TikTok’s tasty trends… how viral videos are changing the way we cook.
Butter boards, nacho tables, Pilk (we’ll explain), one-pan baked feta pasta and homemade dishwasher vodka; social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram are changing the landscape of home cooking, delivering recipes that range from delicious to interesting to downright wrong.
With Australians spending an average of 23.4 hours per month on TikTok and 8.3 hours per month on Instagram, it’s little wonder that these platforms are influencing so many aspects of our lives, including what we cook.
So, let’s take a look at five of the viral food trends to have come out of social media in the last few years, starting with the best and ending with the bizarre.
Delicious and delightful
- One-pan baked feta pasta – Quick, easy and delicious this recipe was all over Instagram Reels and Tik Tok in 2019 and was still trending in 2021. Created by a Finnish food blogger this recipe went viral for a reason, it’s delicious. What’s not to love about a block of feta, surrounded by cherry tomatoes, garlic, a pinch of chilli flakes and olive oil? Bake it in the oven until the tomatoes are soft and then simply add cooked pasta of your choice. Yum!
- Butter boards – Brooklyn-based cook Justine Doiron broke the internet when she declared she wanted to make butter boards the next big thing, covering a grazing board with butter and adding an assortment of toppings including sea salt, herbs, lemon zest, honey and edible flowers. While she definitely had her critics, Justine’s video encouraged thousands of similar videos and spurred the creation of more board-related food trends such as the cream cheese board, the Nutella board and the hummus board.
- Nacho tables – Literally, a table full of tasty nachos. it’s the perfect grazing table for lovers of Mexican meals. Simply roll some aluminium foil down the length of your dining table and prepare to assemble the greatest Mexican feast of all time. Much like making nachos on a plate, the construction starts with a layer of corn chips, salsa, cheese, more corn chips, more salsa, more cheese and so on until you have as many layers as you need to feed the masses. Don’t forget to add guacamole, sour cream, beans, jalapenos and anything else that takes your fancy.
Downright disgusting
- Pilk – No, that’s not a typo Pilk is a combination of Pepsi and full cream milk. While the concept has been around since the 1980s when it was featured on the cult American television show Laverne & Shirley. The interesting combination blew up on Twitter in 2020 when user @scubadivingzoo tweeted an image of the two liquids mixed together with the caption “ya’ll want a glass of pilk”. That tweet gained over 10,000 retweets in one year. Pepsi then decided to capitalise on this and in 2022 re-launched Pilk as a seasonal Christmas drink with commercials starring Lindsay Lohan.
- Dishwasher vodka – It doesn’t taste as gross as it sounds but the concept itself is certainly a little “distasteful”. Simply grab a cheap bottle of vodka (the cheaper the better) remove some vodka and then fill the bottle with your favourite lolly (Werther’s Originals, gummy bears, rhubarb and custard boiled sweets, and Skittles seem to be the favourites). Put the lid on and place the bottle in an empty dishwasher on a hot cycle. Voila, flavoured vodka!
So there you have it, the best and the worst of viral food inventions. The question now is what innovative and interesting food trends will social media bring us next? And will you be trying them?
