Ever heard of Thug Kitchen?
Neither had I until a few weeks ago, when their cookbook came out and I saw it on a table display at my local Chapters. From the cover, it just looks like another cookbook, with delicious looking tacos on the cover. But on closer inspection, below the title the cookbook says “eat like you give a f*uck.” I smiled a little bit when I saw that and was immediately intrigued at what else lay in the pages – and boy, I was not disappointed.
The cussing, right off the bat, is excessive and hilarious at the same time. I laughed out loud more than once while reading passages such as “prepare for a fucking food coma” and “scones are the bastard blend of a biscuit and muffin, they sound so wrong but taste so right.” The entire book is littered with cuss words, from recipe instructions to grocery lists.
Thug Kitchen is the passion project of Michelle Davis and Matt Holloway, two 29-year-olds from Hollywood, who struggled with cooking when they opted to change their lifestyle and become vegans. It’s not that being vegan was difficult, the duo preach, it’s that veganism is generally synonymous with “rich, white people” and therefore they felt the need to create a blog where they encourage people to eat clean and load up on some “motherfucking” veggies.
Thug Kitchen has a strong following on the blog, including celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow, who gave the blog a shout-out in 2013 on the Rachel Ray show. Davis and Holloway said that propelled their blog hits through the roof. Celebrity Chef Jamie Oliver wrote the review on the back of their cookbook, praising the duo for their foul-mouthed messages on clean eating.
Thug kitchen definitely speaks to a younger generation and simplifies cooking. The writers make the recipes fun and funny, They aren’t terribly hard to make and yield a sizeable amount of food for two. The cookbook is full of fun recipes and amid all that foul language, there’s encouragement. It urges you to take control of what you put in your body, and start treating it with the care it deserves.
They also highlight and praise fruits and vegetables in their trademark foul language and it’s as hilarious as it is informative.
This foul-mouthed blog preaches clean eating and simplifies otherwise daunting recipes, and encourages people to think outside the pizza box, and toss together a salad. Or, as the creators of Thug Kitchen call them, “plant nachos.”
Samantha Faith VanDeventer
This is hilarious! I need a copy of this. I love how you put yourself into your writing. I read, “and boy, I was not disappointed,” and I thought, “yeah that sounds exactly like what Sarah would be thinking at that moment.” It’s so cool that Gwyneth Paltrow promoted it. Love her! Also, since this is aimed at a younger audience, hopefully it will guide people into being vegetarian or vegan. 🙂 Very interesting article!!!