The Viral TikTok Pesto Video that Launched Thousands of ‘Crazy’ Confessionals

Many digital recipe creators spend their days hoping that their creations go viral. Boosted views mean revenue, sponsored partnerships, and for the very lucky ones, cookbook deals. Increasingly, the video platform TikTok is the place to get discovered — whether viewers are tuning in for mouthwatering recipes, or the personalities who cook them. But the social media platform’s star of the moment never intended to make a splash: All Susi Vidal wanted to do was share her favorite way to make homemade pesto.

Who Is Susi and What’s the Deal With the Pesto?

If this is the first time you’re hearing the words “Susi” and “pesto” in the same sentence, let’s get you caught up. On September 2nd this year, Vidal posted a video on her TikTok account. The premise was simple: Whip up a batch of her basil pesto, while explaining why homemade is best. “Call me crazy if you want,” Vidal says in the first few seconds of the video, “but I’ve never liked store-bought pesto.” 

She goes on to explain it’s the lack of garlic and flavor that leaves premade versions lacking. The rest of the 1:15 video follows a pretty standard format: Vidal chattily adds ingredients to a food processor, blends it all up, sauces some pasta, and digs in. But shortly after the video was posted, it began to go viral for a totally unexpected reason.

How the Pesto Video Became a Cue for Storytelling

Other TikTok users were stitching the first few seconds of Vidal’s video into their own videos — and the resulting content had nothing to do with food. To stitch a TikTok (or Instagram Reel), content creators edit their reactions and hot takes onto previously posted videos. 

In this case, TikTok users latched onto Vidal’s opening line: “Call me crazy if you want…” They would then launch into their own “crazy” stories: Courtroom dramas, wedding gift snafus, and even ghost stories. The tone was tongue-in-cheek, meant to poke lighthearted fun at Vidal’s not-actually-crazy opinion that homemade pesto tasted better.

The trend gained such momentum that it was covered by major news outlets — even The New York Times wrote a story about Vidal and her fans. For her part, Vidal is in on the joke. She teamedup with Gordon Ramsay to address her newfound fame, and on November 20th — over two months into the barrage of stitches — she made a reaction video (naturally, she’s mixing up another batch of pesto as she chats). 

“I don’t know what you guys want from me!” she says. Vidal admits that a downside of her recent fame has been a slew of negative comments directed toward her. But she goes on to say that she quickly realized people were stitching their confessionals into her video. Although she hasn’t watched all of the thousands of stitches, she has tuned into a few and says she feels a connection to the people who are baring it all with their own crazy stories. “My heart goes out to a lot of you who were kind of trauma dumping,” she says.

All of this leads to a bigger question: What is it about sharing a meal that makes us also want to share conversation? The Susi Pesto trend has turned into an international conversation, all centered around a recipe. Maybe this story is just another example of folks on the internet goofing around. Or maybe it’s a heartening reminder that, even through screens and thousands of miles, food has the power to bring people together. And there’s absolutely nothing crazy about that.