Food Network Comment Trolling

About

Food Network Comment Trolling is the act of posting purposefully facetious or mocking comments in response to FoodNetwork.com’s sometimes overly simplistic recipes. It is an extension of the Customer Review Comedy present in memes such as Three Wolf Moon and Tuscan Whole Milk, which both stem from Amazon.com

Origin

Rachael Ray’s Late Night Bacon

In November 2010 Rachael Ray posted a recipe on FoodNetwork.com for what she called “Late Night Bacon”.

Readers were baffled by the overly simplistic recipe (if you could even call it that), and responded by posting tongue-in-cheek replies in the comments section.

LocalBoyMakesGoo: “Tried this recipe last night. The bacon was great, but the paper towels tasted awful.”

I LOVE BACON!: “It’s only 6:54pm… can I make this yet? Or does it need to be later?”

midnightsky: “I think a nice glass of water would wash down this bacon well. So I get the glass out of the cupboard… but I’m not really sure what to do next. I would appreciate any help. Thanks.”

One of the first websites to pick up on this was FoodNetworkHumour.com, a website entirely devoted to satirizing the Food Network’s hosts and shows. On November 8th 2010 FoodNetworkHumour.com crowned “Late Night Bacon” the Most Ridiculous Food Network Recipe Of All Time.

Spread

After “Late Night Bacon” went viral, a facebook group was made and membership on Food Network’s website rose by a considerate amount. New members started combing the site looking for more asinine “recipes” made by Rachel Ray. The second recipe to receive attention from blogs was Rachael Ray’s Pineapple Wedges, which were nothing more than cut fruit.

The reviews for the recipe mocked Rachel Ray and also made several references back to "Late Night Bacon.

rachaelsbacon: I got it confused with the bacon recipe and put it in the microwave. It tasted terrible but I think that may be because I accidentally overlapped the slices.

ilovegnomeland: I’m so glad that she came up with this recipe. I’ve been using Sandra Lee’s recipe for canned pineapples and I sprained my wrist using the can opener. Thank you Rachel, my wrist has healed thanks to you!

Similar in vein to Rachel Ray’s recipes, Paula Dean posted a recipe for English Peas in May of 2007. Just like the recipe for “Pineapple Wedges”, it did not gain much attention until after November 2010.

thedjvan: “This recipe was fantastic! I am a house cat, and after making this recipe I was able to speak english for roughly 30 seconds! I can’t wait to try this wimeow meow meow meow meow meow.”

AnnieFalafel: “BUT HOW DO YOU OPEN THE CANS OF PEAS?!?!?!?!?!”

frankw: ?Es posible sustituir los peas mexicano por ingles?"

Also from May 2007 is Ellie Krieger’s “Dark Chocolate As A Snack”. Probably the most baffling of all the Food Network “recipes” since it contains only one ingredient (1 ounce of dark chocolate) so is really more of a suggestion than any kind of useful cooking instruction.

Although the link to the original article has since been disabled, a screenshot can be seen below.

By January 2011 it had prompted similarly absurd comments.

adamwa: "This was just ok. Maybe if it could be simplified some because its too much work.

kelly-davis_125…: “So that’s how you do it!!?!!?!!!!! All this time i’ve been……oh nevermind, I just feel stupid.”

egdohov: “Will this work if I substitute milk chocolate?”