The Poppy O'Toole Potato Video That's Making TikTok Uncomfortable

In 2020, British chef Poppy O'Toole was training at a Michelin-starred restaurant until she was laid off due to the COVID-19 pandemic (via Insider). Less than a year later, she became known as the Potato Queen and went viral for her 15-hour potato hack on TikTok, which has 11.2 million views as of today — one-upped only by her "improved" 15-hour potato recipe with 19.6 million views. Clearly, O'Toole has carved out a niche for herself, mostly sharing potato content and reacting to other TikTokers' potato recipes, including some absurd cooking ideas.

Life hacks are all over the internet nowadays, with everything from cooking and cleaning tricks to travel tips and more. While some may be useful, such as clever refrigerator hacks, others are pretty pointless and obviously created for social media views. Even worse, some food hacks are actually dangerous. You can't trust everything you see online, and that's clearly what motivated the Potato Queen to give her recent thoughts on a wild potato hack that made TikTok cringe.

In a recent TikTok post, O'Toole reacted to another video of someone making mashed potatoes using potato chips. The Potato Queen said she had tried this hack before and that it "went a bit too far." The hack began with a pot full of water and potato chips, but the moment that really made O'Toole and the rest of the viewers uncomfortable was when the person stirring the potatoes added sticks of butter with the wrappers still on. O'Toole was immediately shocked and acknowledged that the step was most likely for views and likes, but she could not get over how unsanitary it was. "Other people's hands have touched that butter wrapper, then you're going to eat it. It's making me a little bit uncomfortable," she said. At the end of the TikTok, she rated the hack a one out of 10 and declared, "It's not right. It's inhumane!"

People in the comments were in just as much disbelief as O'Toole, writing things like, "When she dropped the unwrapped butter sticks in the water, I gave up on her," and "I'm also freaked out by things like the dirty wrapper and it's refreshing to see others do too." Other commenters thought the hack itself was pointless, saying, "At that point just use instant mashed potatoes. It's literally cheaper than the bag of chips," also suggesting to "just mash regular potatoes." If you have a hankering for some potatoes, plenty of other potato hacks should be more worth your time.