The Story Behind Sir Michael of What Did You Eat Today, Sir?

By Carol Erickson  |  Beyond the Plate with Carol  |  Episode 39

I have to be honest with you. When I first heard about Sir Michael -- the guy behind What Did You Eat Today, Sir? -- I figured I already knew the type. Food blogger, big following, posts about restaurants. Got it.

But then he told me he fasts on Mondays and Tuesdays so he can actually taste the food on weekends.

I just sat there across from him in our Red Arrow Diner booth in Concord and thought -- OKAY. This is different. This guy is the real deal.

That's the whole thing with him. Nearly 200,000 combined followers across Instagram and Facebook. Videos that go viral regularly. A merch line. And his WHOLE thing is not going to the trendy spots. He's out here finding the small guys -- the places without social media, without PR, without a line -- and putting them on the map.

I've been doing this for 39 years. And when someone sits across from me and talks about food the way he does -- with that kind of conviction about the small business owner, about authenticity, about not compromising -- I feel it. That's my world too.

Sir Michael started What Did You Eat Today, Sir? on January 15, 2019 -- almost by accident. He was at the 110 Grill in Saugus, figured he'd make a page instead of letting his Instagram stories disappear after 24 hours. Low stakes. Just documenting what he was eating.

For four years, it was pictures and reviews. Good, but not explosive. Then in mid-2023, he switched to video.

By the time we recorded this episode, he was closing in on 200,000 combined across Instagram and Facebook -- and Facebook, which he only joined in September 2024, is already at 87,000 followers.

The man found the thing that worked and went ALL in. That takes guts.

Here's the part of Sir Michael's story that I keep thinking about.

He has a full-time job. This isn't his main gig -- not yet. He works during the week, comes home, and spends about two hours putting together a video. Then on weekends, he hits the road. New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, wherever. He'll eat at three places in a day, film everything, and come home with a week's worth of content.

Voiceovers. In his car. Every single day.

He says he's a quiet person -- calls himself "the low talker" like Seinfeld -- which is exactly why he does voiceovers instead of live video. It gives him control over the story. He can take everything in, then tell it properly. And it works. Obviously, it works.

I asked him if he ever just doesn't want to do it. He said Monday and Tuesday he'll fast or have a salad. "I balance it out. I hit the gym every day." He's building this thing deliberately. Patiently. On a schedule that fits his real life.

Twenty-nine-year-old me would have had a lot to learn from that.

If you follow What Did You Eat Today, Sir? you already know Big Frank D'Amelio. He's the co-worker-turned-sidekick who shows up in half the videos, usually with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth in the backseat, completely unfiltered.

Sir Michael is the quiet one -- all ideas, all vision, handles the camera and every single edit. Big Frank is the one who'll walk up to a stranger and ask what they're eating. They balance each other perfectly.

"Frank says you have all the ideas and you're a little more shy," I said. "While he's the one who walks up to strangers."

"I'm a really quiet person," Sir Michael confirmed. "I speak very monotone. Big Frank -- you don't need a microphone. He's just loud."

The first time Sir Michael took Frank to a Colombian spot, Frank was blown away. "What have I been missing out on?" The whole point is watching someone discover something they never knew existed. And Frank's reactions are the audience's reactions. You feel it with him.

Sir Michael is from Revere, lives in Lynn now, and has built his reputation on the North Shore of Boston. But over the past year, he's been pushing out -- Vermont, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, all over New England.

His philosophy is simple: skip the places that already have the buzz and find the ones that don't need a publicist. The ones where the recipe has been passed down three generations, where Sysco food never touches the kitchen, where the family is still the staff.

"There's no Sysco food," he said about the places he loves most. "It's all imported stuff. It's all homemade from scratch. And you know what they're doing. They take pride in it because if they don't do good, they suffer."

I felt that. That's Red Arrow. That's every diner I've ever loved. When someone has skin in the game, when the food IS the livelihood -- you taste the difference.

He mentioned Maya's Kitchen on Elm Street in Manchester -- an African spot right near our corporate office. I told him the oxtail stew last week was unreal. He said, "I think I followed them." Of course he did.

We were sitting in a booth at Red Arrow Concord when I asked him -- from his perspective as someone who eats at diners constantly -- what separates a great one from a mediocre one.

"Atmosphere," he said first. "This place has that old-timey feel. They kind of capture the golden era of America." Then: "Creativity. You've got Bavarian cream waffles up there and Kiki's Pastrami. It's not just regular bacon and eggs." And finally: "Quality. Consistency. Quality is the number one thing above all."

He also said something that stuck with me: "I've noticed a lot of diners we love -- the owners are actually working with the workers."

I had to be honest with him: I don't do the day-to-day in the diners anymore. Not with four locations. But we're in them. We show up. And he said -- "You can tell. You can always tell when there's a good owner."

Yeah. You can. After 39 years, I know that to be true.

I asked him: if someone wanted to start a food page today, is it too late?

"No," he said, without hesitating. "There's new people coming up every day. But a lot of them just don't seem creative. A lot of them sound like they had their reviews written on ChatGPT."

His advice: be yourself. Be different. Don't just go to the places that already have the line. Go find something nobody's talking about yet. And don't ride the wave -- go against it.

"When you do popular spots, you might get a little more of a push. So it's good to mix it in. But don't make your whole page well-known spots."

That's not just advice for food bloggers. That's advice for anyone trying to build something real.

At the end of every episode, I ask the same closing question: when you look at everything you've built, what are you most proud of?

Sir Michael smiled.

"Myself," he said.

I loved that answer. No false modesty. No PR spin. Just -- I did this. I built this. Me.

But then he kept going, because that's who he is. He said he feels like he's changed people. People who said they'd never eat that kind of food -- Thai, Cambodian, Salvadoran, Indian -- now love it. Now seek it out. He's opened their world.

"Now that culture doesn't look so gross to them," he said. "They're like, wow, this culture is actually pretty beautiful."

I don't think he fully knows yet how much that matters.

The full episode is up right now -- on YouTube, Spotify, and everywhere you get your podcasts. Sir Michael talks about the Frank origin story, his honest review philosophy (yes, he will absolutely call a place "kind of ass" if it deserves it), his plans for going full-time, and why Larry David is his dream collaboration.

Follow him at @whatdidyoueattodaysir on Instagram and Facebook. If you eat anywhere in New England, you need this account in your life.

And if you have a spot you think he should know about -- a hole-in-the-wall with a three-generation recipe, a place that doesn't even have a social media page -- send it his way. Or send it to me. That's what we're here for.

-- Carol

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ABOUT CAROL ERICKSON

Carol Erickson has owned Red Arrow Diner since 1987 -- four locations across New Hampshire, open 24/7. She started Beyond the Plate to tell the real stories behind the people who make New England's food and hospitality scene what it is. Not just what's on the menu. What's behind it.

Red Arrow Diner: redarrowdiner.com  |  @redarrow24diner