Chef Honestly Reviews TikTok Food Trends
(upbeat holiday music) (cool upbeat music) – Okay, chef, you ready for some of these? – Indeed. (record player scratching) (pumpkin crunching) – I know what you’re thinking. – I like the fact when you click on a link to TikTok, it shows you the video before and you were watching hippos eat pumpkins. (Ben and Mike laughing) – Busted. Okay, straight in. – Yes it does. – Wow. – Start by putting- – Love it. – We’re gonna add our- – Fried chicken. Buttermilk. Seasoning. – Then we’re gonna deep fry it at 350 until it’s golden brown and-
– Yeah, lovely fried chicken. Can’t beat it. – Brioche bun with some vanilla ice cream and hot- – Vanilla ice cream. – This is where I’m not sure. It would benefit from something creamy like mayonnaise, something fatty and creamy. But vanilla ice cream? – You get the hot-cold. I can see logically how it could work. – You are already getting sweet from the brioche bun. – And from the hot honey. – And the hot honey. Do you really need sweet vanilla ice cream as well? Hot-cold. Interesting. Christine Hà in Houston we met, she was talking
about the importance of texture and temperatures in a dish. – Yes. – The difference of hot and cold together. – You’ve got all the textures there. You have got creamy, smooth ice
Fried chicken is being increasingly combined with dessert items. The interplay between the savoury, crunchy and occasionally spicy attributes of fried chicken and the sweetness, creaminess, and chilly quality of ice cream. Chilly as in with a Y, not as in a spice. – Okay. – Cold. – The chilly ice cream with the chilli sauce. (bottle thuds) – Yeah. Can result in a distinctive and gratifying flavour enhancer. Food TikTok and like just wider social media, so funny, isn’t it? ‘Cause people are given the freedom with phones and videos to just play and explain. – To play. –
And I do love that. – And it is the extreme of everything. What I personally love in a fried chicken sandwich is the offset with some crisp, cold, fresh lettuce, tomato, and just mayo. – Like a pickle or something. – Or some pickle. Something that cuts through. All we have here is sugar and fat. – Yeah. – With a chunk of protein. But it’s sugar. It’s sugar and fat. It’s sugar and enriched dough and it’s fat and it’s just, it’s everything to the extreme. Should we try it? – Yeah, let’s try it. (cool upbeat music)
– Oh baby. (cool upbeat music) This is gonna be such a mess. – And I think it is that squeeze that kind of sells it to the internet on TikTok when you see that shot. ‘Cause the ice cream begins to ooze and melt. You’ve definitely got all the textures. I don’t think you’ve got flavour balance. I think it’s all just sugar and fat, but cheers. – Cheers. (cool upbeat music) – That’s a hard pass for me. – Don’t like it? – No. (Mike laughs) – I kind of get it. But I think you can achieve
what it’s doing. I tell you what I do like, I do love the crunchy chicken and I do love the really cold ice cream. – The hot and cold thing’s fun. – But that’s amazing. – The hot and cold thing is fun. And before now we’ve had a play with vanilla in savoury places. Like a vanilla dressing. – That is what works. The vanilla. – With like tomato salads and stuff. Vanilla with fish. Really good. – I’m gonna keep going. (Ben clears his throat) – The vanilla and spice is not terrible. It’s just all too
much. – It’s really sweet. – That’s hot. – That is spicy, isn’t it? – It’s really hot. (Ben coughs) – As a normal, I can actually draw some stuff from- in terms of the cold, vanilla definitely, with savoury food. – Sometimes, but I’m not sure fried. I think the vanilla needs to be fresh. It’s like a steamed fish or a tomato salad. – Yeah. – It’s the freshness, not the fried. I think save your money. Save your time. Don’t bother with this one. – Yeah. I’m finding it difficult to back it, honestly. – If I
had to spend more money on more food, I’d buy more pumpkins and feed them to more hippos. (Mike laughs) – Yeah, fair enough. (Ben laughs) You know I love a fried chicken sandwich. – Yeah. – I don’t feel this has taken it to any sort of elevated level, even though I kind of really wanted it to. I guess with all these things, it’s that instantaneous ability to watch something fascinating featuring a whole lot of things that you are familiar that haven’t perhaps been combined before and going, “Oh, I wonder what that looks like.” We are
actually getting an opportunity to not only see what it looks like, but what it tastes like. And a lot of the time the two don’t marry up, do they? – There’s always a drive for sensationalism, like something that hasn’t been done before. The extreme. And you’re right, there’s a familiarity about this. It just shouldn’t be done. (Mike snickers) – As with all of these, we are probably gonna go through a lot of fodder, but there might be one that may look nuts on paper, but actually works in some dimensions. – Has some merit. – I’m
not sure it’s this one. – What I would say though is we shouldn’t stop exploring and experimenting with food. And what I would say is maybe try it because it’s easy enough to get hold of a fried chicken sandwich with vanilla ice cream. What I would say is definitely, definitely, definitely don’t put this in this (Mike laughs) ’cause that’s now ruined the whole thing. But if you want to try it, have a little spoon of ice cream and a little mouthful of that. See what you think. (Mike exclaims) And then decide for yourself. (spoon clattering)
Unfortunately, that’s now ruined (Mike laughs) in my opinion. And it is a humble one at that. (Mike squeals) (hands slam) – That is the hot honey ice cream chicken sandwich. Critiqued. (funky music) (cymbal crashes) – Right. Another one. – The only way to eat Greggs sausage rolls is to use them instead of- – Oh no! – bread in a toasted sandwich. Get yourself four sausage rolls from Greggys and flatten them out as much as you can without them falling apart. Top that with some properly tasty cheddar. If you don’t like Marmite, leave the Marmite out.
