Chef defends viral chicken recipe after TikTok backlash: ‘PSA to the seasoning police’

A chef has hit back at criticism about the lack of seasoning she used when making her chicken.

Zoe Barrie, who graduated from culinary school in 2020, frequently shares videos on TikTok about her recipes and cooking tips. In a video posted last month, she filmed herself making a meal for her family, which included all the ingredients she could find in her brother’s kitchen.

She noted that he had everything she needed to make her favourite dish: chicken and beer bread. As she made her bread, she covered her cooked chicken in a marinara sauce, which had onion, garlic, and bell peppers in it.

While Barrie’s video quickly went viral, with over 2.4m views, viewers had mixed responses to her work. More specifically, many criticised her for not adding any seasoning to her chicken. Amidst this criticism, she made a clarification about her cooking in the comments, writing: “NOTE: I seasoned my chicken with a gracious amount of salt before I seared it.”

She later shared a follow-up video about the criticism and questioned viewers about the seasonings that they use when cooking.

“This is a PSA to the seasoning police on this app,” she said. “If in your brain, you only view seasoning as things like garlic powder, onion powder, or maybe something like rosemary. If this is what you view as seasoning and seasoning only, let me pose you a question.”

Barrie then looked at the ingredients in some of the seasonings, which included dehydrated garlic, onion, and bell pepper. She shared footage from her initial clip, where she added onion, garlic, and bell peppers to the sauce on her chicken.

She then pointed at a bottle of dry rub seasoning and claimed that if she had used this on her chicken, viewers would have had a different reaction.

“What’s so funny to me is if I had just doused my chicken in this rub and this rub alone, the seasoning police would be out of my comments,” she said. “They wouldn’t even be in there.”

She concluded her video by saying that when food doesn’t taste like it is properly seasoned, it’s not because there isn’t enough onion or garlic power on it. In fact, she said that it’s because there’s not enough salt.

“Salt is going to bring out the flavour of onion, the flavour of garlic, the flavour of whatever random spice rub you have,” she said. “And let me just say, if your food tastes a little off, it’s not because you need to add more powder. It’s most of the time because you need to add more salt, or some sort of acid like lemon juice or vinegar.”

Over the years, research has found that salt enhances the flavour of food. According to an excerpt shared by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2010, the use of salt when cooking “can lead to an effective increase in the concentration of flavours and improve the volatility of flavour components”.

As of 25 April, Barrie’s follow up video has more than 1.6m views, with TikTok users defending her and praising her cooking tips.

“Thank you!!!!!!! Fresh herbs and veggies, with some salt is pure bliss. And citrus,  especially if it’s something heavy or rich,” one wrote.

“I always say this about chocolate chip cookies!!! Salt in a cookie doesn’t make it ‘salty’ it brings out the flavour of the chocolate!!” another added.

A third wrote: “FIGHT THE SEASONING POLICE! YOU’RE IN THE RIGHT!”

However, other viewers disagreed with Barrie and said that they’d prefer having seasonings on their food as opposed to vegetables.

“Dried spices and vegetables taste different from their fresh counterparts,” one wrote.

“Dried seasonings have a different flavour profile that add to fresh vegetables, pls let’s not be dense,” another added.

In another response to her video on TikTok, one woman, Shelah Marie, critcised Barrie’s choice of words and tone when addressing the “seasoning police”.

“The tone was so condescending and angry. I’ve just never seen anyone get so angry about seasonings,” Marie said. “Who’s the seasoning police bae? Say the quiet part out loud.”

She claimed that there were racial undertones in the chef’s language and that the clip showed “white folks inability to not be the authority on something”.

“And how upset and irate it makes them when other people claim to have authority on other things,” Marie added.

Speaking to BuzzFeed, Barrie addressed the backlash.

“My intentions were to share what I learned in cooking school when it came to the term ‘seasoning,’ and nothing more than that,” she said. “I mean, I wouldn’t have a Costco-sized bottle of garlic powder if I was anti-dried spices.”

She also acknowledged how there are many different styles of cooking.

“I am part Hispanic, my mom is Mexican, and my grandma uses an abundance of chiles, garlic, and onions in her cooking,” she explained. “What I’ve learned from cooking foods from all cultures is that I’m going to add flavours depending on the dish. If I’m making a French-inspired dish, I’m not always going to add the chiles that are used in Mexican cooking. It’s so case by case that cooking is never one-spice-fits-all.”

The Independent has contacted Barrie for comment.

On TikTok, there are multiple videos with the hashtag “seasoning police” in which people have praised everyday seasonings. More specifically, TikTok user @crawking shared a clip in December 2021 to hit back at criticism over his use of salt and pepper when cooking. He acknowledged how these two spices has the power to “flavour your food to the utmost high”.