The Top TikTok Food Trends of 2022
Butter boards take the last spot. Can you guess the others?
Jennifer Aldrich
As much as we enjoy looking ahead and attempting to predict the future through guides like the 2023 food trends you're about to see everywhere, it’s nice to get a little nostalgic as we prepare to flip the calendar to January. From Spotify Wrapped to Google’s Year in Search to TIME’s Most Influential People, Americans love a good year-end recap. And TikTok—currently the sixth most popular social media site globally with 1 billion(!) users—is no different.
Once known mainly for circulating dance trends and cleaning hacks, TikTok is now the origin of many uber-popular recipes and food celebrities. From Joanne Lee Molinaro (AKA @TheKoreanVegan) to Eitan Bernath (@eitan) to As Cooked on TikTok: Fan Favorites and Recipe Exclusives From More Than 40 TikTok Creators! A Cookbook, it’s clear that food is huge on TikTok.
The Top TikTok Food Trends for 2022
So with that in mind, thanks to data from U.K.-based restaurant chain Chiquito, we’re walking down memory lane with the top TikTok food trends of 2022.
Cloud Bread
Views: 3.4 billion
Originally popularized as part of the Atkins diet and resurfaced in the last decade as a low-carb and gluten-free darling, cloud bread is “bread” that instead of flour, is made from egg whites and a few other baking staples like sugar and cornstarch. After baking, the texture of this top TikTok food trend of 2022 is light as—you guessed it!—a cloud. Warning: If you're craving a dense, satisfying slice of sourdough, this is not it. But it’s still fun to try, and fairly tasty!
Baked Oats
Views: 1.3 billion views
We’ve been hooked on overnight oats for years, but 2022 is the year that baked oats entered the chat—and did so in so many flavors. From birthday cake and lava cakes to salted caramel and pumpkin spice, creative TikTok-ers whipped up recipes that taste like dessert but deliver less added sugars (mashed banana often replaces some of the sugar and butter) and a decent dose of fiber (hat tip to you, oats!). Our current favorite riff on this top TikTok food trend of 2022? Baked Hummingbird Oatmeal.
Charcuterie Boards
Views: 1.2 billion views
Charcuterie boards are certainly nothing new, but the impressive variety of themes, shapes, dietary tweaks, and styles featured on TikTok keep this food trend near the top in 2022. (ICYMI, our Test Kitchen will walk you through the only 4 steps you need to create a gorgeous charcuterie board.) Whether you choose to adorn yours with a salami river or flower; baked brie or baked goods, it’s tough to go wrong with a snack dinner.
Pasta Chips
Views: 1.1 billion
Whether it started on an Olive Garden menu, social media, or elsewhere is tough to tell. But no matter where pasta chips got their start, we sure are glad they’re sticking around. In addition to our Lasagna Pasta Chip Nachos, millions of other recipes now grace the internet and make crunchy “chips” made from deep-fried, air-fried, or baked pasta one of the top TikTok food trends of 2022.
Mug Cakes
Views: 1 billion
Naturally portion-controlled, far quicker to bake, and with no sharing required, we’ve been known to “bake” (translation: microwave) mug cake recipes instead of more-fussy layer cakes or bundt cakes. Apparently TikTok viewers and creators are as well. Oreo mug cakes are among the most buzzy of the bunch, but we’ve also swooned over Nutella, chocolate chip, Biscoff cookie, and cinnamon roll-inspired renditions.
Birria Tacos
Views: 922 million
We’ll never turn down any take on taco night. That said, a platter of richly savory Beef Birria Tacos with a side of consommé for dipping is tough to beat. No wonder this classic Mexican recipe is among the top TikTok food trends of 2022! They might take more time and effort than the usual ground beef + packet of taco seasoning combo, but the taste bud-tempting results are oh-so worth it, if you ask us.
Cinnamon Rolls
Views: 597 million views
Sure, you could make grandma proud by making homemade cinnamon rolls from scratch. Or you could save hours and make far less mess in your kitchen—all while curing your Cinnabon craving—by recreating the viral #cinnamonrollhack. Instead of calling for flour, yeast, butter, and beyond, this trending TikTok recipe shows how to turn a tube of refrigerated cinnamon rolls into a copycat recipe that rivals the rolls folks wait in line for at airport shops and mall kiosks. The secret? Heavy whipping cream.
Nacho Tables
Views: 415 million
You can probably predict how to create this top TikTok food trend of 2022 even if you’ve never seen a single video about it. Simply select a table, cover it in foil or a disposable table cloth of some sort, choose your favorite nacho recipe, and assemble it family-style right on top of the table itself. Similar to a supersized, remarkably messy charcuterie board, we can’t really imagine risking the potential kitchen catastrophe that could ensue from this recipe. But if you’re cool with cleaning, go ahead and give a nacho table a nosh!
Butter Boards
Views: 358 million
In fall and winter 2022, you pretty much couldn’t escape the tsunami of butter board content. This “recipe” is essentially a swish of softened butter—similar to a compound butter—that’s garnished with any toppings you desire and designed to be scooped up by your vessel of choice. (A cracker, scone, slice of toast, pretzel; anything goes.) This concept that ranks tenth in the top TikTok food trends of 2022 is also probably the most polarizing. Since its inception in Joshua McFadden’s book Six Seasons and reintroduced by recipe developer @justinesnacks on TikTok, everyone from Ina Garten to talk show hosts have shared their “love it” or “hate it” hot takes on what some have deemed charcuterie board 2.0.
