Tastemade, a video-centric culinary media company, his under fire for “cultural appropriation” after its UK bureau posted an elote recipe that scandalously included feta cheese and yogurt.
Elote, a grilled Mexican street corn, is traditionally made with sour cream or mayonnaise and cotija cheese, among other ingredients. Tastemade’s twist, which has been viewed 5.5 million times on Facebook, prompted a stream of criticism.
“You can’t throw whatever you want together and call it Mexican,” one commenter wrote. “It has to culturally represent that particular regions culture. So disrespectful and a terrible recipe to begin with.”
Other commenters described the video as “horrible and insulting,” a “monstrosity of a butchered recipe,” “plain wrong and appropriation,” and “some nasty white people sh*t.”
A week after Tastemade posted the video, it had received more than 26,000 comments—more than 16,000 of them outraged, the Dallas Morning News reported.
By deadline, Tastemade had not responded to a Heat Street request for comment.