Angelo Comsti picks apart chaos cooking, the TikTok-friendly food trend that dictates more is more
“Don’t yuck my yum.”
Remember this battle cry? It was born and made popular during the not-so-distant past when items like biryani wraps, rainbow bagels, and sushi burritos were frowned upon for misrepresenting a culture. Well, in a head-scratching twist of events, what once was appropriated is now being appreciated, with chaos cooking or what people coined “con-fusion” a few years back giving the haters a stiff middle finger.
Frankensteinish food like masala cheesesteak and pastrami tacos, multi-cultural cuisine that doesn’t just aim to marry but manages to be trolly and tasty, are in fashion these days. They are breaking the mould of boredom—liberating themselves from the shackles of standards—and enjoying the free pass awarded to them by the more open-minded and accepting generation, all because these cross-pollinated dishes actually have style and substance.
To what do we owe the gustatory pleasure? I can only guess.
See also: Why Do Chefs Hate the Word “Fusion”?
Perhaps, it’s the TikTok influencers who painted the Italian alfredo pasta purple and made mashed potatoes out of Pringles and hot water. As the most downloaded app of 2021, this short-form video-sharing platform made people feel they were not alone during the pandemic isolation that’s why many—more than 656 million new users last year—latched on to it.
Apart from sharing recipes and daily meals with their virtual audience, users got to play with food (in a good and delicious way) and make their kitchen experiments viral, even if they’re not within the picture pretty confines of rival app Instagram. On TikTok, the weird, absurd and imperfect are celebrated—and even sold. Last year, the company announced plans to open delivery-only “restaurants” across the U.S., offering viral dishes from the app.
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