Adam Ragusea brings 2.47 million along on travel, food, and so much more
In this era of digital content creation, Knoxville’s Adam Ragusea has established his place in the world of online culinary arts by creating a brand that has been personally, professionally, and financially rewarding with some two and a half million subscribers to his YouTube channel. But his journey has been unconventional and unintentional through a career that transitioned from music and journalism to public radio and teaching.
For several years, Ragusea toyed with YouTube content producing short videos on various topics that barely scratched the online surface. Then, in 2019, he posted an 8-minute video explaining a method to prepare New York-style pizza at home and the Internet took notice. The views soon mounted (currently more than 22 million for that video) and the new online star quit his day job.
“I was teaching journalism at Mercer University and after posting the video in March, it went viral several months later,” said Ragusea, who was living in Macon, Georgia, at the time before moving in 2021 to Knoxville where his wife, Lauren, has family. “I saw an opportunity and lept on it just as the pandemic hit in early 2020.”
Hundreds of videos followed as he gained a mass of subscribers fascinated by his tight delivery, well-crafted videos, and straightforward recipe instructions that dipped into food science almost any home cook could understand.
“I don’t think I’m a particularly good cook and I’m certainly not a scientist,” he notes. “But I trained as a journalist and am an uncommonly curious person who can learn something new and explain it to someone else with enthusiasm.” Teaching at Mercer for six years was undoubtedly a significant advantage.
As his popularity grew, Ragusea began producing two food videos each week and later expanded content to include weekly podcasts and videos covering a wide range of topics that piqued his interest, including regional themes following his move to Knoxville. For instance, in a 2024 YouTube episode, Ragusea explores Alcoa, going into intense detail about the town, such as the streets named after renowned scientists and an explanation of its company namesake. And the comments show the engagement. At the time of this writing, there were 681 comments on the 9-minute, 46-second video.
Two years earlier, Ragusea interviewed researchers at North Carolina State University for a video investigating attempts to grow truffles, the rare and expensive fungus used to flavor foods. “They are difficult to grow but we do have the right climate and soil type to grow truffles in East Tennessee and North Carolina in the Blue Ridge Mountains area,” explains Ragusea. “So if anyone’s going to crack the code on farming truffles it will be right here but it’s a decades long process.”
The financial success of Ragusea’s YouTube channel was swift after the initial pizza video. “Although it wasn’t initially huge – that one video was making something like $200 a month – it was incredible because we were absolutely broke at the time,” he says. “We had two small children with serious health problems, I was teaching at a small Liberal Arts college, and we were really pinching pennies. But the way you make a lot of money on these platforms is by building a very large library of popular content, which is what I did.”
Within six months, his family was financially secure, “Not empire-like wealth,” he stresses, “but in the sense that we could continue our normal lifestyle and not worry about money.” But there were other concerns. For each 1-minute of video production, Ragusea had to invest perhaps hours in research, preparation, and editing. “I was working absolutely absurd hours into the early morning and kind of hurting myself through overwork,” he admits. So in early 2024 he announced plans to cut back to one video a week, enabling more family time and pursuing other interests. “My main leisure activity these days is freshwater aquaria,” he says. “I keep fish and also vampire crabs from Australasia. Our Knoxville house has a greenhouse which is where I keep all the tanks and built an elaborate setup. I needed a project to help me psychologically and this really has.”
Less time in front of the camera has freed up Ragusea to investigate other business ventures that intersect with his food passion, specifically his quest for the perfect pizza. This past summer, he teamed up with Joe Seiber, owner of Knoxville’s Status Dough doughnut shops, to create a new line of the beloved flat food.
“There are many great styles of pizza crust, but I’ve modified Joe’s unique doughnut dough into a great pizza crust and I’m partnering with him to create a line of pizza to sell in his stores around Knoxville,” he says. “We’ll be starting first in the Farragut location then the others, including his new store on the campus of the University of Tennessee here in Knoxville. My success all began with pizza, so I’m really excited about this next stage.”
But don’t expect him to give up on his YouTube channel anytime soon. “I’ve reached a decent cruising altitude with the channel right now and I want to continue with topics that interest me and, I hope, my audience who have come on this journey with me so far,” he says. “My first foray into the local pizza business might be a sign of what’s to come.” You can follow Ragusea’s journey at adamragusea.com.