Air fryer artiste Nathan Anthony: ‘My life has changed an awful lot’

Though he was already a social-media sensation – his blog Bored of Lunch had one million followers before the book, Bored of Lunch: The Healthy Air Fryer Book, was even commissioned (rising to two million at the time of the book’s release) – he still worked nine-to-five for a Belfast telecoms company, filming cooking videos on his phone in his spare time.

To say the book did well is an understatement.

Both it and Anthony’s second book – a collection of slow cooker recipes published not long after – absolutely dominated the non-fiction bestseller lists last year, spending between them 24 weeks at the number one position.

If they weren’t number one at any point last year, they were likely in the top three, and they scarcely left the top 10.

The books do what they say on the tin: provide easy slow-cooker and air-fryer recipes using readily available ingredients, and each recipe comes with a calorie count.

At the moment, his latest offering, a new slow-cooking book, stands at number one. His other two books are at numbers two and three.

With this level of success it’s small surprise that the 32-year-old Portadown native has retired from the nine-to-five gig to focus entirely on the phenomenon that is Bored of Lunch.

“I did the telecoms job until June 2023,” he tells me over Zoom. “I stayed in the job because I loved it, loved the people. And that’s what I studied for at university, I got a degree and did a masters and went into a graduate job and have been in a senior role for a number of years. I just loved it.

“I thought it’d be a once-in-a-lifetime thing doing these cookbooks – I’d write two cookbooks and in 10 years’ time I could say: ‘I wrote a cookbook years ago.’

“When Penguin wanted to contract books for another five years or so, I wasn't sure I could mentally juggle two jobs at once. It was time to go. It was too busy.”

Busy indeed. The books led to TV appearances – Anthony is a regular on ITV’s This Morning – which when added to the work on his social-media site, made for more than a full-time job in terms of labour.

But what about the money? Was it the income from publishing books that tipped the scales and allowed him to give up the day job?

“I think there’s a combination of things,” he answers. “Social-media channels do earn people money. There are brands I work with, there’s events, cooking road shows and stuff like that.

“Especially if I was using a product, say a specific type of butter, and I was doing a reel and said: ‘I’m using this specific type of butter.’ Obviously it’s all declared to meet the advertising standards.

"Before the books, you could have a full-time job just running the social-media channel, if you have brands you are affiliated with.

“And I do work with brands – supermarkets, food brands – I always work with food brands. I’ve had big car brands and I’ve had companies that offered me free holidays and I’ve said no. It’s not organic to my channel and it’s not what my audience wants to see.

"I have that luxury to be able to decline a brand. But I do earn money from social media. Absolutely.”

More money than you did from the job you gave up?

“Absolutely, yeah. When you’re writing cookbooks and they’re bestsellers, and you’re working with big brands, there’s a great difference in terms of just having my old job. My life has changed an awful lot and I’m very grateful I’ve been given this opportunity.

"But before books came along, doing the social media in itself was a job.”

​It’s certainly a job when you have a huge audience like Anthony’s. He has no formal training in food, having learned by watching his mother and helping his grandmother in the kitchen. He’s been cooking himself since he went to university, using just an air fryer and a slow cooker.

“I would’ve prepped before I went to class for the slow cooker and when I came back my dinner was done. Then I would just cook some rice or whatever, and the air fryer, I would have used that as well.

"When I started my graduate job I used the same gadgets, I’ve just kind of stuck with them. I just love them. They’re so handy for people who have a very busy lifestyle, like if you’re a busy mum or a young professional who has a very demanding job. I think they’re a money saver as well, which is a big thing.”

To this day, he still cooks for himself and his partner – a doctor with the NHS – using the two gadgets. Though if pushed to choose just one, he says he would opt for the air fryer.

“I think I’d use the air fryer more than I’d use the slow cooker. It’s healthy, it’s quicker and you don’t need to preheat it. You can do so many things with it.

“If I’ve fresh fruit that’s about to go off I can dehydrate them in the air fryer and pop them in my porridge, or you can use them as a gin garnish – whatever you fancy.

There was a big parsnip bin in the supermarket, and I wondered why people weren’t making soup or stews

“The range of what you can do with an air fryer has evolved an awful lot from when they first came out. You can roast, you can bake, you can deep-fry. They’re just a smart piece of kit.”

During lockdown, Anthony started a blog, initially entitled Bored of Lunch in Belfast after observing that the fresh fruit and veg aisles of his local supermarket were still fully stocked, while the tinned aisles were empty.

“The pasta was gone, the toilet roll was gone, and I thought: ‘Why is everyone that can cook not using the fresh fruit and veg?’

"I thought that maybe if I posted recipes online using fresh food, and making them really easy using an air fryer or a slow cooker, that it might resonate with people and give them a bit of nutritional value for their immune system.”

