Chef K told PEOPLE about influencers' top foods at Coachella this year, along with her tips for food festival feasting
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NEED TO KNOW
- The Kardashians’ chef Khristianne Uy, also known as Chef K, shared the surprising favorite foods of influencers she cooked for at Coachella weekend one
- Chef K highlighted everything from matcha to sardines to unique takes on nostalgic favorites she made to feed the influencers at Kourtney Kardashian’s Camp Poosh influencer house
- The chef shared her tips for cooking at a food festival, from clean ingredients to ordering groceries on Instacart
The Kardashian's private chef is spilling the (matcha) tea on what influencers eat at Coachella.
PEOPLE caught up with Khristianne Uy, also known as Chef K, who was in charge of feeding Kourtney Kardashian's Camp Poosh Coachella influencer house. After weekend one of the Indio, Calif. music festival, Chef K revealed the number one thing that influencers were reaching for.
“Matcha's number one,” she said.
She added that a surprising favorite came in a can – sardines. The chef said she was "happy" to see the ingredient shine because she's "all about humble food, humble beginnings.”
“They were really there for it,” she said of the influencers. “Trust me, I observe every single bite.”
“I get mama bear there,” she said of her role at Camp Poosh.
This year also offered a unique opportunity for the Filipino chef to spotlight something “very special and dear to my heart”: ube.
“I'm just so happy to see it shine,” the chef said of the ingredient she's been having since she was little. She said she put her own spin on the matcha-ube trend, making everything from cookies to smoothies to lattes.
The chef added that everything at Coachella is “on the go,” but she tries to make things more fun.
She said the influencers “love” her clean versions of "quintessential nostalgic snacks" like imitation Crunchwraps with potato chips and avocado.
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“Who doesn't want breakfast on the go all day,” she said, adding that “everyone's pretty much on their own time zone” at the festival.
“You get to be a kid again at Coachella,” she added.
One highlight of the experience for the chef was seeing the influencers eat her food.
“Everyone ate, let's be real here,” she added. “Trust me, I'm 44 years old, so Coachella then? No one [was eating].”
“They were actually, phone down, and they were actually eating the food,” she added of the content creators. “They were really there, you know, they were having conversations, they were crowding around the table.”
“They were there, immersed in the food,” she said.
In terms of staples that a festival house must have, Chef K said “clean ingredients” are a must, especially at an event where fried food is so central.
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“Everyone's always hunched over, ‘my stomach aches', and stuff like that because they eat so much fried food,” she said. “If you must fry, fry well.”
Chef K said she typically fries in cleaner oils like avocado oil. She also said that using really good salt helps, and fruit and “really good water” are necessary to maintain health.
“Those little things… really maximize your whole weekend,” she said. “I want them to leave Camp Poosh or Coachella feeling good and remembering those moments.”
On the preparation side, “mastering a really fine-tuned prep list” is key to prepping for an event where 2,000 people were eating, the chef said.
She said that her career as a private chef over the past 20-plus years has taught her the flexibility, patience, and problem-solving skills necessary to prepare for events like Coachella, especially since surprise guests might have dietary restrictions or requests that she must cater to.
Chef K said her team started off with four or five people, but then got up to a few dozen by the time the festival came around.
The chef said that she leaned on Instacart to help her preparations because she was accommodating new “guests of guests” with dietary preferences or restrictions that contained “new words that I haven't heard.”
“I was thunder-thumbing that thing,” she said of the app, which allows you to order groceries and connects you with a personal shopper who then delivers them to you.
She said avocados are “the number one sought-out thing at Coachella or Camp Poosh,” highlighting how Instacart lets you choose the ripeness of the avocado you're ordering.
“I got the ripe ones,” she said.