"CHEESEBURGER PIE?" Chef Tests and Reviews TikTok Food Trends

Boys, ready for your first trend? Absolutely. I have slipped into your DMs. Oh, slipped, slipped. Slipped sounds worse than slid. Oh, yeah, it's slid, isn't it? Yep, today we've got our chef and one of our normals reacting to today's most recent TikTok trends. Let's see what they think. This isn't TikTok. You've sent it to me on Instagram. All right. Basically, there's this first one. It's gone viral on TikTok. We will send you a video that we think is the best place to start for it. Fine. OK. Oh, is this the whole room and pie room? So pro chefs cutting into a pie. They're excited. The filling of which is a burger. A double burger. Oh, two thick patties. And eating it like a burger. Good on you. Actually. From South Africa. Yeah, that's Nox Majore from the dining room's pie room. And they are cooking a famous South African dish, a burger in a pie. Great. Because a bun isn't enough. We knew South African cuisine was good. And now we've just cemented that fact. What you're seeing there is a higher end version of the burger in a pie. The more lower end version, which are more commonly cooked across South Africa, we're going to be making today. Excellent. Amazing. I mean, the intricate detail they go to finish the pie before they go in the oven is just phenomenal. Their pies look like stained glass windows. That's how detailed they are. They're unbelievable. Well, should we try and get somewhere close to that? Yes. Oh, yes. Let's attempt it. So making it, it is simple. Take the components of a burger. And you want to layer them onto your smaller piece of pastry. And then wrap around the bigger piece. So it's kind of like an upside down pie slash pasty. Yeah. So, I mean, the video we've just seen is definitely done in a pie mold. And especially a lot of the copper like pie tins that are in themselves incredibly ornate. But we'll just do like more of a hand-raised alternative with this pastry. I'm really interested about the eating experience. Because absolutely on paper, fantastic. I always find that a double burger with burgers that thick, so not double smash burger, is quite a mouthful. Yeah. And double burger that thick in a burger bun is slippy. Yeah. And the bread maybe makes it too thick. So maybe thinner, crispier, buttery pastry might work as well. The South African creation is inspired by the British pie. They just wanted to put their spin on it. Oh my goodness, that is tall. Good stacking. You egg it. What I particularly love about this, and it's interesting that it's just found a new lease of life on TikTok. Because on Instagram, it's got millions of views. It was last spring that I remember seeing this. If you look at all the other people who have already liked it, it's, wait, how are you doing? Yeah, not great. It might have gone too tall with a double patty. But the video's a double patty. I know. OK, let's remove one burger. Maybe we're too ambitious. You can do double cheese. Oh, you're going to crimp it. Yeah, get rid of any sort of air pockets around. The other question I have, of course, is to vent or not to vent? Oh. I'm not sure their one was vented. Well, it would have been if it was in a pie tin, probably, with a traditional pie vent. They are their own little. Well, they look better with scores on them anyway, so let's score it. Well, I guess here, all you're doing is warming it through. You're cooking the outside. You're not cooking the inside at all. So there's less moisture to escape. True. And it can be, for that reason, quite a hot oven. With the ready-made pastry, any more complicated than making a burger? Yes. But this is completely different. I'm taking this away from a burger. This is a pie. So this is now a pie with a meat and cheese filling. Yeah. And I'm here for it. That sounds great. Yeah, sounds great. Well, that's going to need 20 minutes. Pie's baked, cooled, rested. Burger time. Still nice and warm. Hopefully, the cheese is oozy. I think it looks great. It looks cool. It looks more like a steak slice than a burger pie. So I think it does need the double layer, and therefore, more pastry. Yeah. I'm going to allow you to cut it with a knife. Yes. I think it needs to be eaten with your hands. Got a lovely bottom. Here we go. Audience first, as always. I mean, there's nothing not to like about that. Yeah, I'd eat it. Imagine doubling that up and having a nice little homemade tomato ketchup on the side. Enjoy it. It hits all the right spots. It's a handheld burger and a pie. Yeah. And I love it. It's delicious. But it's exactly as you'd expect. But I'd actually say it tastes better than a burger. What? Sorry. Well, the pastry. What do you mean? Why did you taste one up from above? It doesn't mean I like it more than a burger, because I love burgers. But based on pure flavor, it tastes fantastic. And even cut in half, look, you can do that with it. It's a bit greasier than