Meredith Hayden’s Got Something Up Her Sleeve

Meredith Hayden spends a lot of time in kitchens. Whether she’s in her apartment in New York City or at her barn in the Hamptons, she’s often found leaning over the stove — cooking, developing recipes, or creating content for the 2.3 million people who follow her TikTok account, Wishbone Kitchen.

“A ton of people are surprised to find out that I don’t have this massive team to offload onto,” the 29-year-old says. “I've dipped my toe into working with other people in this space, but I just find that I enjoy the work so much that I don’t necessarily want to give it to somebody else.”

Hayden first gained traction on TikTok in the summer of 2022, when she began posting from her job as a private chef in the Hamptons, three years after graduating from the Institute of Culinary Education (she attended classes at night). At the time, she was living with roommates in an apartment above Buvette, a French restaurant in the West Village neighborhood of Manhattan. At the end of that summer, she had over a million followers and was offered her first brand deal with Febreeze, amounting to half of her yearly salary as a marketing associate. By September 2023, Hayden had left her job as a private chef behind to work on her debut cookbook. She published The Wishbone Kitchen Cookbook in May. Her collection of her best summery recipes stayed on the New York Times Best Seller list for 12 weeks.

“Before it came out, I was completely unsure if people were going to even like it or if people in the industry were going to turn their nose up to it,” she says. “Since it became such a success, I have found a newfound calmness with my career — it was like confirmation that I am on the right track.”

It was the perfect storm of educational, entertaining, and showing someone that people wanted to root for.

Hayden had always envisioned working in food media, but she never anticipated this. “Some of my earliest memories in the kitchen were with my mom or dad making pancakes on Sundays,” says Hayden, who grew up in New Jersey. “Since I'm the younger sibling, I didn't really get remote privileges. I had to choose between watching my brother play video games or watching my mom cook, while Rachael Ray and Bobby Flay played.” She opted for the latter.

After graduating from Clemson in 2018, Hayden looked for jobs at outlets like Bon Appétit and Food & Wine. But she struggled to get her foot in the door, eventually looking to online creators like Half Baked Harvest for career inspiration instead.

When she first started sharing her 17-hour workdays in the Hamptons — cooking multi-course meals including lamb chops, shrimp, zucchini, and salads — she didn’t realize how many people would want to follow along. “I was posting because I genuinely wanted to share my life and I was passionate about what I was doing,” she says. “That's the subtext of what drew people in, but there was also the beautiful scenery and amazing food. It was the perfect storm of educational, entertaining, and showing someone that people wanted to root for.”

It’s easy to root for Hayden — especially for those who have tried her viral recipes for dishes like Tomato Butter Baked Cod and Beet and Goat Cheese Pasta for themselves. While most content creators have to choose between aspirational and relatable, Hayden does both. Some days, she’s sharing a homecooked meal in a sprawling Italian villa. On others, she posts herself “eating ground turkey in a pita” leaning over her sink. The latter mostly lives on her spam account, where she shares a less polished version of her life — videos from under her duvet, dry January hot takes, and more.

When I started gaining traction on the Wishbone Kitchen page, I was like, ‘Does this mean I can't be silly and stupid and borderline inappropriate on the internet anymore?

“When I started gaining traction on the Wishbone Kitchen page, I was like, ‘Does this mean I can't be silly and stupid and borderline inappropriate on the internet anymore?’” she says. “But those hungover story times allow my audience to get to know me more on a personal level, which helps them to connect with my recipes more deeply. It all builds off of each other.”

Now over three years in and a hit cookbook under her belt, Hayden is drawing comparisons to names like Martha Stewart and Ina Garten. “I’ve always looked up to both of them. I’m still forging my own path, but I like having those two North Stars as a reference point,” she says. She’s unsure if a media empire like Stewart’s is in the cards (“I left the media industry for a reason”), but staying “in the weeds of recipe development” like Garten is definitely a goal.

When I mention The Cut’s feature on Hayden (an October article titled, “Meredith Hayden Doesn’t Want to Build a Massive Food Empire”), she clarifies her stance. “That was a funny article title. It’s not that I don't want to continue building a successful career. I just realized that I didn't want to spend my days managing a team. I want to spend my days in the kitchen,” she says. “If I were to go in the direction of building this massive empire, I wouldn't be able to cook anymore. But I definitely want to continue to evolve and grow. My barometer for success is just different.”

It’s just that after achieving so many accolades, she is less laser-focused on ticking more off a list. “I now think of success as: Was I able to spend my friend's birthday with her? Was I able to get dinner with my parents on a random Tuesday? I think having that freedom and flexibility, while also having success in your career, is the ultimate sign you’ve made it.”

A few days after we talked, Hayden shared a TikTok from her content-filled Thanksgiving trip to Tuscany with her friends, captioning the post, “Living in a dream.”