A chef, a micro-influencer, and the internet walk into a bar...except it wasn't a bar it was a famous chef's restaurant and the internet didn't appear until later. Here's what happened:

Chef Luke Sung is a super famous and very important chef who won some James Beard awards (good for him!). Karla Marcotte is a "micro-influencer" who had a following of 15,000 people. Chef Sung's restaurant, KIS Cafe, called Karla to offer her a free meal to tempt her to review their restaurant. She accepted the invitation but when she got there Chef Sung asked her to leave because her follower count was too low. His daughter has 600,000 followers and her meager 15,000 were all probably too poor to eat at his restaurant. Also he though her videos were low quality and he did not want to be affiliated with her.

So he canceled the collab.

Karla posted her feelings on TikTok and the internet came for Chef Sung. We should note that Karla never named the chef or the restaurant, but the internet figured it out anyway. Karla's followers loved her sweet and charming food prep videos, they loved her foodie recommendations, they loved her thoughtful and caring cooking hacks and now they were mad at Chef Sung. Within a few days Chef Sung was out of a job and Karla had 450,000 followers (Chef Sung might point out that 450,000 is still not 600,000!l).

Chef Sung apologized. His daughter (she of 600,000 followers) apologized. The co-owner of the restaurant apologized. Everyone apologized but still the Kis Cafe closed its doors and is no more.

That is the power of the internet.