Master Sheng-Kai: From Steamed Egg Short Videos to Frozen New Year’s Meals, the Trust Cost of a Culinary Influencer

30-Second Overview: Huang Sheng-kai left school at sixteen to enter the restaurant industry, clearing tables. At twenty-four, he used savings and credit to open his first Jinseng Japanese restaurant in Yonghe. Later, a roughly 100-second steamed egg tutorial video transformed him from a restaurant owner into a culinary influencer, linking home-cooking videos, his restaurant, frozen foods, and e-commerce into a single brand. What is truly worth remembering is not the inspirational headline of “from small chef to chairman,” but the fact that when kitchen craftsmanship is amplified into a commodity, trust is amplified along with it. ^{1 2 3}

Image: Xuan Shi-sheng, “Open Kitchen of Swatow Restaurant in Songshan District, Taipei 20180427,” CC0. Original detail page: Wikimedia Commons. The image depicts the context of an open kitchen in a Taiwanese restaurant, not Master Sheng-Kai himself or the Jinseng storefront.

Learn to Clear Plates First, Then Learn to Make People Believe

Master Sheng-Kai’s story did not begin on the internet. A Week King interview records that while attending Songshan Agricultural and Industrial High School, he disliked studying and left school at sixteen to clear tables in a Chinese banquet hall. During busy business hours, he might work sixteen hours a day, first exchanging time for experience, then following his master into Japanese cuisine. This experience was not merely a background board of “hardship”; it also explains that when he later created culinary content, he was not merely demonstrating dishes in front of a camera, but understanding ingredients, processes, meal delivery, and customer expectations from the restaurant floor. ²

At twenty-four, he pooled about two million New Taiwan dollars from savings and credit to open his first Jinseng in Yonghe District, New Taipei City. Reports record that the storefront had only sixteen seats, with initial monthly revenue of about 400,000 NTD and a profit margin of about 10 percent. To decide on the culinary style, he also observed the demographics of the nearby community, choosing creative omakase sushi rather than copying traditional Taiwanese-style Japanese cuisine alongside neighboring stores. ²

This entrepreneurial history contains an easily overlooked detail: Master Sheng-kai did not have fans before opening the store; rather, he first accumulated a sense of cost, customer base, and product within physical dining. Later, videos brought traffic, but this traffic was not starting from zero; it was connected to an already existing dining brand. ^{1 2}

📝 Curator’s Note: “Table-clearing boy transforms into annual revenue 400 million chairman” is a usable news headline, but not a complete understanding of the person. Attributing success solely to hardship obscures more practical capabilities: identifying customer bases, testing products, controlling processes, and knowing when to translate restaurant experience to home kitchens.

One Steamed Egg Video Changed the Way of Viewing

Master Sheng-kai began making videos not due to a mature media plan. A friend asked him, since he could cook, why he only made Japanese cuisine, which led him to transform his professional skills originally in the restaurant into demonstrations understandable to the general public. An interview with World Culinary Trends points out that he deliberately used common household pots and heat sources, simplifying the process so viewers had the opportunity to truly recreate it at home. ¹

What truly caused the channel to be seen by many was the roughly 100-second video titled “Change Your Ugly Steamed Egg.” Reports from Week King and Mirror News both view this video as a turning point. After the video went viral, Master Sheng-kai discovered from fan comments that basic techniques professional chefs considered self-evident were not necessarily familiar to many households, leading him to further launch the “Jinseng Home Cooking Small Classroom.” ^{2 3}

_Image: Cheng-en Cheng, “Taiwan Railways Bento (6560220121),” CC BY-SA 2.0. Original detail page: Wikimedia Commons. The image presents Taiwanese daily diet and bento culture, not products filmed or sold by Master Sheng-kai._

The format of this channel is very close to a miniature version of a home kitchen. Ingredients can be obtained from markets or convenience stores, pots do not need to be restaurant-grade, video lengths are usually short, and demonstrations do not pretend viewers have professional equipment. The value of culinary content thus shifts from “feeling impressive after watching” to “daring to cook after watching.” ^{1 2}

