Matthew Merril Shares His Feelings About Getting Roasted By Gordon Ramsay On TikTok - Exclusive

Let's admit it: We take a certain amount of perverse pleasure watching Gordon Ramsay lay into aspiring chefs for getting a cooking technique wrong, whether it be on "Hell's Kitchen," "Kitchen Nightmares," or "MasterChef." Most recently, Ramsay's taken his contempt-filled culinary critiques to TikTok, where he's bemoaned misguided burger hacks and Wagyu beef gone wrong, among other kitchen infractions. The viral response to these public floggings — Ramsay has more than 30 million followers – proves that you don't have to be a member of Gen Z to rule TikTok.

Ever wonder what's it like to be on the other side of one of Ramsay's social media smackdowns? Someone who can answer this question with quite a bit of authority is precocious teen chef Matthew Merril, who went viral when he demonstrated one of Ramsay's recipes on the 'Tok. Ramsay's duet with Merril drew an incredible 2.5 million views. So, how'd that feel? In an exclusive interview with Mashed, Merril revealed his true feelings on being acknowledged by one of the world's most famous (and sometimes inflammatory) chefs. 

"I have to say, I think he was a little meaner to me than he was to most of the other chefs!" said the frequent contestant on children's cooking competition shows, including "Chopped Junior." " So that was a little disheartening." Although Merril didn't enjoy the vitriol, he insists he is grateful that Ramsay called him out, not because the critique taught him about cooking, but because it grew his own base of followers significantly. "That was a roller coaster of emotions. I was not expecting nearly half as much of the growth that video had. It just exploded. It wasn't even doing that well at first! It had probably like 10,000, 20,000 views," Merril said. 

All of that changed within a few hours. "And then I think I had to go to school for something, and I came back and the video was at like 300,000 views. I'm like, 'What is happening?' And then it dawned on me that I think Gordon Ramsay might see this video! Because that was at the very beginning of when he started reacting to all the other chefs. I actually thought it was hilarious when he responded to my video," said Merril, who now has 2.5 million followers on TikTok. 

Ultimately, Merril said, "if you're going to be roasted by someone, Gordon Ramsay is the person to get roasted by! The only thing I would say was not the most positive experiences is some of those comments, man, they were a little mean. But hey, I can handle it. It's nothing I'm not used to."

Follow Matthew Merril on TikTok, and be sure to check out his cookbook, "Teen Baking Bootcamp: 60 Essential Recipes to Take You from Amateur to Pro."