You’ve no doubt stumbled across one of these videos (unless it’s just my algorithm that’s cursed). What looks like a harmless cooking video starts to morph into something altogether more weird…
The food starts getting slapped or spanked. One, two or three digits are slipped in and out of fruit suggestively with a capital S. And if you’re really unlucky, they might wink at the camera while doing it.
It all makes for highly cringe viewing.
One recent Tweet about this very trend has just picked up lots of debate. Twitter user Faye shared a video captioned, “Is it really that hard for attractive men to film themselves making food without molesting it in the process?”
The video in question shows TikTok food assaulter Manny HP removing papaya seeds in a rubbing motion using his middle and ring fingers, amongst many other food-based crimes.
He must be appealing to some, as he has gained over one million followers on TikTok and has women thirsty for him in the comments with messages like (apologies in advance): “I didn’t even know that he was cooking”, “Stooop! I’m blushing” and “We must stay focused LADIES.”
The link between food and sex
Food and sex have long been associated with each other. One study found that, as with other natural rewards, sex and eating have “a considerable commonality and are related in numerous ways.” In simple terms, the pleasure of food and sex are intrinsically linked in our brains.
Sophie Wyburd, head of food at MOB, the recipe website agrees. In an interview with Time Out, she said: “Food has always been really sensual.”
“But with social media, cooking videos have been brought to the masses,” she says. “Now we’ve got the camera capturing all these angles and different textures you get really up close and personal with food.”
These big bicep-ed men playing with food could also offer lonely women and men a parasocial boyfriend experience. After a long day at work, the visual of a beautiful man cooking a delicious meal — in a very horny way — could help relieve the sense of loneliness for many. Especially when the creator responds to commenters, as Manny tends to.
On these types of videos, lots of women comment along the lines of having missed the creator or that they’d love to be with them. For example, one girl left this message on one cooking video: “I would never leave you baby you’re very beautiful.”
Food content, in general, on TikTok tends towards being extremely intimate and sensual. By nature, the experience of texture, sound and taste is what we enjoy so much about food, and the up close and personal POVs, both on more sexual and non-sexual food content, give a lot of these recipe videos a very carnal flavour.
The latest videos featuring handsome guys follow on from other food fetish content that’s blowing up on TikTok.
‘Sploshing’ is a kink where people play around with very messy food, and some creators are taking advantage of loopholes that allow them to cater to people who have food kinks.
Speaking to Glamour, Lena Rae, who outs food porn videos and disguised fetish content on TikTok says food fetish creators use “lots of zooming in on holes, off-camera narrating, gasping, moaning, and POV-style cinematography.”
There are some food videos out there that aren’t made purposefully as porn, though. But they still offer a super intimate viewing experience.
The non-sexual food ASMR TikTok account @appetite.life, run by Val Moore, gives viewers an up-close-and-personal feel that he says is purposeful. “I find people in food videos can be very brash. I try to create a cosy oasis on the internet.”
But as well as a comfy viewing experience, some videos can feel incredibly intimate: “I did a video of a posset which is a set cream dessert, where I gently push the spoon through the top of it to give somebody the idea of what texture it might be,” he explained in an interview.
It looks like we’re just going to have to get used to these videos appearing on our timelines. And if you don’t like them, you can always hit ‘not interested’. But for everyone who does enjoy food fetish content — go ahead and let your freak flag fly.