the burger bun bread. It's absolutely delicious. It's the texture in the butter. It's a dip of a good tangy ketchup. Yeah, something tangy. You're so right. Yes, we're starting with flying, boys. Absolutely love this. It's brilliant. The burger pie. Are you following fast or scrolling past? Following fast. Following fast is yummy. And eating it fast. Mine is pretty much gone. Amazing. Next one? Yep. Ebbers, you should have your next trend. I love sparkling water, but mixing it with Greek yogurt is a drink. Let's try it. I'm not even sure of the measurements. So we're going to go on. Great accent. Now, the lady did say that you're supposed to add mint to this. The only mint I have is peppermint extract. There's got to be a payoff at the end. Why does that work? No. So this is an Iranian refreshing drink called dukh. How are you spelling that? D-O-O-G-H. Great. And when you search for it, it is everywhere. And obviously, it's been around forever. But it's just going viral now, with people putting yogurt and carbonated water together and being very confused. I feel a lot better about it, knowing that it has an actual cultural origin. And you know what? Surely not too dissimilar to just kefir. I was thinking kefir. I mean, it doesn't get to the point where it becomes fizzy like sparkling. But it is essentially a effervescent. Yeah, because of the fermentation. Yeah. Let's try it. Have we got fresh mint? We have fresh mint. Excellent. Couple of thought processes here. Do we want the fleck of mint in the finished drink? I don't know. Obviously, not in the one we just saw, because it was extract. But what's traditional? Yeah. Because we've also got the option, we could have just left whole leaves and muddled it. Yeah. But I think a fleck of mint's probably a nice thing. I think it'll look nice. There are so many different versions out there of this drink. Couple of dollops of the yogurt, and finish with the water. With the mint, some people put dried mint, fresh mint. But you can also put in some rose petals and other herbs as well to give it whatever twist you want. It's known as the Iranian Coke. It's so popular. Well, there we go. We're sharing that. It's simple enough. Are you braving it first? Yeah, yeah. I'll go for it. Just smells. We are so not used to dairy being fizzy. So we had the Korean drink, which is like a fizzy milk drink before. Kefir, if you taste it and you're not used to it, you sort of think, oh, it's sour. It's gone off, because we're just not used to it. What's this like? It works. Oh, good shout, putting a pinch of salt in. Oh, it does say you can add a pinch of salt. Yeah, I think it's needed. I think this is where, when we're talking about viral TikTok trends, we are talking about things that are trending in the UK, things that are surprising to our culture. And you're right, fizzy dairy is not a thing here. What I like about it is you think a hot day, ice cold, sparkling water, and cold yogurt. It's giving you that cross between a cold, refreshing, fizzy drink and an ice cream. It's giving you that dairy lactose, but also the fizziness. And the mint is really fresh. What the sparkling water does is take the edge off the sour properties of yogurt. So you instantly look at that and go, oh, it's going to be funky. But it's not at all. It's really quite smooth and enjoyable to drink. The mint is absolutely imperative, I would say. Yeah, it's a little bit cut grass in my teeth. So maybe the muddling would've been better, or you mix it to get more flavor out of this, and then you strain. But it's delicious. It is delicious. Could you see yourself making that? I'm not sure I'd make it at home. But now if I saw it on a menu, or like you said, on a hot day, if it was about, now I'd go, yeah, give me one of those. I know what that is, and I like it. And I think also the fact that a natural Greek sort of bio yogurt is also good for the gut. Very true. There's no added sugar. I think, actually, it's also a really lovely refreshing drink. I can imagine in the summer, sitting on the balcony with a book, and you think, oh, I just need a cold, refreshing drink. This is probably a better option than some of the ones we already have cold in our fridges. You're stimulating your biome. Yeah. A little bit of a gut tickle. Yeah. All right, I think this one's simple enough. I'll ask you the question. This TikTok trend, are you scrolling past or following fast? Follow fast. Absolutely following fast. Love it. Really great. Easy. Next one. Ebbers, I've sent you another trend. I know this guy. Yeah. He loves to prove or disprove kitchen hacks. Great. He's also just got a great face, hasn't he? When he likes it, you know he likes it. Yeah. Oh, he likes it. Yeah, I think he likes it. I watched that on silent. It transcends language. Yeah? The faces, and the actions, and the shots do everything that Mr. Bean did, which means it's the reason. It's one of the most watched