'Chaos Cooking' Could Radically Change How You Use Leftovers

Here’s how to use the random extra food in your fridge in a way that still feels purposeful.

Chefs have long been combining ingredients that don’t typically go together (just think about all the fusion restaurants out there), but this idea is being taken to the next level with an emerging social media trend. The hashtag #ChaosCooking has over 1.6 million views on TikTok and thousands on Instagram. (Yes, IG is still a place for plenty of food inspiration.) It’s even namechecked in the Season 2 trailer of “The Bear.”

Aside from combining ingredients that wouldn’t normally go together, another cornerstone of chaos cooking is using whatever you happen to have on hand. In other words, you peek into your fridge and pantry, see what you need to get rid of and figure out a way to combine them. A TikTok video by user @MyCursedBrain is the perfect example of chaos cooking in action. In the clip, she combines edamame pasta, peanut butter, Everything But the Bagel seasoning, chili powder, cucumbers and a handful of other ingredients for her take on a peanut butter noodle dish.