasn’t always part of his plan.

© Nigel Kabvina

“The flowers have become a bigger thing and has led to more interesting conversations in terms of masculinity. I ended up getting a lot more men following me after I introduced the flower aspect because there was this fascination of: Why is he carrying flowers? Who are they for? He must be in love if he brings flowers. But for me actually, the flowers represent and remind me of home. I’m also obsessed with detail, color contrast and color theory,” explained Kabvina.

After the few seconds of flowers at the start of his videos, he sometimes then opens a bottle of Champagne with a knife in a satisfying manner before beginning his food creation, often brunch. A lover of French toast dishes, Kabvina likes to make extraordinary meals with few ingredients. He argues he can make an elevated dish like French toast with whatever sits in his basket, but that doesn’t mean he avoids the “extraness” he has come to include in his videos and recipes.

“I love making steaks in the sense of playing around with untraditional flavors. I love getting a pretty cheap cut and adding seasonings to it to completely change it,” he said. His favorite seasoning? Citric flavors and acid. Kabvina finds the range of its use nearly limitless.

“When you think citrus and savory, you mostly think lemon, but there’s so many other citrus elements you can play with like grapefruit, orange and lime, giving a sort of acidity. I’ve recently been playing around with using citric acid as a seasoning for instance on top of a steak, like an orange pepper seasoning as a rub,” said Kabvina. Not to mention citric flavors go well with French toast.

His fascination with elevating something and making it unique stems from his love of Italian chef Massimo Bottura, chef patron of three-Michelin-starred Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy. For Kabvina, Bottura represents how to best see food and the world, taking something simplistic and elevating it. “For example, I’ll take dry ice but then I’ll do it with a bowl of cereal. The contrast makes it purposely ridiculous, like a food hyperbole.”

The world clearly loves the contrast found in his content, as well as the often-relaxing vibe each of his videos has, and Kabvina equally loves the connections he’s made in cooking for viewers. “For my role, I may not directly speak to people, but I’ll get a lot of messages from people saying they struggled with their appetites but watching my videos making breakfast made them want to make breakfast. That’s why on my bio section on TikTok, it says ‘have you eaten today?’. I want to encourage people to make something for themselves.” He continues to find more ways to connect with people across the world with travels to New York City, Los Angeles and Arizona, with future plans to venture to Italy, Spain and even Japan.

© Nigel Kabvina

And with his recent partnership with Nespresso, Kabvina reaches even more aspiring chefs, mixologists and general viewers wanting to add a little something to their next brunch or dinner. On his most recent three-part campaign project with the coffee brand, Kabvina worked with one of Nespresso’s newest capsules incorporating a whiskey essence. This coffee flavor begins with orangey-citrusy notes before evolving into a malty and whiskey flavor. Kabvina took to this flavor quickly, blending the best of both worlds for him as a former bartender and current chef and creator, as well as his love of all things brunch.

As much as Kabvina loves to create brunch dishes and inspire people around the world, his favorite cuisine (apart from his mother’s cooking, of course) is Vietnamese food. “The best way to describe it is it tastes like love. When you try a lot more of the Southern Vietnamese-style cuisine, you get these curries and coffees, which was life changing for me,” said Kabvina. He particularly loves Ca Ri Ga curry and the classic pho dish. And, although hard to make, Kabvina has a soft spot for Vietnamese summer rolls.

All of Kabvina’s videos blend the best of his cooking, boasting views of the Manchester skyline through his floor-to-ceiling windows, a seemingly deliberate strategy to showcase the beauty of this emerging U.K. city. He encourages every traveler to make a visit to Manchester, but not for its tourist attractions. As Kabvina puts it, “If you just do the tourist attractions in Manchester, you’ll have done the city in half a day.”

Instead, Kabvina urges you to make Manchester your food and drink scene for the next few days, stopping in various neighborhoods like Northern Quarter and Spinningfields for great eateries, bars and lounges. One particular lounge, Albert’s Schloss, features tables with buttons saying ‘Press for Gravy’ in the day time and ‘Press for Prosecco’ come the evening. One of Kabvina’s favorite restaurants, a chain found throughout the United Kingdom, is Hawksmoor. Here, you’ll get classic British food with good steaks, hearty dishes and excellent service. Kabvina promises Hawksmoor is a consistently top-notch restaurant with service exceeding standards.

As Kabvina looks ahead to the rest of 2023 and into 2024, he is excited to reach more aspiring cooks, mixologists and those looking for inspiration in the world of food, drink and travel. Kabvina finds the people in every destination make it memorable, especially when trying different cuisines in different places, meeting with chefs, fellow restaurant-goers and those on the street offering local recommendations. Just as his videos start and end with color and love, Kabvina approaches the future with the same principles.