Culinary Influencer

Jack Goldburg, BS’21, is a rising star on social media—his more than 1.7 million followers join him on his global search for the best foods. In the interview, read about the early days of his venture, the power of the “fake it till you make it” phase, and his overnight spike from 100 followers to more than 10,000. And make sure to follow him on Instagram to keep up with all his culinary adventures.

Have you always been a serious foodie? What did you think of the food scene during your student years at IU Bloomington?
I loved the food scene in Bloomington. My favorite was Fourth Street, with all of the different ethnic [restaurants]. I would go with my friends to Siam House and Burma Garden—this little Burmese spot. It was shocking to see all these traditional, authentic restaurants all lined up on one street—such amazing culinary experiences in this little town in Indiana. Mother Bear’s was another great spot, really unique pizza. I almost forgot [Janko’s] Little Zagreb. It’s one of my favorite restaurants. It’s such an incredible environment. So, yeah, I’ve always been a huge foodie, and Bloomington did not lack food options.

Looking back at your time at IU, what experiences were the most meaningful?
My time at IU was definitely the best four years of my entire life. Most of my best friends are from Indiana, and I have such incredible memories. I played club lacrosse. I was in a fraternity. I would say it molded me into the person I am today, in a lot of ways.

To be honest, I never thought I would end up in Indiana after growing up on the East Coast. I toured schools in the Midwest, and I just fell in love with IU. It sounds cliche, but I came in the fall and I saw the foliage by the student union. I was like, wow, this place is beautiful—it is such an incredible campus. IU is the quintessential college experience.

How did you prepare for an entrepreneurial career?
I participated in the Shoemaker Innovation Center in the IU Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, where students were working on different startups. On Fridays we would have a stand-up meeting, and students would present and talk about what they were doing. The center would also bring in local venture capitalists and startups, and they would talk and demonstrate their products. It was a cool space with a lot of creative people. And for me now, as an entrepreneur, the things we discussed and learned are applicable.

You’ve said that your business partner, Liam Henning, is your best friend. How did you meet?
I met Liam while I was studying abroad in Australia during my junior year. He was a student at Carnegie Mellon who happened to be studying abroad at the same time. We were friends instantly. We bonded over food and travel experiences, and we stayed in touch.

How did you start working together?
Fast forward two years later. I worked at Price Waterhouse Consulting in New York City doing tech consulting. Liam happened to be in the city one weekend, and we thought, let’s make a food video. Liam said, “I’ll pretend to be your manager, and you be the superstar foodie, and we’ll go into restaurants and ask if we could make a video.”

At the time, we only had 100 or so followers. We went into a bunch of restaurants. Most of them said no. Finally, one said yes, and we made our first video. It got 250,000 views, and we gained over 10,000 followers. We were so stoked.

We took that video and walked into restaurants and said, “Look at what we just did. We’d love to do it for you.” Our third video got more than a million views.

At the time, Liam was working at a consulting firm in San Francisco. He would sleep on my couch [in New York City] for a month, then go back to San Francisco for a week, and then come back to New York. We were working at our full-time jobs during the day, and at night we would make videos until 2 a.m. At one point, when Liam was about to go back to San Francisco, I said, “Liam, you can’t leave. We’ve got something here.”

I think we had gained probably 20,000 followers by then, and our videos were really moving. I thought that this could genuinely be a full-time career. And after that, we completely bought in. It was a cool moment—after a year and a half—to be able to quit our corporate jobs to pursue our idea.

What gave you the courage to make that leap?
I think it’s a combination of extreme confidence—you need to have faith that you’re going to make the right decision—and luck.

One night, four months later, we were out to dinner at a really nice restaurant, making a video. Sitting next to us was this nicely dressed guy, and he asked: “What are you doing? I’ve never seen this before.” And we explained that we made content about food and restaurants.

So, it turned out that he was the CEO of Arena group, a major media company associated with Sports Illustrated and Men’s Journal. He said that his company was trying to do more short-form content and get into the new world of Instagram and TikTok. He asked, “What would it take for you guys to come and do some stuff with us?”

