‘A crisis of authenticity’: the truth about food influencers

Instagrammers have upended the British restaurant scene, and amassed followings in the millions. But has their moment already passed? In 2017, two aspiring YouTubers going by the name Topjaw published a video posing the London foodie’s most important question: what to eat in Chinatown ?

They enlisted the help of longtime Instagrammer Kar-Shing Tong (better known by his username @ks_ate_here ), who took them on a lovingly curated loop of the neighbourhood. Cantonese siu mei duck at Four Seasons, Chongqing-style handmade noodles at the now defunct Little Wooden Hut, and Barshu on Frith Street, where they decadently cracked a whole crab for the…