The Eat Like Sh*t Foodie Trend
Red Velvet Corn Dogs . Loaded Chili Cheese Carrot F**k Fries. Ice Cream Cookie Tacos. Poutine Sushi. Whiskey Pickled Eggs.
Yes, this is actually food. These odd concoctions are the work of Kyle Marcoux, 28, who runs the Vulgar Chef blog. He operates on shock value, and his recipes are stuffed with profanities. Seriously. The instructions for his mac ’n’ cheese say: “Start tossing in cheese and spices and cook the tits off. Cook on low/med until that shit is creamy as fuck.” He’s crude, but strangely appealing at the same time, an antidote to the ultra sanitized, Pinterest-fueled world of twee chefs like Julia Child and Paula Deen.
Marcoux recognizes this, and references it in the introduction of his Eat Like Shit Cookbook , self-published in September. “This isn’t your typical Rachael fuckin’ Ray cookbook, this shit is way more legit. It’s so legit that a lot of the recipes don’t even have measurements,” he wrote.This openness had made him an antihero in the cooking world, and gained him nearly 40,000 followers on Instagram . Marcoux doesn’t pretend he’s a trained chef. In his own words, he’s just a dude getting drunk and cooking in his parents’ basement: “more like a rebel cook with a potty mouth who loves artery-clogging cooking,” he said to OZY. He uses his friends as lab rats, testing new recipes on them. “I know what they’ll like and what they’ll puke on,” he said.
Marcoux personifies how the food scene has evolved, and has tapped into what foodies want today; it’s not just about quality anymore, as people seek entertainment with their entrées. We’ve seen this trend play out in the news. Cronuts. All-black chickens . A spicy Sriracha alternative . These culinary crazes have bombarded us. We’re way past thinking chili powder makes something exotic.
“Live a little. Grab a doughnut. Cut it in half and stick a burger in there. It’s not crazy; it’s crazy delicious.”
Foodies used to peruse mainstream publications like Saveur and Bon Appétit , but in recent years the demand for alternative food news has increased. Blogs like Foodbeast, Clever Girl Eats… and Epic Meal Time cater to the curious, celebrating the anti-foodie — embracing novelty, bad taste and class-free cooking.
Marcoux gets the appeal: It’s about being real and raw, slopping over the sides. “The majority of people don’t want to read some shitty blog post for 15 minutes,” he said. “People are lazy, they aren’t dumb.” He’s right — we’re so time-poor today that a 1,000-word soliloquy on mac ‘n’ cheese seems outdated. And unnecessary. But surely these calorie-laden recipes aren’t good for you? No, but that’s kinda the point. The new food bloggers are rebelling against the kale-chewing, smoothie-swigging, health-conscious society. “Live a little. Grab a doughnut. Cut it in half and stick a burger in there. It’s not crazy; it’s crazy delicious,” Marcoux said.
So is eating like shit here to stay? Jill Richmond, a specialist food consultant, isn’t convinced that The Vulgar Chef is more than a fad. “I think the obsession with health, scratch cooking and clean eating might just scupper the gratuitous trend,” she said. Whether or not you agree with Marcoux’s outlook, with recipes like this (below) on the rise, the kitchen is a far more exciting place to be nowadays.
Marcoux’s most popular recipe:
Oreo® & Peanut Butter Stuffed Red Velvet Fuck-cakes
Ingredients:
Red velvet cake mix
Oreos®
Peanut butter
Muffin pan
Muffin skirts or whatever they’re fuckin’ called
Directions:
The recipe is simple as fuck. Drop a little red velvet mix in a muffin ass pan … plop some Oreos smothered with peanut butter on the mixture, cover the Oreos with more red velvet fuck mixture … and bake that shit.
