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What do feta, cucumbers and cottage cheese have in common?
Social media and the internet are changing how people cook and relate to food
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One reason recipes for baked feta pasta and cucumber salad went viral is that it is easy to melt cheese and slice cucumbers.
PHOTO: SCREENGRAB FROM MCCORMICKSPICES/TIKTOK
The Economist
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First they came for the eggs. Then the feta cheese, caviar, cottage cheese and cucumbers. In some countries, these ingredients even sold out: Iceland experienced a shortage of cucumbers, and feta briefly vanished from grocery store shelves. The reason for the raids? Aficionados of online cooking were eager to recreate viral videos in which each of these ingredients starred.
Few topics are as appetising to netizens as cooking, especially over the holidays. Food is the fourth-most popular subject on the internet (trailing only films, music and phones), up from 17th place in 2009, according to GWI, a consumer research firm. No other subject’s rank has risen by more in the past 15 years, besides sport (though it remains less popular than food).
