Amid the bustling atmosphere of El Pastor Del Rica Taqueria, Tayde Aburto (10) was hard at work in front of his camera, arranging various plates so that the tacos fit in frame and miking himself and his friends up. With the scene ready, they hit record, Feb 2.
Aburto, also known as Tayde Show on YouTube, posts taco reviews and occasionally vlogs about his travels for his 9.59K subscribers. He began his YouTube journey at an early age, creating Minecraft videos in elementary school.
“I started back in fifth grade and I was just making videos for fun, like Minecraft videos and stuff with my friends,” Aburto said.
Aburto said he’s always had a passion for filming.
“Ever since I was a little kid, I would take my mom’s phone and film videos because I thought I was like a YouTuber,” Aburto said. “Then, my dad made a YouTube channel for me, so I started making videos from there.”
While Aburto does review some other trending restaurants, tacos have always been the main course of the channel.
“The first taco review was the Taco Stand,” Aburto said. “My dad brought it up one day and [said] this new taco place opened and it’s getting a lot of good reviews. So, we [him and his dad decided to] review it and see if it lived up to the hype. After that, we [thought] maybe we could make this a series because the first one got 1,000 views. Then, we started making more of them after that because it was doing good, and I like tacos.”
Since introducing him to his first review spot, Aburto’s father has always supported his YouTuber ambitions, even buying him a DJI Osmo 3 camera to replace the GoPro that he used to film his videos.
“My dad is really good with technology, so without him I wouldn’t know what camera to use and the editing and stuff,” Aburto said. “I definitely have to give props to them [his friends] for helping me along my journey.”
Aburto’s father is always the one behind the camera, filming for the channel, and he used to edit the videos until Aburto took over.
“As of two or three years ago, I learned how to edit on Adobe, so I’ve been editing the videos since then,” Aburto said. “Usually the editing for taco reviews isn’t that hard. I just put [the videos] together and put some visuals of the ratings on the screen. We normally film it on a Friday or Saturday, so I try to edit it on Sunday.”
When editing the videos, Aburto said he adds music in the background, transitions, and shots of the restaurant’s interior.
“For the music, I usually just do a song with no vocals and an up beat type song while I put the B-roll of the restaurant or wherever it is we are,” Aburto said. “I make sure to get footage of the place we’re at and the food to show in the video and have music over it.”
Since the filming usually happens on Fridays and Saturdays, Aburto picks out the restaurant he’ll visit during the week. He decides on the restaurant based on if it’s in San Diego and by its popularity. He and his friends will then order the recommended dishes and review them.
When reviewing the restaurants, Aburto follows certain criteria such as taste and creativity.
“We first grade each food item we got out of ten based on taste and creativity first,” Aburto said. “Then we grade the restaurant as a whole out of ten, which includes service, food, the napkins, salsa, and the overall vibe of the place. Then that ranking is what we give the restaurant and we’ve made a ranking over the past two years of the best taco restaurant in San Diego based on our reviews.”
Aburto has taken a five-month break from filming videos due to being busy with his soccer team. Even though he has been away from the channel for so long, his passion never waned. Aburto said he hopes that one day, his YouTube channel can become something he is able to invest more time and effort into.
“Right now, it’s mostly a hobby, but since it’s grown so much, I want to keep growing it and put more time into it in the future,” Aburto said. “It brings me joy and it relieves my stress, so it’s definitely my happy place. I can be creative and do stuff that I want to do, like eating tacos. It gives me an excuse to go and try really good taco places in San Diego.”
Initially, His friends gave him the confidence and support to speak in public with the camera when he was just starting out. Aburto said making content has helped him step out of his shell.
“It’s definitely made me more social and more comfortable because talking in front of a camera in public can be a little scary at first,” Aburto said. “As I’ve done more videos, I become more comfortable with it and it makes it easier to be more social and talk with people.”
Another motivator for Aburto is his interactions with fans.
“Whenever people leave comments on the videos, I try to respond to every single one,” Aburto said. “I obviously want to interact with the fans, but it’s also good for the views, because when you leave comments and you’re engaged with the audience, it can help boost your video.”
Aburto is also American-Mexican, and tried his best to incorporate his culture through his videos.
“When people look at me, they wouldn’t think I’m Mexican, so in a couple of videos I would speak a little bit of Spanish or introduce some videos in Spanish,” Aburto said. “I love to travel and we [my family] always go to Mexico every year, so I definitely see both sides of [our] culture. It really helps influence my videos because when I have multiple perspectives on different things. I would definitely say [I’m] more open to trying new foods because without making videos, there are probably some foods that I wouldn’t have tried and also some places that I wouldn’t have visited as well. It’s really interesting to see the different cultures and incorporate them into the [videos]. I obviously review tacos, so that’s the main thing, but I occasionally film videos while in Mexico to show the culture there as well.”
