“It’s buzzin!!” If you’ve ever heard Ajay Augustin and his friends shout that into your screen, you already know what comes next: Ajay breaking down a recipe step by step, showing exactly how it’s made, and turning the process into something you feel like you’re part of. For thousands who follow him, that two-word catchphrase is a sign that he’s about to take another tasty but tricky dish and make it look simple, doable, and ultimately something that you can relish wholeheartedly in your own kitchen.
For some, he might be the boy next door who makes your favourite food sound irresistible; for others, he’s the creator who turns your go-to comfort food into creative, aesthetic content that’s almost too pretty to scroll past. And for many, he’s simply both.
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Ajay is, today, one of Kochi’s most promising culinary content creators. But what makes him all the more interesting is that his roots actually lie in Coimbatore, and that he does not hold a Culinary or Hotel Management degree at all. Growing up in Coimbatore and later earning a BBA from Amity University in Bangalore, Ajay eventually relocated to Kerala in 2021; first to Thrissur, where his family had initially moved, and then finally to Kochi. As he puts it, “Cochin changed my life pretty much. Like, I met good people here. My life completely just started in Cochin.”
Kochi indeed can have a pretty good influence on anyone looking to discover culinary adventures or simply enjoy good food. But for Ajay, that wasn’t where it all began. His story started much earlier; back in Coimbatore, where he baked brownies, cookies, churros, fried chicken and the usual “basic stuff,” as he calls it. He’d been making them casually since 2016, long before he ever imagined that people would one day be watching, liking, and recreating his recipes.
Between those early kitchen experiments and the point where he actually began taking content creation seriously, Ajay kept trying different things. In 2016, while he was casually baking at home, he was also working as a DJ in Bangalore at just 17. Around the same time, his curiosity about YouTube pushed him to try simple vlogs and Instagram-friendly day-in-my-life videos. Later, when COVID happened, Ajay took up an IT job, and the pandemic eventually brought him back to Kerala.
Cut to late 2024, long after the COVID phase had passed. By then, Ajay was settled in Kochi and helping out a friend who was running a food delivery venture called Vital Bowl, which specialised in healthy, subscription-based meals. They would send him their daily packages, and Ajay would make content for them. This continued steadily for about three months, from November to January 2025. Three months later, when Ajay realised his interest in creating food-based content was becoming more consistent, he decided it was time to upgrade his space. He got his kitchen renovated because, as he puts it, “If I’m going to do food content, I need a kitchen that lets me do it well.”
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This shift in mindset set him apart from many established culinary content creators in Kerala, leading him to introduce his own version of a “digital video cookbook” – one that never compromises on taste or the aesthetics of presentation.
And yes, for Ajay, everything has been self-taught, from the way he cooks to the way he creates content. No formal classes, no culinary school, and no media training, as many people assume it to be. Maybe that is what sets him apart from the many culinary creators already thriving in Kochi and across Kerala. From the font style and size in his videos to the plating on the table, and even the taste of every dish, he makes sure everything is genuinely pleasing to the eye. That attention to detail, built entirely through self-learning, is what gives his content its distinct feel.
When someone shows the kind of interest and discipline Ajay has in the culinary space, the question naturally surfaces: Why not open a restaurant or a cafe? It is something he has been asked often, but his answer remains steady. “It’s the messiest business you can probably start, and it eats money like breakfast, lunch, and dinner,” he says. For him, the real challenge is consistency. Running a commercial kitchen means maintaining the same standard every hour of every single day; a world away from cooking at home or creating food content. Ambience can bring customers through the door, he points out, but it is always the food that decides whether they return. That said, Ajay isn’t dismissing the idea altogether. The thought of a restaurant or cafe still sits comfortably in his five-year plan, alongside a few other ambitions he hopes to pursue. He already has the basics mapped out: the branding, the colour palette, the packaging, even a couple of dishes he would want on the menu someday.
Keeping that aside for now, Ajay is focusing on something he wants to try next. He is planning a series of pop-ups or hosted weekend events across major Indian cities, including Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi. He plans to collaborate with partner cafes, work in their kitchens on weekends, and create a small menu by using or improvising on what the cafe already offers. For him, these pop-ups are a way to meet his audience in person, test different markets, and understand how his food works beyond the screen.
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This naturally brings us to why Ajay hopes to set up his café or restaurant in Mumbai. For him, the city feels like the right fit. He believes more people there would already recognise his work, saying, “I think a lot of people would know me in Mumbai.” He also finds the Mumbai food scene more open and less questioning, describing it as a market that simply understands new ideas. In contrast, while he appreciates Kochi, he feels it is not entirely ready for the kind of space he wants to build. “Cochin is great, but it’s not ready yet for what I have in mind,” he says. Beyond the practical reasons, Ajay genuinely loves the city; “Mumbai is great, I love Mumbai.” And creatively, he believes Mumbai audiences would be more receptive to the dishes and style he hopes to introduce, adding, “I really want to start a cafe in Mumbai that people have not pretty much seen, the dishes I want to do are quite different.”
Even as his plans for food and cafes take shape, Ajay’s creative journey didn’t start in the kitchen. Long before recipe videos and pop-ups, he had explored another interest: his own clothing label, Act of Kindness. The brand offered simple streetwear featuring T-shirts, hoodies and sweatshirts. The idea for it originated much earlier, back in his school days. “When I was in school, around 12th grade, I wanted to be this DJ, and I thought if I ever got famous, I’d have to sell my merchandise, and it should say something like ‘be kind’ or ‘kindness’.” That early thought led to the name because, as he says, “I wanted all the slogans to be related to kindness, so it was easy to just put my brand name as Act of Kindness.”
The website is no longer active, but the Instagram page Act of Kindness Clothing still remains.
And just like that project, Ajay Augustine carries the same sense of intention into everything he creates today. For him, the biggest achievement isn’t numbers or reach, it’s when someone not only tries his recipe but also recreates the entire video with the same aesthetic. For a creator, that kind of connection is more than enough. Ajay’s growth feels thoughtful and rooted in genuine passion. Whether he’s cooking in his home kitchen, collaborating with cafes or sketching the blueprint for his future space, he carries a confidence shaped as much by his own curiosity as by the people around him. His friends, who pushed him to post that very first video, continue to be a driving force in what he is building today. And that support shows in the way his community now cooks with him, learns from him and celebrates his journey.
The next time Ajay Augustine shouts “it’s buzzin!” into your screen, you’ll know it’s not just about the food, it’s him, his energy, and everything he’s slowly building one plate at a time.
