The Phone Eats First: Reconfiguring Cultural Capital and Performing Taste on TikTok’s #TorontoEats

This study investigates how TikTok reconfigures cultural capital through the visual commodification and performative display of Toronto’s food culture using the hashtag “#TorontoEats”. Through a digital ethnographic multimodal critical discourse analysis, my research considers Bourdieu’s (1984) definition of cultural capital as the guiding definition of distinction, status, and personal taste. This analysis considers how cultural capital manifests through algorithmic engagement, adherence to platform norms, and TikTok’s multimodal format that blends video, sound, text, and gesture to entice audiences. Findings suggest that mundane food practices and activities are transformed into conspicuous commodities on TikTok, where creators position themselves as tastemakers and audiences participate in prestige consumption through digital validation. These findings suggest a shift away from food as nourishment to food as self-fulfillment, as well as how multimodal cues engage with this through editing, sound, visual aesthetics and overlays. While this study finds significant evidence of capital being reconfigured through TikTok’s attention economy, the intersection of voluntary participation in digital food culture and an urban city such as Toronto requires more time to unfold and be observed.