Why is everyone on TikTok eating entire cucumbers – and is it really driving a veggie shortage?
Michael, another week, another TikTok food trend. What’s the latest crispy, crunchy edible taking over social media?
Yvonne, “Sometimes you need to eat an entire cucumber. Let me show you the best way to do it” is basically now the catchphrase of Logan Moffitt, better known as @logagm or “cucumber guy” after his recipes for cucumber salad blew up on TikTok.
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Moffitt has been posting food content for a while but in July posted his first cucumber salad recipe: soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar, MSG, sesame oil, garlic, spring onions, sesame seeds and – of course – a whole sliced cucumber. It’s racked up more than 12m views.
And since that fateful recipe, he’s stuck in his new niche, earning him his nickname. He’s now sitting at 5.7 million followers.
A cucumber cult! But how does one make charismatic cuke-combo content – and how many ways can you eat an entire cucumber?
I’ve counted about 40 cucumber salad recipes he’s posted since July. While they include different sauces and seasonings, some things stay the same: the cucumber is always sliced with a mandoline, the ingredients are always free-poured and shaken in a round plastic deli container and the final ingredient is usually “some MSG, obviously” – which has become another catchphrase of his. And Moffitt always eats his creations straight from the container with metal chopsticks and a satisfied “mmm!”
This is very wholesome, whole-cucumber content. I want to believe this is cucumber altruism in action but, in the age of the side hustle, has Moffitt cashed in his cucumber chips?
Since he’s become known as “cucumber guy”, the sponcon offers have rolled in and, given the well-known formula of Moffitt’s videos, it’s easy to slot in a paid partner in his recipes. And they’re not necessarily food-related. One video, sponsored by a razor company, has him ditching his mandoline to attempt to slice the cucumber with a men’s razor blade. Another has him adding a crucial step to his recipe: applying a leave-in hair mask. (To himself, not the salad.)
Mmm! Sounds refreshing. But have you seen the price of cucumbers in Australia lately? At my local Sydney grocer, they were going for $10.99 a kilo. Is cucumber guy in the pocket of Big Cucumber?
I don’t know about being in cahoots with the cucumber industry, but his videos are apparently having an impact: the headline that’s been appearing in international news is that there is a shortage of cucumbers in Iceland (the country, not the UK supermarket chain) thanks to TikTok – though, if you read past the headlines, there is some doubt that Moffitt is to blame and a range of other factors, including seasonal ones, are also at play.
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Thank gourd. I’ve noticed cucumber guy uses his signature mandoline without a finger guard, which makes me about as concerned as the time Kendall Jenner tried to slice a cucumber. Should we be worried?
Look, I was also concerned when I first saw Kendall Jenner attempt to slice a cucumber. Using a mandoline without a finger guard isn’t a great idea, and it’s been disastrous for some: a Gold Coast fitness instructor was hospitalised after attempting one of these recipes without the guard. And it speaks to the sudden uptick of mandoline users that the US food publication Eater published a PSA on how to safely use the device.
As big as the boost has been for the cucumber, it seems to have been for the mandoline too – Moffitt sometimes adds a warning about taking care when using a one and, in a video posted last Sunday, he said: “I see a lot of you guys cutting yourself with your mandoline.” He spruiked the “Dash Safe Slice” mandoline – which you can of course buy from the link in his bio.
I’m here for whole-cucumber, whole-finger discourse. So here’s my final pickle with these viral vegetables – does Moffitt ever actually specify what type of cucumber he uses?
Now that you mention it, I don’t think he’s ever name-dropped the variety, but they look like your standard continental cucumber. Maybe his next viral breakout moment will be discovering the far superior Lebanese cucumbers.
