Take the lowly cucumber, so frequently misidentified as a vegetable. (It’s a fruit, though in recipes it’s often prepared like a veggie.) It’s not necessarily underrated among produce, but it’s also not as flavorful as butternut squash, nor does it inspire passionate debate like broccoli or brussel sprouts. It’s the kind of neutral, mild grocery store staple that isn’t screaming for the TikTok trend treatment.
And yet, the cucumber’s day in the digital sun came in early July, when popular home chef Logan Moffitt shared a video of how he uses an entire cucumber. It wasn’t sponsored or backed by a cucumber manufacturer. Moffitt, who already had a sizable following of 3 million prior to his cuke series, just wanted to spotlight one of his favorite foods.
Moffitt has since become TikTok’s “cucumber guy” for his reliable output of cucumber-centric clips in which he slices a whole cucumber with a mandoline, mixes it with various sauces, seasonings and add-ins, shakes the concoction to blend it and tests it out with silver chopsticks.
“Sometimes you need to eat an entire cucumber,” he frequently tells viewers. “This is the best way to do it.”
His simple but flavorful recipes have been viewed millions of times and inspire other influencers on the app to try out his favorite recipes or test their own. (At least one of them cut themselves on the mandoline, despite Moffitt’s constant pleas for viewers to be mindful of the sharp tool.)
“I think cucumbers are a really perfect baseline for a lot of different flavors,” Moffitt told CNN. “They’re also really accessible — they’re very cheap, especially this time of year, and so a lot of people can participate in the trend.”
For a viral food trend, the cucumber’s moment seems to be outlasting the typical TikTok trend cycle. Moffitt’s recipes, delivery and digital savvy have helped the cucumber survive its 15 minutes.
Inside the cucumber’s unlikely rise
At-home chefs on TikTok have a more challenging job than most influencers on the app because they’re expected to balance innovation with familiarity — “recipes they know and trust and can go back to over and over and over again,” said Jenna Drenten, associate professor of marketing at Loyola University Chicago.
Moffitt has found success by making a run-of-the-mill fruit memorable.
“Cucumbers are a kind of lame food,” Drenten said. “Produce-wise, they often do not often get all the fame and glory.”
In Moffitt’s kitchen, though, cukes are a nutritious and subtle-tasting foundation for recipes where other flavors steal the show. Among the “best ways” to eat an entire cucumber (or two), according to Moffitt: Cucumber kimchi. California roll cukes. Even peanut butter-and-jelly cucumber salad, which Moffitt said tastes better than it sounds.
“It’s cucumbers, but it’s also not just cucumbers,” Drenten said. “The equation that he has for building these recipes is taking flavors that are already things that people like — but how do we make cucumber be the base of it?”
