Blog Creator discovery Guide

Food influencers in California: 107 Instagram creators, measured (2026)

107 Instagram food creators whose bio names California, each with followers, engagement rate and Reel views we measured. The median one has 20.5K followers and a 2.58% engagement rate.

This page lists 107 Instagram creators whose bio names California and who post mostly about food, with the follower count, engagement rate and median Reel views we measured for each one. Virev's crawler read their profiles and recent posts between August 24, 2026 and September 29, 2026. The median creator here has 20,533 followers and an engagement rate of 2.58%, which is above the 2.55% median across the 150 lists in this series and ranks 67th of 150.

107

Creators measured

Individual Instagram creators with 1,000+ followers and 6+ recent posts.

20.5K

Median followers

Half of the creators on this page have more, half fewer.

2.58%

Median engagement rate

Average likes plus comments per post, divided by followers.

Food creators in California by follower count

Micro accounts (10K to 100K followers) are the largest group, at 49 of 107 creators, or 46%. Nano creators get the highest median engagement rate, 4.12%, against 1.66% for mid-tier creators, so a typical nano post draws 2.5 times the response per follower. Reach grows with size, and the median mid-tier creator's Reels get 35,756 views, against 2,929 for nano creators.

FollowersCreatorsMedian engagement rateMedian Reel views
Nano (1K to 10K)374.12%2,929
Micro (10K to 100K)492.43%7,952
Mid-tier (100K to 1M)211.66%35,756

The 20 biggest food creators in California

These are the largest accounts on the list, sorted by followers at our read. The biggest is Cynthia Jimenez with 811,592 followers and a 1.67% engagement rate.

CreatorFollowersEngagement rateMedian Reel viewsCategory
Cynthia Jimenez812K1.67%140KFood & cooking
Bai Ruskus705K0.79%111KPlant-based food and recipe creation
Malinda Rocha657K1.20%131KFood and recipe content
The Salguero Fam576K4.92%106KFamily lifestyle and food content
Erick Labra489K0.61%32.1KFood and cooking
Brandon Gouveia455K1.84%42.2KFood & beverage
Lawrence Kim327K0.54%62.3Kfood and dining
Jasmine Belle Pak277K0.92%13.3KLifestyle and food creator
Saucymarco274K20.49%266KFood and family lifestyle
Novi Mitchell203K2.58%56.6KFood, events, and lifestyle experiences
Jeanelle 🥭 Food & Travel188K1.46%12.2KFood and travel
Evelia Soto 🇲🇽🇺🇸187K0.41%11.7KFood and recipes
Jenny Hong166K1.88%29.2KFood and dining
Christian Mulkey161K2.41%30.7KFood and recipe content
To-Tam Sachika Roberts | Mommy & Wifey Tings158K2.37%35.8KFood and family lifestyle
jeannette151K0.32%12.9KFood and cooking
Marissa | Internal Dandelion144K1.66%37.3Kfood and dining
TheCurlDon135K3.67%11.4Kfood and dining
tuyen | baking content creator132K5.38%90.1KBaking and recipe content
Tinger (Ting Hseih) 💕 Food | Travel | Culture129K0.21%4.9KFood

20 high-engagement food creators in California with 10K to 100K followers

These are the 20 creators with 10,000 to 100,000 followers and the highest engagement rates on the list. The median across all 49 creators in that range is 2.43%, and 5 of these 20 reach at least twice that. We left out one creator whose average post got more likes and comments than the account has followers, because one viral post sets that average. We also left out 2 creators with no measured Reel views, or whose average likes and comments beat their median Reel views, since we could not check their rate against reach. A high rate can also come from comment prompts, so open a few recent posts before you reach out.

CreatorFollowersEngagement rateMedian Reel viewsCategory
Sameen23.6K79.44%146KFood and recipe content
Mai Anh47.4K15.15%14.1KFood and beverage
alexander rojas32.2K13.03%31.5KFood and cooking
Dana Kuritzkes24.5K10.13%11.7KFood and dining
ρ. ρ σ ѕ н24.2K9.26%10.0KFood and dining content
Nelly Salomon • Los Angeles, CA29.6K3.76%12.5KLos Angeles food, travel and local lifestyle discovery
Cristina Madueno20.5K3.72%2.7KFood and restaurant discovery
sri karthikeyan 💐23.3K3.56%12.4KFood and local dining
Gwen | SF Bay area foodie12.7K3.44%3.4KFood & dining
Stephanie Dupuis11.7K3.36%1.6KFood and dining
Josh Franks20.3K3.26%8.3KBBQ and outdoor cooking
Ruben Garcia15.2K3.18%9.2KFood reviews
Dining with Damian | LA Foodie14.0K3.13%6.2KFood and dining
K.C. Cornwell23.0K3.11%3.1KFood and agriculture
Aya - LA, OC Socal influencer10.9K3.06%642food and dining
laney43.0K3.03%12.0KFood and dining
Andrea’s Homecafe84.6K2.85%74.5KFood and beverage content
soo 🍡99.5K2.77%17.5KFood and snack reviews
Maelynn | SF Food Content Creator31.9K2.75%11.7KFood and dining
SoCal BFF30.4K2.71%8.0KSouthern California family lifestyle and local food deals

What food creators in California post about

The most common profile category is Food and dining, on 18 accounts (17% of those with a category), followed by Food and cooking with 5. The category is the one the creator or Virev's profile reader set, so treat it as a starting filter.

Instagram categoryCreatorsMedian engagement rate
Food and dining182.31%
Food and cooking50.95%
food and dining53.06%
Food and local dining42.25%
Food and restaurant discovery45.64%
Food and recipe content32.41%
Food & beverage31.84%
Food and lifestyle32.48%

How we built this list

  1. We started from 39,669 individual Instagram creators with at least 1,000 followers and 6 measured posts, read by Virev's crawler between August 18 and October 7, 2026. Brands, media pages and businesses are not on the list.
  2. A creator is on this page when their Instagram bio or display name names California, such as a city, a region or a flag, and the country in their Virev profile does not name another country. We removed accounts that name the place only inside another account's handle, an email address, or a team or event name, such as a baseball club or a marathon.
  3. The engagement rate is average likes plus comments on the 6 to 12 most recent feed posts, divided by followers at the read.
  4. Median Reel views is the median play count of the creator's last 12 Reels, and it shows n/a when fewer than 3 Reels had a play count. 104 of the 107 creators have one.
  5. These 107 creators were read between August 24, 2026 and September 29, 2026, and follower counts move after that, so check the live profile before you send an offer.
  6. The page shows public profile numbers only, with no emails or phone numbers.

More creator lists

Lists built the same way: Travel influencers in California, Fashion influencers in California, Influencers in California, Lifestyle influencers in California, Lifestyle influencers in Los Angeles, Influencers in Los Angeles. Related reading: Food influencers on Instagram, NYC influencers. For hand-picked lists with a recent post per creator, see micro and nano influencers.

Find more food creators in California

This page lists 107 creators from one export. Search California creators in Virev to filter 180M+ creator profiles by niche, follower count and engagement, and to see each creator's recent posts.