Master Sheng-kai also treats authenticity as a distinguishing feature. In an interview, he stated that rice grains splattering during stir-frying or items dropping when plating are things that might happen in a general home kitchen, and there is no need to delete them all for the sake of perfect visuals. This choice makes him less like a chef who only displays finished products, and more like someone who brings restaurant techniques back to home conditions. ¹

From Culinary Videos to Food Brand

When “Jinseng Home Cooking Small Classroom” accumulated a large number of followers, Master Sheng-kai did not just treat it as an advertising billboard, but extended the cooking techniques appearing in the content into commodities. A Week King report states that he incorporated frozen and ambient foods, pots, and e-commerce channels into his business layout, and had also planned to push food products into the Hong Kong and Macau markets. ²

An interview with World Culinary Trends clarifies this transformation further: restaurants are limited by seats, location, and on-site manpower, while food brands can, through freezing, ambient storage, retail, and delivery, bring the culinary experience originally only occurring in the store to consumers’ homes. This is a change from “making a table of dishes” to “designing a product that can be repeatedly produced.” ¹

Image: Shi Ya-min, “Xinpú Junior High School Cooking Classroom,” CC BY-SA 3.0. Original detail page: Wikimedia Commons. The image depicts the context of a cooking teaching space, not Jinseng’s factory or Master Sheng-kai’s filming site.

This is also the difference between culinary influencers and general culinary celebrities. A famous chef’s influence can stop at restaurant reservations and media exposure, while a culinary influencer can link demonstrations, comments, commodities, and delivery into a single consumption path. Viewers first learn a dish, then buy a pot or cooking kit, and finally treat “Master Sheng-kai says this dish works” as an initial guarantee of quality. Content thus becomes not just content, but the front door to commodity trust. ^{1 2}

📝 Curator’s Note: Traffic is not proof of commodity quality. It can make a new product seen faster, but cannot replace formulas, labels, preservation, logistics, and quality control. Culinary videos build expectations; food brands must use physical goods to bear those expectations.

The New Year’s Meal Incident: When Video Demonstrations Meet Received Meal Boxes

The 2020 New Year’s meal controversy is the most important material for understanding Master Sheng-kai, because it made the gap between content brands and food responsibility visibly concrete. Mirror News reported that consumers reflected that the received New Year’s meals differed from the promotion and video demonstrations, with some demanding refunds. Jinseng apologized subsequently, while Master Sheng-kai sued the OEM factory for compensation. ⁵

Another Mirror News report recorded that Jinseng claimed consumer refund amounts exceeded ten million NTD, while the OEM factory defended that the New Year’s meal formula and cost should be jointly understood by the cooperating content creators, and counter-accused that promotional packaging created consumer expectations. Court judgments were reported as determining that some New Year’s meal defects were the factory’s responsibility, with the factory ultimately paying Jinseng 660,000 NTD for consumer refunds. Here, different levels must be separated: consumer complaints, claims in litigation between the two parties, and the scope of responsibility confirmed by court judgments are not the same thing. ⁶

In responses published by EBC News, Master Sheng-kai apologized again for the New Year’s meal mishaps of that year, and stated that some costs listed in the judgment were not the entire production cost, and the case would still be handled by lawyers. NOWnews interviewed New Year’s meal judges and suppliers, discussing dish varieties, portions, logistics, frozen storage, and marketing costs, pointing out whether prices are reasonable cannot be judged solely by a single cost figure. ^{4 7}

What is most worth preserving in this incident is not the easiest-to-spread label of “influencers selling profiteering New Year’s meals,” but how brand responsibility was broken down into several practical questions: whether the dishes in promotion matched the received commodities, how OEM and brand parties conducted acceptance, how consumers refunded, who monitored logistics and preservation, and whether the creator’s face and voice caused consumers to generate higher trust than for general commodities. ^{5 6 4 7}

The Authenticity of Culinary Influencers Is Not Just a Camera Style

Master Sheng-kai’s content emphasizes minimal over-editing. This “authenticity” is very useful in culinary teaching. It allows viewers to see the limitations of home kitchens and reduces beginners’ fear of failure. But when the same person begins selling frozen food, authenticity cannot stay only in the rice grains and spatula sounds in videos; it must enter the specifications, preservation, and after-sales processes of the commodities.

