The BA Test Kitchen Meets Meme Appétit

Hi I'm Harry.

And I'm Will.

And together, we run Meme Appétit.

You might know us from some of these.

[jazz music]

Contrary to popular belief,

Matt Duckor does not run this account.

We're actually just two fans from England.

We are, like everyone else watching this video,

huge fans of BA.

So we actually got the idea for the account

after discovering our shared passion for BA.

The first BA videos I watched actually

were way back in the day, you know 2015.

Before even It's Alive existed.

But I think the one that really got me into it

was actually the first episode of It's Alive.

And I really just want,

oh God, oh God,

Oh cut.

Cut, Vin!

[Man] What happened, Brad?

Oh [beep] tragedy over here.

[Man] This your first time making kombucha, Brad?

It sure looks like it.

Immediately I was like, this guy should be in memes.

He needs to be a meme

because he is hilarious.

The first BA video that I watched

was actually Alex Eats It All,

the cheesesteaks episode.

And I was hooked from thereafter.

We're gonna talk to some of the test kitchen staff today

and we're gonna go Behind the Meme.

[upbeat music]

Ah, Behind the Meme.

Hey, what's up guys?

What's up guys?

How are you?

Hi guys!

[laughing]

I don't if this is like a dream,

or if this is a nightmare, but [laughs]

[cymbal crash]

What the freak is a, hold on a second,

you guys talkin' about McDonald's.

This is inspired by a John Malaney skit.

You're in a car with your children.

You see a McDonald's sign

and the kids are screaming,

McDonald's, McDonald's, McDonald's.

And then there's three options.

You can either say, we've got food at home and refuse.

You can also get excited and take the kids to McDonald's.

Or you can do the power move of pulling in,

ordering a single black coffee and leaving.

And you guys had me at the bottom being like,

oh, all right, let's go get a Happy Meal.

I haven't stepped foot in a McDonald's

in like 20, almost 18 years.

We don't, I don't go to fast food.

We just don't do it.

Oh you guys.

You guys [beep] that one up.

[laughing]

Big time.

You guys don't know me.

You guys don't know anything!

Oh gosh.

No, we're not going to McDonald's.

Well okay, I guess my first question is,

who did this?

[laughing]

Because they're fired. I will take [audio cuts out]

[audio glitch] hands of this this claim.

Oh Harry.

You hurt my feelings, Harry.

I think anyone's who's familiar with my enthusiasm

for anything Claire Saffitz has ever worked on

will make the pretty obvious deduction

that I am a junk food kid.

It's totally wrong for Brad.

Thanks Peg, I filled them in.

He's made that very clear.

Yeah he's at the top of the triangle.

We have food at home [beep].

Whoa, whoa, Peg, family show!

Sorry, sorry, sorry.

Delany's got some weird McDonald's flex for sure.

I will say McCafé coffee is kinda underrated.

I think I would be, we have food at home.

I think you're accurate.

We made smash burgers at home last night, you know,

and it was delightful.

We had pretzel buns

and I put kimchi and gochujang on mine

and everybody was happy.

The only food that I've eaten

that hasn't been cooked by myself

or one of my two quarantine mates,

was when I caved

and went to the McDonald's drive-through.

I wouldn't be here.

I would want to make my own McDonald's at home.

But I wouldn't be forced.

I would volunteer.

I did another little bubble near Claire.

[laughs]

I'm very excited to talk to Claire.

Claire's been quite an illusive figure for us.

She's never liked any of our posts.

She doesn't follow us on Instagram.

We feel like maybe she hates us [laughs].

So hopefully we'll find out she doesn't.

I sort of take the stance with Meme Appétit

that I do with the videos themselves

which is sometimes I stay away for a very long time

and don't really look.

And then sometimes I like, in one day,

go through everything that I haven't seen.

Is the day three curse real?

The day three curse was invented by Dan.

It is a total construct.

I really do relate to this,

to these photos,

of like, I'm a little rough around the edges.

I haven't been getting enough sleep or whatever.

[cymbal crash]

Oh Delany.

Delany comes down to the test kitchen

more than any other person.

And it's like five times a day.

And so like, I'm usually happy to see him.

But on a day three episode,

I don't feel like explaining to Delany

for the 15th time that episode what's going wrong.

I mean, look.

If there's anyway that I can get

some of Claire's frustration out

and she can get across the finish line,

maybe I'm the unsung hero of Gourmet Makes, in that regard.

[cymbal crash]

So many people sent me this.

It wasn't like a joke to send me this.

They were like, we're actually worried about this.

[cymbal crash]

He is looking with a deep sort of expression of skepticism

and maybe a little bit of fear.

No, no, no, no.

You guys totally misinterpreted it.

See what's happening is,

we only have one pair of safety goggles

in the kitchen, okay?

And unless you're the person wearing the goggles,

you hang back, you know what I mean?

You get like a little pot lid shield,

like whatever it takes.

I was actually so delighted she even listened to me.

I think this was still in the middle

of the high point of that shoot day,

which in Claire's and my episode of Making Perfect

in Season 2, Thanksgiving,

which went down in history

as one of the most disastrous shoot days of all time.