cartoons globally, because there is no language involved. It's just about facial expressions and reactions. And funny situations. Everyone knows what's going through his head, and it works. Anatoly, that's it. You are the Mr. Bean of food. No, I didn't say that. That's what Ben said. I said like. So you now have an absolutely beautiful sea bass in front of you, and a carrot. It's scaly. It's still very scaly. You can feel that. And we've got a carrot. We only need a sharp edge of a carrot. So we've cut it at a jaunty angle. So, Av, before you do that, explain to us what you would usually do with a knife. A couple of different ways. I mean, you can actually just, you can buy tools specifically for if you're doing lots of fish. I would just use the back of a knife, probably a bigger knife, and just run tail to head with the back of the knife, a table knife, a palette knife. You don't need a blade. You just need to be able to scrape against to do that. OK, so I have a question. If this is already an effective method, why are we using a carrot? What's the benefit? Food waste. So what's happening there? Before we do that. What, we're creating it? Yeah, we're creating food waste. Do that again, very slowly, on the bottom of the tail with the back of the knife. And one thing you'll notice is as you do it, the scales flick everywhere. Yeah, they absolutely do. And you should only ever do this in your wet room, i.e. a space that you can mop down afterwards, because those scales do fly everywhere, including all up your arms. And they hit body temperature, and they stick like glue. It's messy. Really? Wow. But it's necessary because you cut the fish and cook it with the scales on, it's terrible. There's two big questions with this carrot. Does it work? Is it better? So that's what we're testing. OK, I think you've got experience here, so you'll be able to feel if there's any difference. Oh, my goodness. Oh, wow. No! That is remarkable. But hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. So it's just the angle, isn't it? It's the shape. It's the angle, it's the shape. But then, yeah, you're not getting it. It's the point. What you were doing, yeah. It's the fact that it's flat, but slightly curved to the shape of the fish. And then it goes into the finer points. So what it does is it goes underneath the scales, and it just pops them off as you go. This makes me like that guy even more, because now I can trust his facial expressions. Because that is stupid, but better. Sorry, it's actually better. Well, better than the knife. Well, it's not flicking them everywhere. No, it's not. You do end up with, you know, you've used food as opposed to a knife. But that could also be washed and put into your stocks and caught bouillons and fish sauces and all sorts. So it's not really food waste, but it is using food. The other benefit of using carrot is it's obviously safer. There are less sharp edges around. Another claim is it's said to make the fish surface smell less fishy. Well, this was a lovely fresh fish, so it didn't smell fishy in the first place. Difficult one for us to test. It smells carrot-y. That might be it. It does smell carrot-y. I am surprised and pleased with that. This is where being an absolute cynic has benefited us all. Follow fast. You didn't even ask the question. Wow. Following fast. Here, Baz, catch. No. Couldn't do that with a knife, could I? Couldn't do that with a knife. You could, and it would be fun for everyone. Just saying, safer. Descaling a fish with a carrot, following fast or scrolling past? Following fast. Ironically, it's a skill you don't need often. No. Because most fishmongers will do it for you. I do not need this skill. However, if you need to do it, I'm following fast. Wow. Should we keep going? Next one? Yeah. That was a real aha moment. That was quite incredible. What would Bugs Bunny say? If this one's also a success, you could be in line for a Jamie takeover. Oh, I think this one, I think it's a surefire bet. Whoa. It's like a prawn cracker of cheesy goodness. Just squeezing out water. It looks like almost tapioca starch popping on each prawn cracker as it puffs up in the oil. I'm excited to try it. I'm trying to get my head around what the warming it up in water and squeezing it does. Yeah. This one really jumped out at all of us. These are hard cheese crisps, and we are all very intrigued by it. Should we try it? Yeah. Your first step is probably the strangest. You're grating the hard cheese, and then you're putting it into warm water. Yeah, which looks like it's pretty hot. And I'm trying to work out what that does to cheese proteins. I'm just trying to think about why and what. The cheese rind, which we've done before in a microwave, you puff it up into an amazing crisp. Yeah, that's great, isn't it? So maybe this is just to enable you to roll out flat, which obviously you can't do with this without then baking it. We've also made