But you shouldn’t leave the Marmite out. Sossy rolls that you’ve also flattened out and glue together. (Mike snorts) Then spread on some more mayo. – It’s a sausage roll grilled cheese. – Look how good this looks though. (Mike snickers) I’m telling you, you never- – I quite like this guy. – Bread is dead. Long live the sossy-roll-wich. Call me when you’ve made this. Love you. (air whooshing) – First off. Quite a good video. (Mike laughs) I quite like him. – He’s great. – And I like his approach. – He’s a funny guy. – Here we
go again. Food to excess. – Oh no. – I like a sausage roll. I like a cheese toastie. – Combine the two on paper. This is your ideal meal mate. – Marmite is the umami that kind of brings back- to give it a bit of like, depth and then he served it with HP sauce. I’m on board with that. In theory, if you had a quarter of it, i.e a sausage roll. – Yeah, yeah. (Ben claps) – I’m here for it. This is from The Recipe Club. – So 92- 934,000 likes. – Two and a
half thousand comments. Mixed reviews in the comments. A lot loving it. Others terrified by the prospect. I can’t decide which side of the fence I sit yet, but I like the fact that there’s also a Miriam in the comments. A Greggs employee who is now terrified of selling these in case it happens again. (Mike laughs) – Very nice. – I’m on her side. – Oh and we have one to try as well. – Oh my word. (upbeat synth music) (plates clattering) – And God bless Kush. He has made them identically for us. – Well, you
say that. I would say better because I think The Recipe Club, what it was, was made and cut instantly. It was gooey and cheesy and and quite greasy. What Kush has done is made it and then pressed it like a terrine so he can cut it cold (Mike laughs) and then reheat. – You are such a chef! – But also, and they’re nice and warm, a smaller portion. It’s got the Marmite, it’s got the cheese and a combination we’ve been told of Pukka and Ginsters – Oh wow! – sausage roll. So it’s a double. And
all of a sudden I’m quite excited to eat this. – Are you going with a squeeze of- – No lime, but we’ve also got every sauce under the sun from mustard and ketchup to chutneys, hot sauces like buffalo sauce. All sorts. – I am staggered – Cheers. – that you’re excited to try this. – I actually am. – This is great. – This is like pork pie meets sausage roll meets Scotch egg. – This is fantastic. – I reckon this is great with a little bit of, like, a mustard sauce, but like a Branston pickle
or an HP sauce. And this is a bar snack that I would happily serve at the Sorted Pub. – This is amazing. You get that ever so slight tang of Marmite. – Yup. – Which kind of makes it, actually. – It’s really greasy because obviously sausage roll is already puffed pastry, which is full of butter. Then you’ve added cheese, then you’ve added mayonnaise. – Try it with chutney. Try it with the chutters. That is amazing! – Mm-hm. – I mean, I’d only want to have, (spoon clattering) oh no, I’d want to have more, but I
only should have one square of this. – What’s happened with the pastry by being covered in mayonnaise and then pressed- Yes it goes a really dark, crisp, golden brown, but it’s also flaky still. – Mm! – So whilst they look incredibly dense they’re actually quite light to eat. – Portion control is probably something that I should have at the forefront of my mind when eating this, but that is an elevated sausage roll. There’s no denying it. – No. I’m- (Mike laughs) I didn’t expect to like this as much as I do. But if you think
about so many of our snacks from just like pork scratchings to Scotch eggs to pork pies, they are incredibly fatty. – Yeah. It’s a lardy, fatty pastry or buttery pastry. It’s full of sausage meat, which is fatty. This has got cheese in it as well. You wouldn’t want many, but the ones you have, you will really enjoy. – Yeah. And absolutely. – And I love that. – If you had a big dish and just put those in a pile in the middle. – Yeah. – And brought that out, you know, to guests and then told
them, “Oh, by the way, this is basically a grilled cheese sausage roll sandwich.” I think you get a standing ovation. – Having left the ice cream hot honey fried chicken sandwich to one side, I am so tempted to go back for a second, (Mike laughs) but there’s only five left and I know everyone else wants to try some. – This is why I love this. – That shouldn’t work- – I love this. – But it’s so good. – Because watching you do- go from this onto this little character arc. – What is a sausage roll
meets grilled cheese sandwich with Marmite pork mantis. Like how are you putting those words together into something that rolls off the tongue and sits on a menu? – Comment below. (funky music) (air whooshing) So taking into consideration the journey we’ve been, are you excited or dreading this next one? – So far? 50-50. I’ve loved one. I’ve hated one. – Okay. – Both are strong words. I stand behind them both. – Here we go. (punk rock music) – Watermelon. Grill. – Tasty edit. I like it. Ooh. – Oh wow. – I like chamoy. Like a watermelon