The first post was on Instagram – spiced parsnip soup for slow cooker.

“There was this big massive parsnip bin in the supermarket, and I remember wondering why people weren’t using it to make soup or stews or anything, rather than taking all that tinned food. It got loads of engagement online and it started to grow very fast.”

​As Anthony’s online audience grew and grew, the in Belfast part of the title was dropped from the blog’s name. But the recipes remained simple.

“It’s the easiest ones, the most accessible ones, that do well. I have one recipe that has 110m views – an air fryer stuffed chicken breast with pepperoni and mozzarella, Cajun seasoning and red pesto. Just a very simple recipe for the air fryer.

“There’s another one, a slow-cooker recipe, a creamy sundried tomato, chicken, chorizo and pesto pasta – and it has a quarter of a billion views. You can never ever predict what’s going to do well.”

But are there any common denominators? Chicken? Pasta? Are there any three things, say, that all you recipes have?

“It’s a roll of the dice,” he insists. “You could do veggie recipes and they go viral, you could do pastry... there’s no formula or secret to going viral.

“Sometimes I cook something and think it looks amazing. Then I post it and it doesn’t take off – and then there are the other ones where you think: ‘That looks like absolute...’ he smiles. “I always say this. They might look average – but they’re achievable. I don’t do fancy garnishes and don’t do any food style – this is what it is, and this is what it’ll look like if you make it.

“I think that’s the formula. Making it so it looks like something that someone will see and say: ‘I can do that.’ I think professional chefs and Michelin-starred food on social media doesn’t do as well, because if people can’t relate to it, they’re not going to make it at home.

“But I don’t get fixated on viral videos any more, I just upload it and see what happens. Because it happens so often now.

"There’s a video there that has 25m views – three years ago I would’ve been delighted. Now I don’t have the same reaction. But it’s really nice that people are still viewing the content and consuming it.”

One lady told me she lost four stone to get into her wedding dress using just the Bored of Lunch recipes

​And consuming it they are. He has two million followers on Instagram and just under a million on TikTok. As well as the down-to-earth nature of his recipes, Anthony’s success is due on no small part to his friendly personality and his Portadown accent.

People in particular like the way he pronounces “air fryer”. Anthony himself has joked about changing his TikTok bio to say ‘Slow cooker and Ur Frur’.

“People do love the accent,” he says with a laugh. “There are people who tell me they don’t know what I’m saying, but in the main, 99pc of people say they love listening to the Irish accent – whether that’s north or south.”

According to Anthony, his followers are a diverse lot.

“On the one hand, you’ll have a personal trainer who calorie counts all his recipes and loves an air fryer and preps in a slow cooker. On the other hand, you’ll have a mum of three who’s working all day and wants a slow cooker recipe – so there is no one demographic that is my unique follower, it’s very diverse.

“One lady told me she lost four stone to get into her wedding dress using just the Bored of Lunch recipes, which is amazing. Probably 90pc of my followers are between 25 to 55. But there’s no standard Bored of Lunch follower.”

Having the calories with each recipe is something that sets Bored of Lunch apart from other recipe providers, and makes it useful for anyone looking to manage weight. Anthony himself is into fitness and does weight training and running. Being aware of calories is part of that for him.

“If you go to the shop and buy something, it’ll tell you what calories are there and I think that’s a nice thing to have.

“It’s not a diet book, it’s not a fitness book, it’s not a slimming book – I don’t believe in diets or any of that nonsense. I always write on the front of the book ‘healthy slow-cooker book’ or ‘healthy air-fryer book’ because it is healthy.

“On one page in the air-fryer book you’ll have a cream egg croissant ball that is about 350, 400 calories, it’s full of chocolate and full of sugar. On the next page you’ll maybe have panko-coated prawns with a nice peanut sauce. It’s all about balance. And that’s what your diet should be.

“There are no bar codes, no macros, no carbs, just the calories, so they can tailor their diets to their nutritional needs.”

So what’s next for Nathan Anthony?

“An awful lot of TV,” he answers.

As in your own show?

“I’m not sure if I’m allowed to say things like that,” he laughs, “but I’ll be doing a lot of TV this year.

"And I’ve another cookbook that’ll be out this year. You have your slow-cooker one, obviously there are no air-fryer recipes in that, so there’ll be another book.

“I’ll be very, very busy – but very grateful and very appreciative of the support people have given me. It’s been so nice to see the regular nine-to-fivers who are cooking in an air fryer or slow cooker, and to see how much they love it.”

​‘Bored of Lunch: Healthy Slow Cooker: Even Easier’ by Nathan Anthony is published by Ebury Press, €19.99