cheesy crisps by baking it. So you just take grated cheese, put it on a tray, and bake it. Changes the color. When it dries, it goes crisp. This is very different, because it's completely pale. It hasn't gone through that high heat process, although you do fry it. You don't need too much heat to soften the cheese into a ball so you can roll it. So that's what we're doing. We're basically softening it, slightly melting it so it's pliable. Following the video alone, we've got no idea of temperatures or times. Has that softened it enough into one lump that we can then handle? A cheesy mass, which at the moment I'd say is too hot, but presumably, when that cools, we can put it between two sheets. So I don't think our water should have been as hot, maybe. Really? Or not in there for as long. But he had it as a ball, didn't he? He was squeezing moisture out of it. Ours is a lot hotter. Shall I just put it straight on, what do you reckon? I don't know, we're working it out. It's an experiment. Let's do some of this. A cheesy mass. Then we need to dehydrate that. Yep. So you would need a dehydrating machine for the next step? Or could you just leave it to dry? You would just need a very low temperature place that allows the moisture to slowly dry out of it. So you could put your oven on the lowest setting with the oven door open and very slowly dehydrate it. A dehydrator often gives you many racks in a set space in a more controlled environment. Luckily, we've already got one and we're ahead of the game, so. Dehydrated cheese shards. Oh, wow, they are very, very delicate. I'm gonna stop touching them. Because normally, with like a cheese crisp, it's been baked, so it's like the crusty bit on the outside of a lasagna or the outside of a pizza where you put like hard cheese that's gone really golden and crispy. It doesn't taste like that, but it's still absolutely salty and delicious. And I imagine if you went and mixed that with some toasted breadcrumbs, you got an incredible topping for sure. However, very brittle. Again, we're guessing the temperature of the oil because the video gives you nothing. It's just there for inspiration. It sinks to the bottom. It's less aggressive than the video. Now it's beginning to puff around the edges. Then it rises to the top. It's definitely not anywhere near as volatile as in the video. Is our thinking here that we may have taken the cheese too far in the water, it may have been too warm, and we may have lost something from the cheese? Or we might be using the wrong cheese, we don't know. What I would say is, on guesswork, don't bother. The reason being, this gives you nothing that baking in an oven doesn't. 100%. It's exactly the same. It's crispy, ours are coloured, whereas in the video they were still puffy and white and crispy. So I don't know what we did differently. I can only imagine it's the temperature of the water. It feels like as a thing to do, it's a chef-y flair on a dish, not something people are doing at home. Yeah, although it's really easy. And I would say- I do enjoy eating them. Doing it at home, it's a lovely addition to a Caesar salad or on the side of a pasta dish where you've got these lovely shards of really crispy, salty, umami cheese. It's easy to do at home, if you bake it. This method hasn't worked for us and there's been so much effort to end up at the same place, so we did it wrong. So it turns out, something that, especially as a normal, I would see. All familiar things, all familiar techniques, and I would think, that looks simple, I'll give that a go. Can't wait to see the results. Turns out, it's very precise, you need to know the detail. And the only way of getting the detail is the fact that that video is linked to an app that you then have to sign up for. So, well done to you guys. For me, a little bit too complex, just to give a go for a bit of fun. So from what you know, hard cheese crisps. Are you following fast or scrolling past? I'm sitting on the fence because I don't know the answer yet. However, I'm a hard follow fast on cheese crisps when you just bake them in the oven. Keep life simple. Yeah, for me, I would have loved for that to have worked. We're gonna need to do some proper digging to really find something to then test. And it might take multiple times. And as soon as I start getting into that world, I think, what is a bit of fun- Is it worth it? Is no longer worthwhile. Or do you leave that to professional chefs when you eat out, and that's the joy of things you can't do at home? Exactly. Leave it to the pros. I'm disappointed on so many levels because that was my one big shot of knocking Jamie off his TikTok challenge. Yeah, sorry mate, you didn't get the job. You didn't get four for four. But what do you think of those TikTok trends? Let us know down below. And next time you're doom scrolling through TikTok, looking at food trends, ping them to us, and maybe they'll make it into a video.