pizza? That’s then charred and cut and chomped. Hats off to him. I only had to watch that once. Every single bit of information I needed. It was like a recipe in less than 15 seconds. – So the watermelon pizza, combining cheese and grilled watermelon, which was popularised by Nigella in a recipe she published over 20 years ago. But it’s taken it a step further with other toppings. – Yes. I’m a 100% with the idea that some fruits and cheese work really well. Right? So it’s like stone fruit. – Yup. – Apricots, peaches, apples and pears
work really nicely. Grapes obviously work really nicely. – There’s no stone in a watermelon. – They pair really well. Tropical fruits with cheese I have more of a struggle with, which is why I don’t particularly like pineapple on a pizza because the melted cheese and pineapple, I don’t really like. – You don’t like it. – Cheese and pineapple on a stick from the 70s, I don’t really get. It’s the tropical fruit and cheese for me. – Uh-oh. – Doesn’t work. I don’t know where watermelon sits in the fruit spectrum, but there’s only one way to
find out. (air whooshes) – What the f- What have you done?! – See, (Mike laughs) this I’m on board with. – I’m not on board with that! – This is a pizza shape. By that I mean circular of charred watermelon with cheese and toppings. – I don’t know ’bout this one. – But the cheese is burrata. It’s cold. This one’s got cured meat, like a Parma ham. – It’s got your California walnuts on it. – Californian walnuts. – Now I love. – And balsamic. I’m going straight in. That looks epic. – I don’t want to
eat that one! I’m not ready for it. – Yet again, if we ever had a Sorted Pub, it’s the kind of thing I can almost see on the menu. – You can’t run a pub and then tell everyone that all the ideas for the menu came from TikTok. – That is exactly what the Sorted Pub would be. (Mike giggling) Social media food things made better. – Cheers. – Cheers. See, I know that all these flavours are gonna work. (funny tuba music) Nope. It’s impossible to eat. – The burrata and the watermelon is a combo from
the heavens. – It’s a good watermelon. It’s got that peppery rocket. It’s got the texture of walnut, the acidity of balsamic, the fresh, fruity watermelon. – I actually appreciate the sweetness of the balsamic as well. You need it. – Seasonal fruit like charred peaches in a salad with the other same ingredients, yummy. And suddenly a charred watermelon works in just the same way. Is it anything like the molten cheese and Peperami mess that we saw on, like, stringy pulled cheese kind of- – I mean that’s the reason it’s popular on TikTok. Again ’cause the things
that we’ve spoken about earlier. The fascination that, “Oh, I’m familiar. Oh, that looks mad.” I do feel like Kush has taken that seen it and gone, “Do you know what? I’m gonna add my cheffy-ness to that.” And this is what we could end up with. I’m worried about this. Can I remove the head because I don’t- – Yeah, we wouldn’t eat the head. More fiddly to eat this one for sure. – Cheers. – Cheers. (upbeat retro music) Wow. That’s fantastic. – I don’t know if you could still call it a pizza at this point. It’s
a slice of watermelon salad and therefore you can mix up the ingredients. I think both are great. I think this is my preferred option. I’m not sure I would want a slice of stringy molten pepperoni, mozzarella vibes. – But if you replaced that base for a pizza base? That’s pizza. – So it’s a watermelon pizza? – So it’s a water- or is it? – It’s just not hot. – I don’t know. I wonder how many actual people have recreated that. – I’m sure, as is the nature of the algorithm, once you’ve watched one watermelon pizza
video, you’ll be fed a few more. (Ben laughs) – Would you ever make it yourself? That’s the thing. Or is it just a viewing thing? It’s a- I want to watch weird and wonderful stuff. – Yeah, I’m not sure anyone would- I don’t know. I would make this. – Yeah. – And I would put several slices on a big platter or one per plate as a little starter for like a dinner party thing. – Next to your grilled cheese sausage rolls. – Next to my grilled cheese sausage rolls. I’m on board. (Mike laughs) I like
the concept. I don’t wanna sit here on a high horse, but I think we did it better. – I can’t argue. (air whooshing) Final one. Will he be angry? Will he be happy? – Oh! – Toasty waffle rice. – It’s like crispy sushi rice. – Oh yeah! It’s like okonomiyaki style. – Like yeah, but like baked rather than fried. It reminds me of the thing we did for Fleur years ago. The fried sushi burger. Except we fried it. It’s like a healthier version. – We did buns, didn’t we? Fried rice buns. Victoria Mannel on TikTok.