This is the most easily overlooked turning point in culinary content. Viewers can accept mishaps in a teaching video, but may not necessarily accept quality issues in paid commodities. The former is intimacy in viewing; the latter is responsibility in transaction. The former makes creators feel like oneself; the latter requires the brand to prove it has more ability to control food than a general household. ^{1 5 6}

Mirror News reports also point out that after the New Year’s meal controversy, Master Sheng-kai continued to launch frozen and ambient foods, pots, and dining brands. This does not mean the controversy did not occur, nor that the brand has already obtained everyone’s forgiveness. It only explains that the recovery of an influencer brand does not end with a single apology, but must be continuously examined in the next product, the next explanation, and the next consumer experience. ³

📝 Curator’s Note: Master Sheng-kai’s case is unsuitable for being written as a simple success or failure. What is more worth looking at is how the same set of “grounded” language simultaneously builds trust on one hand, while raising the degree to which the brand is expected, questioned, and required to take responsibility on the other.

He Turned the Kitchen into Media, and Brought Media Back to the Dining Table

Master Sheng-kai’s position in Taiwan’s influencer history is not just due to follower count or the scale of his dining business. He made a very specific transformation visible: professional skills in a restaurant, after being translated through short videos, can enter home kitchens, and then return to consumers’ dining tables through commodification.

This path seems natural, but in reality, every step changes responsibility. A restaurant chef mainly faces walk-in customers; a culinary teaching creator faces viewers; a food brand faces consumers who pay, preserve, receive delivery, and return goods. Master Sheng-kai went from the kitchen to the platform, and from the platform to the food brand, effectively placing himself into three different evaluation systems. ^{1 2 6}

Therefore, writing about Master Sheng-kai cannot just write about “knowing how to eat” or “knowing how to sell.” His truly interesting place lies in putting the craftsmanship of the dining industry, the intimacy of social media videos, and the scaling of food commodities on the same table. That table can be very lively, but may suddenly become very quiet when quality issues arise. The more successful the brand, the less it can rely solely on the creator’s charisma, and the more it must show viewers how products are made, accepted, and corrected.

Conclusion: After One Steamed Egg Video, There Is an Entire Chain of Responsibility

Master Sheng-kai’s story began with a steamed egg video, but should not stop at “overnight fame.” He first accumulated craftsmanship through the dining floor, then lowered the threshold with home cooking videos, and finally turned viewing into a restaurant, food, and e-commerce brand. This is a very Taiwanese-style influencer path, because it places neighborhood dining, home kitchens, social media platforms, and holiday consumption into the same commercial cycle.

However, when content becomes a commodity, the creator’s voice is no longer just a recommendation. It participates in consumers’ imagination of portions, quality, and reasonable prices. The New Year’s meal incident reminds us that what is hardest for an influencer brand to maintain is not exposure, but the distance between promise and physical goods. Master Sheng-kai is worth recording not because he provides a致富 template that everyone can replicate, but because his case asks the question very clearly: When viewers trust a person’s craftsmanship, what must the brand use to prove that this trust has not been wasted? ^{5 6 4}

Further Reading

• 【Influencers Sell Sour New Year’s Meals】Famous Jinseng New Year’s Meals Fail, Sues OEM Factory; Profit from Five Dishes and Two Soups Unexpectedly Exposed — The cause of the incident, product gaps, and litigation background.
• 【Influencers Sell Sour New Year’s Meals 1】Large Flies and Plastic Pieces Enter Dishes; Consumers Rage with Negative Reviews, Master Sheng-kai Refunds Exceed Ten Million — Consumer reflections, refund claims, and court judgment reports.
• Master Sheng-kai Sells “Profiteering New Year’s Meals”? To Pay or Not to Pay, Experts Reveal the Inside Story and Calculate for You — Supplementing price controversies from the perspectives of food costs, logistics, and channels.

References