We ended up doing a one-year partnership that allowed us to jump in completely, because we knew we had some backing behind us. It started with food, and because of the Sports Illustrated connection, we did stadium reviews at the Super Bowl and the WM Phoenix Open golf tournament. We’ve also created content featuring Formula One racing, the Los Angeles Lakers, and the Kentucky Derby as well as luxury travel—Lisbon, Florence, Cannes. We were able to adapt from basic food content to food combined with other experiences.

That encounter in the restaurant was our one-in-a-million moment. It gave us the courage and confidence to quit our jobs and pursue our dreams. I would say very few people in life have an opportunity to fully jump in and pursue what they’re passionate about. The moment I saw that door open, I sprinted through.

You’ve said before that you don’t do negative reviews. Is that part of the Jack’s Dining Room brand?
Absolutely. There’s so much negativity in this world. I don’t want to add to that. We’ve literally transformed businesses overnight, especially immigrant-run or family-run businesses. The whole ethos of Jack’s Dining Room is this: We travel the world to find the best food and experiences. We tell you what we love, not what we don’t love.

Do you have a story about a time when your content helped to make a restaurant more successful?
There are so many. There have been plenty of times when restaurants we’ve featured have gained 20,000 to 30,000 followers, practically overnight. One of my favorites is G&R Italian Deli in the Bronx. [The deli makes one of its sandwiches by stuffing meatballs into a hollowed-out roll—it resembles an ice cream cone.] They were selling 30 to 40 a day. After our video posted, they were selling more than 200 a day. The woman who runs it is a single mom and an incredible person. To hear these stories and see the impact is really awesome.

Your latest venture is the Yes Chef Food Fest. How did you get into the festival business?
Liam and I spent the last two years traveling the world, having incredible culinary experiences, and gaining more than 2 billion views on social. So, we thought: OK, how can we build a bridge between our videos and our followers and offer them an amazing food experience? The idea was to create the most unique food festival the world has ever seen.

We launched our first festival in August 2024 in New York City, and we sold out—over 6,000 tickets—after only two Instagram posts. We hosted over 20 restaurants. We featured an entire bluefin tuna cutting, which was free with your ticket, along with caviar bumps, fresh oyster shots, Parmesan wheel cutdowns, custom cookies, and more. The restaurants were incredible—we gave them 100 percent of the profits and brought a lot of people in the culinary scene together.

This year [2025] the festival will run June 7–8 at a venue on the waterfront of the East River, with a view of the Manhattan skyline. We’re really excited about the location. We are doing it even bigger and better, planning for 10,000 plus people and 30 to 40 restaurants. We almost want it to be like Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory when you walk in, or a Disney World of food—all for free with your ticket. We’re super excited.

We have plans to bring the festival to Los Angeles in October, and to expand it across the country in the next couple of years. And that’s been fun, but a lot of work, because so much goes on behind an event—all of the setup and the legal side as well as the tents, the generators, the bathrooms, the fences.

But I will say it is one of the more rewarding feelings in the world, pouring your heart and soul into an event and seeing people show up and enjoy it.

You obviously love what you’re doing. Where do you want to be five years from now?
Liam and I are incredibly ambitious—we just have so many ideas. The biggest things are, first, to continue to scale the food festival and bring it across the entire country to create the biggest food festival in the world.

We also want to build a food community, so that people can look to the Yes Chef Festival as a guide on where to eat in each city. We want it to be a valued, trusted source on all things food.

We are also leaning into longer form content on YouTube, taking our one- to two-minute reviews and making them 10 to 15 minutes, in order to dive deeper behind the scenes with the chefs and restaurants we feature.

Ultimately, I would love to have a food show—to be able to showcase restaurants and chefs and food experiences all over the world. I think it would be super cool. So, building the food festivals and taking the business to actual TV-scale are two of the goals I see in the next five years.