Welcome to Delicious or Distressing, where we rate recent food memes, videos, and other entertainment news. Last week we discussed how Channing Tatum makes PB&Js—with Cheetos in them.
Padma Lakshmi, beloved mainstay of Top Chef, announced last week that she’s leaving the show after a whopping 20 seasons. The news is bittersweet: Lakshmi’s on to bigger and better things in starting her own show, Taste the Nation, but fans are mourning the end of her reign at the helm of one of TV’s most popular food shows, which has become synonymous in many ways with her measured demeanor. For one Bon Appétit editor, she embodied representation devoid of tokenization, a North Star that guided her to pursue her own work in the food world.
In other food happenings, we were informed by the Toblerone police this week that we’ve been eating the candy incorrectly all this time—and the people are riled up at the accusation. Pizza Hut meanwhile released a pickle-topped pie, but it’s not as novel a concept as it’s chalking it up to be. Lastly, a content creator made everyday food items out of expensive Erewhon ingredients as a bit but then also made a living out of that bit by becoming a private chef for rich people. I bow down to her.
Here’s what else is happening in food moments on the internet this week.
After 17 years Padma Lakshmi is leaving Top Chef
When Top Chef first started in 2006, I was in high school. Seeing Padma Lakshmi on the show was one of the first instances I saw someone who looked like me being featured on a food show in a central way that wasn’t derivative or tokenizing. In more ways than one, her representation there gave me permission to work in the food world and take up that space—instead of following the model-minority trope of a doctor (I was pre-med in college out of what felt like obligation), lawyer, or engineer. Throughout her 17-year run on Top Chef, Lakshmi has branched out to other endeavors and grown as a major player in food. I’d like to think that I’ve grown alongside her in my own career and choices as a journalist covering food. Her leaving the show is a signifier that she’s been able to take that representation even further by starting her own show, Taste the Nation. But her departure also leaves a big hole to fill in everyone’s hearts. I’ll say the news is more distressing than delicious only because it’s a bittersweet moment in which I’m sad for all of us, and happy for her. 4.1/5 distressing. —Urmila Ramakrishnan, associate director of social media
This is the “correct” way to eat Toblerone
On TikTok, a Czech food influencer recently shared instructions on how to eat a Toblerone, that Stegosaurus-looking, nougat-flecked log you’d find in mini bar fridges in the era known as “Before Airbnb.” Sir’s method of eating said Swiss chocolate bar involves gently breaking off a pyramid by pushing it towards its neighbor, rather than snapping it in an outwards direction (as seems perfectly reasonable to me). Naturally, the video has commenters all riled up. “If you do the [supposedly correct] way you are touching 2 bits,” writes Tyrone, clearly a food safety stickler. Meanwhile, Ernesto can’t be tamed: “I just buy the big one and bite it.” Though, in the year 2023, I am more disturbed that we’re still yucking each other’s yums. Nothing is right, everything is open to interpretation, we’re all equals. Except Toblerone itself, of course. Created in 1908 by Theodor Tobler, those patented brown peaks are superior to every other shape on Earth. That’s a well-tempered 2.5/5 distressing for the Chocolate Police. —Ali Francis, staff writer
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Pizza Hut launches a pickle pizza
In the Greek myth, Sisyphus pushes a rock up a hill and considers his day’s work done, only for the rock to roll back down and him to push it up again. In Delicious or Distressing, we have covered media-baiting stunts by food brands over and over, and each time, I naively think we’ll get a moment of respite from a corporate bid for virality before the next pops up. But no one ever talks about how Sisyphus’s rock doesn’t even wait for him to take a nap. It rolls right down that hill. And right on the heels of Pizza Hut’s “world’s biggest pizza,” “flavorless” pizza, and “cilantro” pizza, now comes “pickle pizza,” available only at one location in New York City for some reason. I personally think pickle pizza could be delicious, especially with an extra topping of chicken or beef sausage. It’s basically a horizontal burger: Bread, cheese, meat, pickle, sauce. But that’s not the point—this stunt is the most offensive of all because it’s not even original. Pickle pizza has been beloved and controversial at many regional restaurants in the country already. Pizza Hut is just flinging food media’s little rocks down the content hill again without a thought or care! We must imagine food journalists happy! 4.1/5 distressing. —Karen Yuan, culture editor
A chef makes $2,000 pizzas and $1,000 nachos for celebrities
To everyone but my boss—um, aren’t you supposed to be in a meeting?—my secret dream job is to work as a private chef to the stars. I want someone soooooo rich to pay me soooooo much money to cook them tasty and pretty things all day. Lucky for me Brooke Baevsky, known on TikTok and Instagram as Chef Bae, is walking so one day I can run. The 27-year-old private chef, who cooks for celebrities in Beverly Hills, blew up on social media when she started making insanely expensive versions of everyday staples using groceries procured from Erewhon, the bougie market chain. The $200 PB&J (made with gluten-free buckwheat bread that costs $25 a loaf, plus all the superfood powders) and $300 mac and cheese (with $100 worth of vegan cheese and white truffle) were total spoofs. But pretty soon the bit turned into her life: Clients started asking her to make $2,000 pizzas (with caviar and manuka honey overnighted from New Zealand) and $1,500 ice cream sundaes (with heirloom cacao and sea moss). I know these affluent clients’ orders are living manifestations of everything that’s wrong with this country, but the parody-to-personal-chef pipeline is deeply inspiring. It’s given me a lot to think about. That’s a 4.6/5 delicious for Chef Bae. —AF