‘I’d rather eat Kraft’: Women try making viral mac and cheese. They say it cost them $147

Two women are going viral on TikTok after sharing that they supposedly weren’t fans of the viral mac and cheese recipe.

The recipe, by Tineke “Tini” Younger, was an instant hit last holiday season. A second clip that she posted most recently sharing the recipe has similarly raked in views. As of Tuesday, more than 61 million people had watched the clip, with commenters calling the dish “the best” they’ve ever had. 

But two women who said that they tried to recreate it weren’t as impressed. Ella Raso (@ella_raso) and a friend said that they were “so disappointed” in how it turned out. They recorded a TikTok in order to share their disappointment with Tini, who later responded.

“Hey Tini, we’re here because we tried your viral mac and cheese recipe. It was so disgusting,” Raso’s friend said. She added, too, that the ingredients for the recipe cost them $147. 

“It cost us $147 to make the worst mac and cheese we’ve tried in our entire life,” Raso’s friend said. “I’d rather eat Kraft Mac and Cheese than this, and that’s saying a lot because I don’t like Kraft.”

The women explained that they bought the exact cheeses that Tini’s recipe calls for (2-and-a-half pounds of mozzarella, Colby Jack, and cheddar cheese). In addition, they said they had to visit a Stop & Shop to get a “different cheese grater.”

“We had to go through two different cheese graters,” Raso said. “This took us three hours, and it is not even remotely good.” As of Tuesday, their clip dissing the dish had more than 1.9 million views.

What is Tini’s viral recipe? 

For a more detailed how-to, Tini pinned a step-by-step guide for how to make the dish on her TikTok page. But other websites, including AllRecipes, posted the ingredient and cooking instructions as well.

Tini’s recipe had raised some eyebrows, as it calls for an intense 2-and-a-half pounds of cheese, all to be grated by hand. In addition, making her mac and cheese requires garlic powder, smoked paprika, salt, pepper, butter, flour, evaporated milk, heavy cream, and Dijon mustard. Most notably, the mac and cheese uses Cavatappi—vs. elbow macaroni—as the pasta and is finished off with a cheese roux.

After 2023, Tini said that the recipe became so popular that even she had trouble finding its ingredients.

@ella_raso @Tini????????‍???????? Explain yourself ???? #macandcheese #macncheese #tinismacandcheese #fyp #viralmacandcheese #cooking #foryoupage #cookwithme #asmr ♬ original sound - Ella Raso

Controversy with Tini’s mac and cheese video 

When Tini posted her first clip of the recipe, it garnered many fans who could attest to its deliciousness. But at the same time, some naysayers took issue with the dish’s inaccessibility and apparent appropriation of Black culture.

One Black content creator, on X, called out the chef for “trying to teach us how to make our mac and cheese.”

Some other alleged problems with the recipe have less to do with Tini and more to do with the ingredients she calls for—or those who attempt to make it. 

Some users have said that they, too, have had issues finding the exact ingredients in-store. The hardest thing to find is apparently the Cavatappi pasta noodles. In one video, a woman said that she went to Target weeks before Thanksgiving and couldn’t find the spiral-shaped noodles.

And those in the minority who have tried the mac and cheese and say they didn’t like it accused the dish of being dry and lacking flavor. (Tini denies this.)

In Raso’s video, the duo initially said that their dish took a long time to cook, too. But then, in a follow-up clip, the two appeared to backtrack and said that their initial video dunking on the recipe was “satire.”

“It didn’t take three hours. It didn’t cost $147. And we did not break two cheese graters,” one of the women said. They also shared how they remade Tini’s recipe, including a sped-up step-by-step guide, which showed the final product.

Viewers skeptical of content creator’s video 

In the comments of Raso’s video, several viewers said they refused to believe that the woman made Tini’s mac and cheese according to the chef’s instructions. 

“The breadcrumbs tell me all i need to know,” one woman said.

“BFFR. I thought that was peach cobbler,” another joked.

“10/10 rage bait,” a third viewer added.

Even Tini couldn’t believe that the women didn’t like her recipe. “It’s a step by step video,” she commented under Raso’s initial post. 

Other viewers said they could guess that the women were joking about not liking Tini’s recipe. The giveaway, they said, was the exorbitantly high cost for ingredients and the women’s apparent need for several cheese graters. 

“The math is not mathing, how is this $147,” one viewer questioned.

“3 hours?! 147$?! Did you add gold flakes or something?” another quipped.

And the so-called reveal that the women were making rage bait annoyed viewers even more.

“Tini just got married and is trying to enjoy her holidays and yall out here playing w her name cause yall cook like Alfredo linguini without the rat under his hat,” one user commented.

“This mean girl energy is ugly,” another added. “Get better at comedy girls.”

“I’m confused did y’all just decide to [expletive] up mac and cheese and bully someone for attention?” a third viewer asked. 

The Daily Dot has reached out to Raso and Tini through TikTok comment.

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