About

"FoodTok" is an Internet slang term for food recipes posted on TikTok. The term is also known as TikTok Recipes and, throughout the platform's rise over the years, more content has been uploaded using the hashtag #foodtok, which accumulates 46.1 billion views on the video application. The food content inspired memes like Everybody's So Creative!, Butter Board and other trends.

History

Since before TikTok debuted as Musical.ly back in 2014, there were millions of food recipes content available online. However. during early 2020 and some of 2021, an increase in food recipe videos began to go viral on the platform. An article posted Mashed^[1] explains the sudden rise in food content started during the lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Precursor

Earlier than TikTok food recipes were a trend, Instagram had a major influence on the internet pre-covid, as people would've put their phones above the table to get that perfect plate shot or documenting from-scratch a recipe journey on Stories^[2]. The hashtag #recipes^[3] accumulate more than 12 million posts on Instagram.

Spread

On April 6thth, 2020, TikTok user @makingmelanie^[4] shared a "Do It Yourself" video of a dalgona coffee recipe. Although the video was not the one to start a trend – which peaked in content in March of that year – it received 9,4 million plays and 1,6 million likes in three years.

The coffee trend that started in TikTok became so popular that, according to a The Guardian article^[5] in the second half of March 2020, YouTube views of videos with “Dalgona” in the title increased by 5,000%. YouTubers like @TheCookingFoodie^[6] hoped on the trend to share the coffee recipe, garnering 12 million plays and 181,000 likes since the video was uploaded on March 28th, 2020.

As of February 2023, the hashtag #foodtok^[7] accumulated 46.1 billion total views on TikTok, with a summarized caption explaining the types of content you can find on the hashtag that says "perfect recipes, incredible restaurants, and delicious food. Welcome to #FoodTok."

Various Examples

Several major memes of the past few years have been "born" under the foodtok genre, such as the 2022 Pink Sauce product or the Butter Board trend from the same year.

TikTok Worst Recipes

In the midst of the creative and simple ways people shared their food recipes on TikTok, another side of the trend surfaced on the platform, the gross recipes. On this side of the app, the most absurd recipes are being taught by users like @theshabakitchen^[8], who post daily recipes and food hacks in the most exaggerated way. On November 23rd, 2022, the creator uploaded a cheese recipe video (below, left), garnering 57 million plays and 4,8 million likes in five months. Another TikToker doing the same type of content @janelleandkate^[9] has posted a mac and cheese recipe on November 30th, 2022, and instead of using a pan or bowl to mix the ingredients, she used her kitchen sink to do the mix. Her post (below, right) garnered 20 million plays and 454,100 likes in four months.

A cooking video went viral on Facebook^[10] and Twitter on February 2023, showing two friends preparing chicken ramen in a truck's bed. Although the video is clearly staged, the content made its way to Twitter on February 21st, 2023, and some people shared their anger over the food wasted. @cooIboobs^[11] said the people behind the content are truly evil in a retweeted post on February 22nd, garnering 7,2 million plays in the video and 261,400 likes in her post.

i’m not even being hyperbolic i truly believe these people are evil https://t.co/ifMWt7QAlX

— 𝘦𝘮 🧍🏻‍♀️ (@cooIboobs) February 22, 2023

Search Interest

External References