Why BuzzFeed’s Tasty is Receiving Backlash for Its Pasta Recipes, and Does it Really Matter?

One of the first things you learn when you work in communications is to “know your audience.” Are you presenting a product or a service that will resonate with them? That’s what it all boils down to, understanding your audience inside and out so you can cater to their needs and desires.

In July 2015, BuzzFeed launched Tasty, a stand-alone Facebook page dedicated entirely to food. Andrew Gauthier, executive video producer at Tasty, revealed during an interview with the New Yorker that the site started almost as an accident. The BuzzFeed team was testing different lifehacking videos to see which ones would perform the best on Facebook, which had recently rolled out autoplay on user’s news feeds. The team noticed that a series of videos offering short and sweet eating tips was performing particularly well. They started producing more videos in this format under a stand-along page that was completely separate from BuzzFeed’s existing social media presence. Enter, Tasty.

According to Adweek, Tasty has produced 2,000 recipe videos reaching 500 million people a month since its launch. The premise of this channel is pretty straightforward — BuzzFeed aims to teach viewers how to recreate simple dishes at home by walking them through each step in fast-paced videos that are usually no longer than 1 minute.

Up to here it all makes sense right? You have hungry millennials who don’t have the time, money or inclination to prepare an elaborate gourmet meal, you have a site like BuzzFeed that holds a dedicated following with that very audience, isn’t that the perfect marriage?

But what if all of sudden your videos start attracting a very different audience than expected? Let’s take this Tasty Video published in September. Nothing too out of the ordinary — you have some chicken, mushrooms and onions. But then, things take a weird turn. You have chicken stock, heavy cream, Marsala wine and…pasta? 3 cups of uncooked pasta thrown right into the mix. Before I continue, I should disclose that I grew up in Rome, half of my family is Italian, and this video just physically hurts my eyes. I had to divert my gaze to avoid watching pasta simmer in heavy cream and chicken stock until it’s, according to Tasty, “tender” and, according to me and every other Italian on this earth, no longer technically even allowed to be called pasta. “Mush” is the more appropriate word here, I think.

If you look at the comments section of this video, you’ll notice that the thread is bombarded with comments from shocked, bewildered, outraged, sometimes even amused, Italians. I provided some sample comments below, along with translations.

“People, I inform you that every time you post a recipe containing pasta, an Italian grandma dies in some part of the world, and before it’s my own grandma’s turn I would like for you to learn how to cook pasta. You don’t need Joe Bastianich to explain to you that the first thing to do is boil the water, then pour salt, and then the pasta and AFTER AND ONLY AFTER having cooked the pasta you add the condiments. It’s not that hard for you great chefs.” Source: facebook.com/buzzfeedtasty

“It’s useless, at the moment of throwing in the pasta, my heart sinks…You put the pasta in the water and only after you mix it in a pan with the rest!!! You are terrible with this. Without even mentioning the parsley, are you growing plantations of it?” Source: facebook.com/buzzfeedtasty (PS: The expression used by this woman “mi cadono le braccia” literally means “my arms fall”, which can be translated into “my heart sinks.”)

“How can you pair pasta with chicken breast? And all that parsley! It’s a nightmare, heavy cream, milk and parmesan everywhere, even with fish…We’re definitely not getting there, a spoon full of oregano and then I don’t know, is it just my own impression or are the “sauces” too overcooked and seem dark? They don’t seem too healthy.” Source: facebook.com/buzzfeedtasty

The chicken/mushroom/onion pasta video is neither the first nor the last video of its kind. Tasty, along with many other publishers making online cooking videos, is getting a lot of hate from Italians for these one-pot pasta recipes. The traditional (and dare I say, right) way of cooking pasta is by boiling water first, adding salt, and then dumping in the uncooked pasta. The sauce and remaining condiments should be cooked separately.

As part of my job in digital PR, I handle social listening and issues preparedness for clients, monitoring for negative comments on social media to determine their effect on brand name and reputation. From a reputation management standpoint, Tasty’s pasta videos could definitely be a red flag, leading to serious questioning of the authenticity behind Tasty’s recipes and negatively impacting its reputation as a cooking platform. But that’s not what BuzzFeed is selling with these videos. It’s raking in video views by showing people that it’s not hard to make homemade, delicious recipes with minimal effort and ingredients. It’s not targeting gourmet Italian chefs. Let me rephrase that, it’s not targeting any Italian able to boil pasta and sprinkle parmesan on a plate. Its target doesn’t care whether mushroom chicken pasta made with heavy cream and Marsala wine is an authentic Italian dish. They just care that it’s easy to make and delicious.

Perhaps to answer the demand for more authentic recipes catering to specific cultures and cuisines, BuzzFeed launched separate Tasty pages for different countries including Tasty Demais, Proper Tasty and Tasty Miam. This diversified content strategy is a smart move for the company. “When something really works in a country, we’re learning how to adapt it to other countries. And when something really works on one platform, we’re learning how to adapt it to other platforms,” said Peretti, BuzzFeed co-founder and CEO, in an interview with Adweek. “It’s not just you make something and then you can put it everywhere. You can make something, learn from your audience and then adapt it for other places.”

Just like there’s no one-pot pasta, there’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to content strategy. According to Adweek, BuzzFeed analyzes each Tasty video to collect insights that will inform future creative concepts and video distribution across social platforms. So maybe this means that a hungry US audience craves creamy, overcooked pastas (Cooked in milk? With chicken fajitas?!?) and spaghetti pies. But hey, I’m not one to judge, and judging by Tasty’s video views and engagements results, BuzzFeed is not one to complain.

For authentic Italian recipes in Tasty’s signature style, I prefer sites like Chefclub Italia. Buon appetito!