At the intersection of grill recipes, food experiments and sports on just about any social media platform, one is likely to find Chef Cuso. It’s a moniker for Victor native Jack Mancuso, the face behind (and in front of) the Chef Cuso handle who makes it very clear that he is “not a chef,” even popping the phrase on a tee that is (at press time) now sold out.
“I’m definitely not a chef, never worked in a restaurant in my life,” he said. “I learned from YouTube videos. I (am) just self-taught from the internet.”
While attending California Polytechnic State University for bio resource and agriculture engineering, Mancuso often found himself manning the grill with friends.
“(After graduation) I would just send them photos of what I was making, and they’re like, “You got to start posting it online,’” Mancuso said. “I remember posting a video that got maybe 50,000 views, and I was like, ‘Whoa, that’s pretty cool.’”
Seeing an early spark of interest in the videos from an audience who didn’t know Mancuso personally allowed him to begin learning what to post while working as a commercial HVAC engineer in California.
“When I got home from work, I would just grill, film it all, edit it all and post like crazy,” Mancuso said. “I was posting like three times a day and eventually it got to a point where I had a couple million followers.”
That’s when Mancuso realized he had a real opportunity in front of him. The only question that remained was whether or not to take the risk and flip his career.
“I remember quitting, telling my boss and CEO of the company, and they were like, “We knew this was coming. We knew you were gonna quit. You have to go pursue it,’” he said.
Mancuso credits the work he was already putting into his videos for helping him make the leap to full-time creator. And now, with over 10 million followers across his social media platforms, the risk has paid off.
“You take that calculated risk. I didn’t do it when I had not started,” Mancuso said. “I did it when I had a nice following built up, when I knew I’d be able to sustain a living.”
The Chef Cuso channels continue to grow, even collaborating with major sports teams like Mancuso’s favorite, the Buffalo Bills — he became official grillmaster for the team in 2021 — and other collaborations with the NFL, MLB and UFC.
Finding the marriage of grill content and sports was very intentional for Mancuso; it’s a unique blend that made his content enjoyable, yet niche, as he turned the camera on tailgate culture and its relationship with food.
“Grilling is niche, but I wanted to incorporate more of my favorite things and create my own niche,” Mancuso said. “Like when two teams are playing each other, we’ll take a famous food from each city and then mash them together (think a bleu cheese lobster roll if it’s New England and Buffalo).”
His years of videos include viral tailgate eats and salt-baked food experiments to collaborations with athletes like Dalton Kincaid, Puka Nacua and Fred Warner, to name a few. But his real “I made it” moment was a collaboration with the Australia tourism board on a two-week itinerary that took him all across the country. It was a step removed from the list of places he is recognized most often — mainly Los Angeles and parts of Texas and Florida.
That level of visibility can come with challenges, including viral moments Mancuso didn’t expect — like having a recipe video roasted by Gordon Ramsey on TikTok or a glitch during a live demo at the Meta Connect 2025 keynote, which caused the Meta AI Ray-Ban glasses Mancuso was wearing to malfunction.
Along with navigating those moments, Mancuso has found his influence reaching a younger audience he hadn’t anticipated. His overall reach spans generations, from adults looking to chop it up about grill techniques to children asking for a photo opportunity. Being aware of the younger eyes on his brand has admittedly influenced him to create more “PG” content.
“I’ve had a father-son duo tell me, ‘We watched your videos together to bond, and now we grill steaks together,’” Mancuso said. “None of it is possible without people watching the videos and enjoying the content. Getting people cooking — and especially outside if they’re grilling — and off screens is great.”
Mancuso moved back to Rochester in 2021, after eight years in California. He continues to grow his businesses, which include Cuso’s — a line of spices and rubs found at nationwide retailers like Wegmans and Sam’s Club — and hopes to expand into markets like protein snacks and meat products. His time away from Rochester, in the meantime, only amplified what he loves about the city and surrounding areas.
“I think it’s good to leave for a little bit, because then you can come back and appreciate Rochester way more.”
