Kyle Marcoux, aka "the Vulgar Chef," creates unlikely and sometimes grotesque food pairings, and shares his recipes on social media, where he's amassed quite a following. His most recent creation is the "octopookie," which is a chocolate chip cookie adorned with octopus.
If that doesn't entice you, how about these mac-n-cheese chocolate cups, candy corn meatballs, and chicken skin fried pickles, or this candied hot dog? As strange or gross some of this food seems, I don't think these creations just end up in the trash, like so much other social media stupid food content—Marcoux actually seems to eat them, and I can only assume maybe other people do, too? While some of the recipes don't appeal to me at all, there are a few I'd try (like this sushi grilled cheese).
The Valley Advocate describes how the Westfield, Massachusetts-based self-taught chef developed his signature style:
Marcoux says he's always had an interest in food; so he watches a lot of the Food Network. "You watch enough, you can start figuring stuff out."
In 2013, Marcoux started filming his kitchen hobby and putting his creations up on YouTube. People responded positively to Marcoux's signature style of mega-unhealthy chow, combined in dramatic and drool-worthy ways, as well as his foul mouth. He has about 7,300 followers and his videos have been viewed more than 400,000 times.
"This is just the way my friends and I talk and this is, I think, how a lot of kitchens are, too," Marcoux says. "The Vulgar Chef thing started as a joke, sort of a place to trash on vegetarians and food trends. Then there was some steam behind it out of nowhere, so I just rolled with it."
Marcoux's culinary delights include Hawaiian Pizza Breakfast Sandwich, Taco Biscuits, Chicago Dog Deep Dish Stuffed Pizza, Honey Bacon Marijuana Popcorn, Country Fried Chicken Pizza Crust, and Bacon Wrapped English Muffin Pizza Sandwich.
The chef, who is self-taught, posts two videos a week: Sunday "Funday," and Tuesday.
"I actually have a lot of fans who are classically trained and really schooled chefs who enjoy what I do," Marcoux says. "Just because I'm not cooking with foie gras and fancy shit there is still a passion to it — I'm just using Spaghetti O's and mac 'n' cheese."
For more of The Vulgar Chef's work, check out his YouTube or TikTok. And if you want to try making some of these recipes yourself, he provides all of the recipes here.
