She said men deserve better role models
A cosplayer has successfully combined her two loves of cooking and dressing up to make six figures a month. Mikomi Hokina grew up in Brussels, Belgium, before moving to a rural village with just 200 residents at the age of 25.
She inherited her late mum’s house and moved there to renovate the property, which had fallen into disrepair. Now the self-confessed “gaming nerd” has gained a huge following teaching men to cook online, while dressed as her favourite fictional characters like Velma Dinkley or Japanese video game cat girl Chocola.
Mikomi Hokina, who has built a following of more than 1.8 million on Instagram, @Mikomihokina, said: “A lot of men are clueless about cooking, but I’m here to help. To be honest, I’m never really sure if they’re following me for my recipes or my outfits, but I think it’s a bit of both.
“Some blokes comment ‘this looks like a good recipe, I’ll try it’ whereas others just write ‘you look great’. It’s flattering either way.”
The 30-year-old shares her content for free on YouTube, giving her fans the option to upgrade to her paid channel on Patreon. Mikomi admits the content she teaches men is easy because she enjoys it too. “I really like cooking,” she said. “I learned a lot from my mum growing up because she made lots of special courses.
“She loved trying new things, and my dad’s a professional chef. He’s very passionate about cooking but after working all day he didn’t want to come home to cook. So I watched my mum, listened to my dad and ate a lot of canned ravioli.”
A self-confessed “picky eater”, the gamer hates cheese and often doesn’t try her own meals. Mikomi usually films the videos when she has friends or guests over, who can tuck into the finished dishes – including meals the picky eater won’t touch herself.
She said: “If I order or make a burger, it’s always with no sauce, lettuce or cheese. When the camera’s off, I often cook my favourite nostalgic childhood meal, which is plain pasta with ham.” Mikomi learned to cook for herself at 12 years old, often spending evenings at home with her brother while her chef dad worked at a restaurant and her mum attended evening classes in programming and coding.”
And one kitchen disaster will stay with her forever. She said: “I had to learn fast as a kid but one time I forgot I was boiling water on the gas stove and went to my room, which was at the opposite side of the apartment. The whole place was filled with smoke, and the pot started to melt through the heat. The water was gone and the handles of the pot were crackling and melting.
“It smelled terrible, like horribly bad in the whole apartment so I put it under the water. I had to hide the evidence because I was panicking. I hid the pan in the pantry somewhere and mum never knew the truth.”
Mikomi believes that “all food should be pretty in addition to tasting good” as people “eat with their eyes first.” She decided to showcase her cooking skills after being left “disgusted” by the content produced by “gym bros”. She said: “I saw a video of someone mixing tuna with eggs and chicken. It was disgusting and looked horrible. I knew men deserved a better role model. You can make even the most basic food look appetising if you want.”
Mikomi, who overcame breast cancer in 2022 after losing her mum to the same disease, has made everything on camera from burgers to spaghetti bolognese, but says the magic really happens when she dresses up. She said: “I made a pumpkin pie as Velma from Scooby Doo – it was very on-trend for a seasonal theme at Halloween. My outfits don’t come from requests, they’re just characters I like and want to dress up as. I’ve also dressed as a cat and made cat cookies.”
As well as being a great cook, Mikomi makes hyper-realistic custom elf ears, fantasy weapons and handcrafted armour herself, and sells them for up to £10,000. She said: “My cooking shows are nothing fancy but it’s another way to keep my fans happy and engaged – and another excuse to wear more cosplay.”