Food has always been more than nourishment. It is a ritual, reward, comfort, routine, memory, and survival — all stitched into one daily act. Entire lives are spent chasing the security of the next plate. In cities, office workers stare at glowing screens for essentially the same reason: to earn enough to return home and put food on the table.
Every workplace, too, has its unofficial clock, not the one blinking at the bottom of a laptop screen, but the one ruled by appetite. The first coffee after logging in. The 11 am snack that turns into gossip. The lazy post-lunch tea. Office life, regardless of geography, is often measured less by meetings and more by what people consume to survive them.
That may explain why millions of viewers, including comic Vir Das, have become obsessed with watching Gaurav Yadav eat his way through the workday. Comedian Vir Das recently admitted on X, “I have never watched as many Insta reels as I have of the ‘everything I ate at my 9-5 job’ guy. Insanely watchable. If this is corporate life, I have seriously missed out.” Even content creator Tanmay Bhat now follows him.
In video after video filmed from his office in Australia, the Indian content creator casually documents every drink, snack, and meal that carries him from morning to evening. In an exclusive chat with indianexpress.com, Gaurav says viewers find the ASMR-like quality of his videos almost ‘therapeutic’. Other such Instagrammers aim to give food reviews, he says he is offering food Nirvana.
On paper, the premise sounds almost absurdly mundane. Online, however, it has become magnetic. In an internet economy built on spectacle, outrage, and carefully manufactured lifestyles, Yadav’s videos feel strangely intimate, turning the repetitive rhythm of an ordinary 9-to-5 job into one of Instagram’s most unexpectedly addictive formats.
Yadav, who runs the Instagram account @soisgaurav, works a regular corporate job in Australia. An engineer with an MBA degree, he has unintentionally become what the internet jokingly calls the “Corporate NRI chacha” — the calm, neatly dressed office-going man whose daily routine of tea, sandwiches, snacks, and packed lunches has somehow become appointment viewing for thousands online. His videos operate in the same corner of the internet as “Get Ready With Me” clips or apartment-tour videos, where the appeal lies less in suspense and more in familiarity. There is comfort in observing somebody else’s ordinary life unfold in real time.
I have never watched as many insta reels as I have of the ‘everything I ate at my 9-5 job’ guy. Insanely watchable. If this is corporate life, I have seriously missed out.
— Vir Das (@thevirdas) May 19, 2026
Born in Agra, Yadav grew up moving from city to city because of his father’s job in the defence sector. “My school changed every three years,” he recalled. After completing engineering and later an MBA in 2018, he began his corporate career in India with Mother Dairy before moving through Big Bazaar and Reliance Retail. Nearly four years ago, he shifted to Sydney.
Story continues below this ad
Social media initially entered his life through fitness. “I’m a very athletic guy. I used to post my workouts,” he said. Running challenges and fitness content brought him some early traction online, but the real breakthrough came from something much simpler: lunch. Yadav remembers coming across similar food-content formats from Western creators and thinking he could bring his own personality into the genre. One experimental reel documenting everything he ate during office hours changed his online life almost overnight.
“I just tried the one day eating thing, and that just blew up,” he said. “My first video went viral like anything. I think currently it has more than four million views.” Soon came more videos, office coffees, packed lunches, sandwiches, tea breaks, evening snacks, quick meals between meetings. Even when he travelled briefly to India for a family function, viewers remained invested in watching his daily routines and street-food stops.
Part of the appeal lies in how little Yadav actually says in his videos. Unlike food influencers who aggressively review dishes or analyse flavours, Yadav mostly lets his expressions, chewing sounds, and pauses carry the reel. “People have found somebody who is eating patiently,” he said. “I call this Nirvana through eating. Rather than being too critical about the food, this is the guy who is appreciating the food through his expressions.” He insists he is not trying to be a food critic. “People find my reels very therapeutic,” he said.
The ASMR-like quality of his videos, he explained, was also intentional over time. Yadav compares his content structure to a television show where recurring elements slowly become familiar to audiences. “I’m running a food eating show, just like Kapil Sharma runs a show,” he said. “He has his strong elements, his characters. Same way, I have created the elements for my sandwich, for my tea.”
Story continues below this ad
There is another layer to the fascination as well: aspiration. For many Indian viewers trapped inside stressful corporate structures, Yadav’s videos represent a softer, slower version of professional life, one where lunch breaks still exist and where eating peacefully does not feel like wasted time. “They are finding somebody who is just like them,” he said. “A guy wearing a formal shirt and pants, going to the office and eating freely. Nobody is asking him anything.”
Yadav believes the contrast between Indian and Australian work culture plays a major role in how viewers perceive his content. In Australia, he said, colleagues and managers rarely interfere in personal matters. His workplace knows about his Instagram presence and largely treats it as an interesting side pursuit rather than a distraction. “My general manager knows I make reels,” he said. “They actually appreciate that you are having some other skill through which you are getting acknowledged.”
Could he have made the same videos while working in an Indian office?
“India’s work culture is really toxic,” he replied bluntly. “This would have brought me trouble. People are more aligned in your personal life. Indian corporate culture is not that appreciative and doing any such activity there, would have brought me trouble.”
Story continues below this ad
Most of Yadav’s meals are homemade, another detail that quietly grounds his content in everyday reality. Unlike luxury food influencers constantly eating at expensive cafés, his videos are filled with practical office lunches prepared at home alongside his wife, who also works full-time. “In Australia, we don’t have house help. We need to manage everything on our own,” he said. “Me and my wife, we both are working professionals, so everything is managed together.” Their cooking routine revolves around convenience and planning, meals prepared at night often become lunch for the next day.
Food, for Yadav, is also deeply tied to memory and movement. Raised in a vegetarian household, he later became non-vegetarian and developed what he describes as a broad palate because of constantly relocating during childhood. “I would say I have a good appetite for food,” he said. “Not a foodie as such, but a person who likes to experience food.” That openness extends into his relationship with Indian meals as well. Occasionally, colleagues in Australia comment on his packed lunches, but Yadav said he never feels embarrassed carrying Indian food to work. “I very confidently and proudly talk about my food,” he said. “I will go head to toe to defend Indian food.”
Despite the sudden internet fame, Yadav does not see himself becoming a conventional food influencer anytime soon. He repeatedly emphasises that he does not want to reduce his online identity to restaurant reviews or viral food trends. “My main goal is to interview and educate,” he said. “I don’t want to be a food blogger.” For now, he intends to continue balancing social media with corporate life while slowly expanding his online presence. Instagram, with its short-form intimacy still feels like the right platform. “I would like to keep food as a focus,” he said, “but add some value to people’s life.”
