Influencer
Creating Exciting Food Content With Joel Haas Of High Speed Dining
Joel Haas of High Speed Dining loves celebrating life and shares this through his love of food. His social media accounts showcase fantastic foods from America’s best restaurants. Today, he shares his creative process and upcoming plans with us.
About Joel Haas
Joel Haas is a professional eater, exercise fanatic, and content creator. He has spent the last seven years dining at America’s best restaurants and has eaten over 785 Michelin-star restaurant meals. During the pandemic, it took him only 80 days to complete the “Takeout A-Z Washington, DC” challenge, where he ate from restaurants starting with every letter of the alphabet.
Joel shares, “Ultimately, working from home all the time, I was going stir crazy, and my way of getting out of the house was I started going to restaurants a lot. That was really the start of me fine dining and eating out a lot. I just needed to get out of the house… When I sat down at the restaurant, I found all my problems had disappeared. I was the happiest guy in the world, and that really became my happy place.”
In June 2020, Joel started sharing every restaurant meal he ate on social media. He shares that his social media growth was slow at first. However, a couple of days into posting, he realized that cutthroat editing that got right to the point was a more successful strategy for him. Shortly after, his first video had a few hundred thousand views on TikTok.
@highspeeddining Biggest Bowl of Seafood Stew – Cioppino at Cork Tree Restaurant in Palm Desert, CA #cioppino #restaurantreview #foodreview #restaurant #docueatery #highspeeddining #foodie #california #corktree ♬ original sound – Joel Haas – High Speed Dining
While he loves to eat, Joel hasn’t thought seriously about attempting a world record.
He shares, “It’s crazy, but as far as records, somebody just got published with a lot of PR behind them for hitting 18 Michelin-star restaurants in one day. I guess Guinness recognized it as a record. I’m envious of that, but I’m also not envious because he only went and did one dish in every restaurant. I would never go to a Michelin-star restaurant and only eat one thing.”
High Speed Dining
High Speed Dining encompasses Joel’s social media accounts, website, Instagram, and more. His posts show off the meals he eats and all the places he’s visited.
Joel explains, “I don’t do food reviews. I don’t critique. Every meal is a 10. When I walk into that restaurant, it’s a 10. This is going to be the greatest meal I’ve ever had.”
Instead of reviewing the food, Joel shows off the fantastic food he’s eating and doesn’t highlight any flaws he may find.
He also doesn’t post photos of restaurant meals to show off but to inspire others. In 2011, he had a double hip replacement and couldn’t do much walking. Today, he walks ten miles a day on average. For him, sharing his enjoyment of food is just one way to celebrate life, health, and the world around him.
In addition to his hip replacements, Joel was born with no fingers on his left hand. When he was two or three years old, he had surgery that gave him two fingers and mobility.
For filming, Joel uses a pop socket to manipulate his phone, which gives his content exciting shots and angles.
Joel notes, “It allows me to hold my camera and really move it in more ways, more angles, more flexibility, than a normal five-fingered hand holding the camera… It really gives me a crazy type of camera angle that you don’t see in other people’s videos..”
Joel’s Creative Process
One of the most challenging aspects of being a content creator is keeping up with the latest trends and algorithm changes and constantly putting out new content.
Many content creators struggle to brainstorm new content ideas. However, Joel’s content model is posting every restaurant meal he eats, simplifying this brainstorming process so he can devote more time to creating content.
He has also started bringing table lights to fine dining restaurants because many of these restaurants are dimly lit, which makes capturing the food on camera more difficult.
Joel shares, “The reality is I’ve become a very good editor and producer. Years in radio and as a producer and a programmer and everything have really helped me become a great social media producer… I was in radio for upwards of 10 to 15 years, and I’d like to say what I’m doing now is just DJing food.”
Another unique aspect of Joel’s content is that he doesn’t narrate his content afterward. Instead, the audio you hear in his videos is picked up from a microphone he wears at the restaurant.
@highspeeddining Mountain of Caviar – Carte Blanche Restaurant in Dallas Texas – Restaurant Reviews #dallas #texas #food #caviar #tiktokfood #foodie #restaurantreview #docueatery #highspeeddining ♬ original sound – Joel Haas – High Speed Dining
He explains, “I’m not telling you what the experience is. You are actually experiencing the experience. You hear the waiters and the servers, the sounds of the restaurants. You get my live narration… I don’t read scripts. I improvise everything.”
His editing style focuses on presenting the food in an exciting way rather than an educational breakdown of the ingredients or techniques used to prepare the food.
This style contributes to the primary goal of his content, which is not to give recommendations but to take people on this journey with him as he celebrates life and fine dining.
“I look at this food as edible art, and they [the chefs] are artists all across America doing really wild, fun things. I feel honored and privileged and have a great time showcasing all these wonderful people.”
@highspeeddining Biggest Bowl of Seafood Stew – Cioppino at Cork Tree Restaurant in Palm Desert, CA #cioppino #restaurantreview #foodreview #restaurant #docueatery #highspeeddining #foodie #california #corktree ♬ original sound – Joel Haas – High Speed Dining
Monetizing His Platform
At this time, Joel hasn’t monetized his social media platforms. However, he has done one brand deal with OpenTable, an online restaurant reservation service, because he personally uses the service and has made nearly 1,000 reservations using the platform.
Joel explains, “I don’t take money to do stuff. I’m doing this for the love and joy. I have to start figuring out how to monetize it because I’m spending a lot of money on food, but it hasn’t been about the money. It hasn’t been about business. It’s been about the love of eating and traveling and just spreading joy.”
Upcoming Plans
Joel has plans to continue exploring more cities, places, and Michelin-star restaurants. He has plans to visit Florida and the Michelin-star restaurants in Miami, Orlando, and Tampa.
He notes, “I’m trying to get to as many states as I can. At this point, I’ve been to over 20 states in the USA, and I think at some point, I’m sure I will say let’s visit them all. At this point, I’m sticking to the bigger and more accessible cities.”
In addition, Joel is going to Toronto for his first international tour in late March and early April. He is also working on getting reservations for every Michelin-star restaurant in Toronto and is interested in doing a European tour in the summer.
In closing, he adds, “I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve for some interesting ways to turn more down to Earth, fast food types of restaurants into more of a fine dining experience. I won’t go into details on that yet because I’ve yet to do it, but… I’m always trying to do bigger and better things and get more exciting with what I do and grow with my editing skills and how I present.”
