TikTok and food go hand-in-hand.
The platform hosts a diverse range of food-related content, from creators sharing recipes and reviewing food to those indulging in mukbangs and everything in between. Naturally, this has led to the emergence of various food trends.
Interestingly, 2024 has seen a shift away from stunt food, a type of content that often featured bizarre, not-necessarily-tasty concoctions typically made in an air fryer. Instead, TikTok users are gravitating toward genuine cooking and exciting recipes. While these don't always become viral trends, the platform is brimming with quality food content. You can learn from a butcher how to save money on meat or discover how to build a beautiful salad from pantry staples. The focus has moved away from gimmicks like air-frying Oreos to more practical and inspiring culinary tips.
However, food trends, both good and bad, still make waves in 2024. As we reach the end of the year, here are some of the most notable trends.
Cottage cheese...everywhere
Who could've guessed that 2024 would be the year of cottage cheese? Yet, here we are. TikTok is brimming with recipes for cottage cheese toast, cottage cheese bowls, cottage cheese protein cookie dough—practically anything you can think of. Cottage cheese has captured TikTok's imagination as a high-protein, relatively low-calorie, and tasty food. It's refreshing to see it used as a healthy, filling ingredient, a far cry from its '90s diet culture stigma.
I once thought I didn't like cottage cheese, but 2024 proved me wrong — the '90s just had terrible, diet-focused food.
Raw carrot salad
Raw carrot salad recipes have racked up millions of views on TikTok. Typically, these recipes involve thin-sliced carrot ribbons, some acid, soy sauce, and great seasoning, resulting in lightly pickled carrots that are absolutely delicious.
Many videos tout the salad's benefits for gut and hormonal health. I can’t vouch for those claims, but I do love a raw carrot salad, and it’s great to see it become a trend in 2024.
Chipotle portions...so much about Chipotle portions
TikTok has become obsessed with the (seemingly) shrinking portions at Chipotle, causing such a stir that the CEO had to awkwardly address it in an interview.
Do I know if the portions have shrunk? No. Would it surprise me? Not at all. Large companies often look to maximize profits at customers' expense.
However, TikTok users have taken to filming Chipotle workers to try and get bigger portions or catch them skimping. It’s really rude to shove a camera in someone's face while they’re working, so please don’t do that.
Nonetheless, Chipotle portions have been a noticeable trend on TikTok this year.
Chamoy pickles
Neon-red pickles? Sure, why not?
If you’ve missed it, chamoy pickles have become super popular on TikTok. Chamoy, a bright Mexican condiment often paired with fruit, is now being added to pickles. Some people take it a step further by stuffing the pickles with snacks like Flamin' Hot Cheetos and wrapping them in Fruit Roll-Ups. It sounds gross, but it makes for compelling TikTok content. While the chamoy pickle itself isn’t stunt food, stuffing it with snacks certainly is.
A whole cucumber
Apparently, sometimes you really do need to eat a whole cucumber. At least that's if you believe TikTok. As I wrote in August, this recipe idea from TikTok creator @logagm (Logan) is "actually an elite summer side dish." He went super viral with his initial video showing a recipe for, effectively, lightly marinated and umami-forward cucumbers.
From there, Logan made a whole bunch of other whole cucumber recipes. Pretty soon, anyone and everyone was making a cucumber dish of some sort. There have certainly been worse trends on TikTok — most every dish Logan makes, especially, looks great.
Hear me out cakes
OK, this trend is food but really isn't about the food. As Mashable explained in October, folks on TikTok skewered print-outs of characters into cakes, indicating they would hook up with those characters. Thus the hear me out.
So, you might learn who on TikTok wants to hook up with Nemo's dad or Megamind and, for really no reason, cake was involved.
Onions boils
You can never tell what TikTok will get obsessed with next. Case in point: onion boils. For a bit you couldn't scroll TikTok without seeing onion recipes. An onion boil is basically all the accoutrement you'd find in a seafood boil — lots of spices, lots of butter — stuffed and roasted inside a whole onion. The result is a gloopy, buttery onion. On its own, it seems a little gross, but over rice or potatoes, you might have a winner.
The dense bean salad
TikTok got super into meal prepping bean salads this year, all thanks to creator Violet Witchel. She went viral for her weekly DBS — yes, it has an acronym — and it really was one of the food trends of 2024.
A DBS typically involves hearty, nutritious ingredients that will both fill you up and keep well in the fridge for a week. Here's one with sun-dried tomatoes, bell pepper, and shallot, for instance, that garnered some 11 million views.
Chili's cheese pulls
In what must be a corporate marketing exec's wildest dream, Chili's went viral in the latter parts of 2024 for its Triple Dipper meal deal. It's basically a promotion where you build a dinner out of appetizers for less than $20. Most notably, people became obsessed with the chain's mozzarella sticks and the truly impressive cheese pulls — you know, the thing where the cheese stretches — that were possible with the appetizer.
The virality on TikTok has had real world effects. Chili's reported a 14 percent hike in same-store sales, with the Triple Dipper accounting for 11 percent of Chili’s total business, CNN reported last month.
Search Triple Dipper on TikTok and you'll see countless videos with hundreds of thousands, if not millions of views. And honestly, the mozz sticks do look fantastic.
That's the beauty of food on TikTok. In January there was simply no way to predict that by the end of the year, Chili's would be on everyone's FYP. Never underestimate a good cheese pull, it would seem.
Want more of the best of 2024? Join Mashable as we look back at all the internet slang, TikTok songs, movies, memes, dating trends, hyped up hardware, scientific discoveries, social media apps, and more that have delighted and amazed us this year.
Topics TikTok