It’s all about playing with textures. Familiar with soft and sticky sushi rice often garnished with crunchy additions to achieve that texture. But what if we took the core ingredients and adjusted them with modern methods to add alternative textures. So this is inspired by the Japanese okoge, the scorched rice that can occur at the bottom of a pot when rice is cooked on a stove and can sometimes be presented with similar toppings to sushi fillings. So it’s basically that. Toasted sushi rice. So you know it’s gonna be seasoned, sticky. – Flipping the texture to be on
the bottom- – Crispy. – rather than on the top. – Yeah. Oh yeah! I’m buzz- – And using a waffle iron. – I’m buzzing for this. Boys are making this. (hand slams) We’re making it. – That’s the cue card I like. (air whooshing) (upbeat retro music) – Our toasted rice. This is no doubt gonna taste fantastic. The breakfast cereal of kings, Rice Krispies. (Mike laughs) I’m not sure what we’re gonna get out of this. The reason being, there’s no raising agent in this as there would be in a waffle batter. You pour it in, you
put it down and it rises to fill in all the other holes when you clamp. Sometimes you turn it over to fill, but it’s- the batter will rise and expand to fill the space. This won’t. So when we turn it out, we’ll probably have one good side and one less good side. – We flip it. Couldn’t we? – We flip it on the plate? – Yeah. – Yeah. (air whooshing) – Oh! (Mike oohing) Now! – Hup! (plate clinks) – Full disclosure, to get the colour, that’s been in for how long? – Quite a while ’cause-
– 20 minutes? – First of all, I had to take a lot of moisture out before we could go crispy. It is now crispy in places. Still not as much colour as I’d like, but I think anymore and we would completely dry out and it’d be inedible. – Victoria or Tori we think used like a stroopwafel iron. – Yeah. A lot more contact- – Yeah. – with the rice, but it’s still crispy. It’s golden in places. Got this wonderful marinated tuna. – We don’t have any avocados, so we’ve got some wasabi mayo. We’ve got our
sriracha and we’ve got this sticky soy glaze. – Do you know what this needs Mike? – Sesame grinder from yesterday. – Ah, there we go. – Yeah, there you go. – Sesame seeds to finish. – Lovely jubbley. – Yum, yum, yum. – Well, we are assuming yum. – Well, you can’t go wrong with those ingredients. (chopsticks clattering) – Cheers. – Oh, you can hear the crunch. – Again, nicely seasoned rice. The crispy pop of it in your mouth, (spoon clatters) and then you chew through a little bit of tuna. – Yeah, but the rice has
crisp, but it’s chewy. It’s a fantastic texture. (lip smacks) It was kind of what I was hoping for, but I didn’t realise it. – What I would personally say is, out all the ones we’ve done today, I don’t think our attempt was actually as good as the TikTok one. I think a lot of them we’ve done, we’ve either not liked or we’ve elevated and we’ve liked better. I actually think the original TikTok was better. But what it continues to prove is that waffle irons are for so much more than just waffles. We did an entire
chapter, “It Can’t Be Arsed With Rules”, that was like, stop sticking to the rule that waffle irons are only for waffles. There’s so much more you can do in one. And this is a good example. Yummy, yum, yum. Wasabi, spice, tuna, sesame, crispy sushi rice. The sushi waffle is great. I’m so here for it. We just need to perfect our version. (hand slams) – Well, you’ve heard it straight from the hippo’s mouth. If you want to watch our other TikTok video reviews, you can check ’em out here and make sure you join us tomorrow where
our next video is our Christmas Dinners Around the World Review, part of our one a day up until Christmas Day video releases. So if you wanna stay on top of that, make sure you are subscribed and notified with your bell. – With your- but what an Advent! – You know what I mean! – Sure. A Christmas bell.
