Meet Darian Maldonado. Better known as “Dar the Food Guru,” he is the ultimate Philly foodie.
Maldonado has been sharing the food of Philadelphia, South Jersey, and more for the past four years, and has since become one of the fastest rising foodies on social media. Maldonado’s inspiration stretches from televised foodies to familial inspiration to feeling the need to make a difference in his own life.
“What got me started was watching a lot of the food on TV, guys like Adam Richman,” said Maldonado. “I always wanted to be like Adam. I’m like, this guy is always smiling, eating food, how can I do that? One of the biggest things was mentally, I needed something. I needed something to take me to a place that was positive in my life. A lot of people that I was growing up with did a lot of wrong, a lot of my friends were into different type of things, and I wanted to be a guy, to be different.”
“I needed something to take me to a place to save my life, to keep me out of the streets, or being like the rest of my friends and everyone else that I grew up around. Another inspiration was my grandmother. My grandmother was on oxygen, and I used to just watch her cook, and that was one of my biggest things,” Maldonado said.
Growing up and spending time living in both New Jersey and Philadelphia, Maldonado enjoyed the many delicious offerings of the area, gaining insight into both the biggest names on the food scene and the best mom-and-pop shops. It also gave him an appreciation for the businesses, which shaped the way he strives to revolutionize social media food reviewers.
“Most would call it food blogging or food review. I would stick myself in a different category, and describe myself as a food commercial guy,” Maldonado said. “I want to change the game on the way people look at the reviewer. I’m not doing it to bash the business. I’m doing it to save the business.”
Over the years, Maldonado has seen his business grow exponentially, now reaching over 69,500 followers on Instagram and nearly 92,000 subscribers and followers on all platforms. When asked what he credit’s that rise to, he made it clear that he would not have nearly the same level of success had it not been for the work of his wife, Ciana Dickinson.
“I’ve been doing it for about four years now, but I took a year break, throughout the time, because I was going through [a] big hardship, big life change. And, within the last year, I met my woman that I’m with now, Ciana, and ever since I met her, my page has blown up, and it’s insane. In the last year, I would say I hit my biggest peak and went up over 20,000 followers in the last year alone.”
While his initial inspiration was an effort to make a change in his life, the spark to his work comes from the help of his wife. As Maldonado put it, “without her, I’m nothing.”
“When she met me, I was at ground zero in my life. So, for her to be rocking, for her to see the page go from, ‘damn, I might not even want to do this anymore,’ to it’s the exploding and us reaching the most people we’ve ever reached together is the most meaningful thing ever to me.”
Together, Maldonado and Dickinson have grown the name of Dar the Food Guru and increased awareness of local restaurants, not only on a local level, but worldwide through the power of social media. Despite this rapid growth, Maldonado has not lost the plot as it pertains to his work.
“I do this for fun, and I just want to show people that you could do anything in this world,” Maldonado said. “That’s just my goal. I never did this because I wanted to make money or I wanted to be rich. I just want to show people you could do anything.”
“This saved my life, and that’s my goal, to help other businesses and show people across the country, in the world, that you can literally do anything in the world. I don’t care if you go out and take a bite, ride a bike and record that you could do anything in the world. You could change someone else’s life while doing it. And that’s my goal, to touch the world in a powerful way through food.”
This is just the beginning for Darian, Ciana, and Dar the Food Guru. The pair has big plans to continue raising awareness of the many special places to eat in and around Greater Philadelphia moving forward.
To follow along on their journey, check out their work via Instagram, Tik Tok, Facebook, or Youtube.