I wasn't expecting to be asked to join that season

and it was really cool and very exciting obviously

because the way that that show is formatted

we work in pairs,

and so obviously I was very excited to work with Claire.

I sort of forgot how commandeering she can be.

She's like a tough, she's a tough group project cookie.

[cymbal crash]

Obviously this is from a Gourmet Make,

when you were being just wonderfully supportive to her.

We're all really close with her,

and so when she is feeling bad,

when she is kind of spiraling,

it makes everyone feel equally as bad

and you wanna help her out.

[cymbal crash]

I am seeing one of my favorites Meme Appétit

I love it!

I love this one.

It brought tears to my eyes when I saw it.

It made me feel special.

Some people will DM me being like,

should I save my pasta water?

Store it in the fridge for other things?

And it's like, no,

it's really only there to help your sauces.

I think it's got a little blown out of proportion,

just how much I love pasta water.

Braun is a professional wrestler,

which perfects you could tell.

He was at that time

the largest human we had had,

I think still by weight,

he's the largest human

who I've ever done a Back to Back with.

This was the first celeb that the entire production crew

was freaking out about.

Like Kevin was freaking out.

Tyre was freaking out.

Like everybody behind the scenes knew who he was

and was getting photos afterwards.

And of course, you know,

I had never heard of him before in my life.

I have like a theory on what this meme means

but I'm not entirely sure.

That's the cutest little puppy ever.

Down in Equador.

Toby Goofy was his name.

Final answer.

Do you know where Toby Goofy is now?

Eh, a golden eagle swooped down

and picked him up.

Golden eagle.

That was, I think that was my favorite one.

It's so spot on.

I mean truly, with my actual boyfriend,

I was like, if you don't make it with my parents,

it's not gonna work.

Dad, this is Will and Harry.

They run an account on Instagram.

Look at this one.

Oh! [laughing]

This one I've seen.

Everyone's showed me this.

Because people kept telling me I look like this chick

but I don't know who she is.

I've never seen Scooby Doo

so I didn't know if I was supposed to be offended or not.

And then I did a lot of thorough research on Velma

and I'm like, I guess it's fine.

I don't only own an orange turtleneck.

But the day that I wore that,

we shot like six things.

So it just kinda looked

like all I own is an orange turtleneck.

Oh, I'll tell you what was happening here.

This is a photo of betrayal,

masked by joy and rock and roll.

But really what happened

is that he took all the sumac out of my recipe.

Oh [beep] for God's sake.

I swear to God,

that's gonna be on my [beep] obituary.

I don't even get it.

First of all, Brad discovered sumac maybe max

max

maybe max eight years ago.

I've probably had sumac within three months of being born.

So let's just set that straight.

Plus, between Brad and myself,

I've developed hundreds of recipes.

And Brad has definitely developed a few recipes,

but I think I knew exactly

what would be the best for both

himself, myself,

for the magazine, for the recipe

and for most cooks.

This is an evil betrayal photo disguised as fun.

Final answer.

And Adam.

Adam Rapoport, our Editor in Chief,

would not be happy with that decision

if there was sumac in the cranberry sauce.

He would nix that right away.

So I feel like I kinda protected Brad, to be honest.

But also, this photo has gone around

and the amount of DMs I've received

where it has to do with,

I don't even know if I'm allowed to say this

or this will get cut,

but just the start of a gay porn between me and Brad.

It's too many of those.

I actually have one of those plates in my house.

One of the pie dish.

That's basically me working from home.

[laughing]

[man off screen] Another reason.

I miss work so much.

[Andy] This meme is ridiculous.

Like you guys.

Well! [chuckling]

Oh, I mean.

How do you feel about becoming something of a sex symbol?

I wouldn't, I don't feel entirely comfortable with it.

I'll say that much.

I think originally,

the way that I was very generously reading it was,

you know, Andy may be a snack,

But Amiel is a whole meal.

But I don't think that that's necessarily

what you were trying to convey here.

But hopefully they're not just thinking about that

and they're actually looking at the food

and reading the stories and watching the videos

and not just looking at my ass.

Oh my God.

This was like the happiest day ever.

I love babies.

They're so cute.

I was also getting secret pleasure

from knowing that Brad and Chris had to do Gourmet Makes.

We actually have a special guest with us,

if you want to open your Zoom.

Oh my God!

Oh my God, it's Mike and Thea!

Hi.

Hi Thea! Say hi!

You're-- Oh my God.

There you go, there you go [laughing]

My wife is holding up a cracker for her.

[laughing]

I can't wait for next time, whenever that is.

I know, I was saying that before.

I was like, I never thought I would say this,

but it was like, I really really miss doing Gourmet Makes.

It's like, take me back.

See ya. All right, cool.

Bye guys.

Thank you!

Good to see you.

Bye!

Keep makin' those killer memes.

[upbeat music]

[Chris] Behind the meme take one.

[Will] Give them a second banana yet?

Nobody gets a second banana.

Maybe you weren't listening properly, okay?

Once you open the Pandora's box

of more than one banana a day,

it's just, there's nowhere else to go.

Cause then it's like, what are you gonna do?

Like a third banana, you know?

A fourth banana?

It'll be anarchy.