Trisha Paytas' Butter Noodles Recipe That Went Viral For All The Wrong Reasons

YouTuber Trisha Paytas is no stranger to controversy, even in the food world. While Paytas was originally known for her skits and vlogs when she first started her YouTube channel in the early 2000s, she eventually expanded her content to include mukbang videos, where she would eat a large spread of foods while chatting with viewers on camera. Paytas even started teaming up with other mukbangers like Nikocado Avocado, though controversy continued to follow her as viewers speculated about health issues associated with mukbang culture. But Paytas has continued following her passions, and fans have been drawn to the YouTuber's food content in all its forms.

In recent years, many of Paytas' most popular videos on Youtube, TikTok, and Instagram involve recipes and food hacks, like her Mexican rice or her garlic cheesy knots. However, one of her recent TikToks — a recipe for "Fancy Butter Noodles" — has stirred the proverbial pot in unexpected ways.

Why are Trisha Paytas's noodles so controversial?

As Trisha Paytas explains in her TikTok video, the recipe she's cooking is actually from "Binging with Babish," a well-known YouTube chef and personality whose channel Paytas says she loves. Even though Paytas calls the dish "Fancy Butter Noodles" in her video, she shows her laptop with the recipe video paused on the screen before she begins to tell viewers how to make it. In the video, Paytas cooks up some inexpensive spaghetti, combines it with a butter sauce emulsified with pasta water and a little salt, and tops it with grated parmesan.

Even though Paytas credits "Binging with Babish" as the source for her recipe, the internet has more or less associated the noodles with Paytas instead of Andrew Rea, the man behind the "Binging with Babish" channel. Not too long after posting the TikTok, Nikocado Avocado and other YouTubers posted butter noodle mukbangs with titles that imply it's a Trisha Paytas recipe instead of a "Binging with Babish" recipe. 

While this might not be Paytas' fault, The Things points out that it's still technically giving the wrong person credit for the recipe. To complicate matters, some people even feel like the recipe is simple enough that it doesn't belong to any one person. As one TikTok user commented, "This is literally just butter and pasta." While the dish is certainly no-frills, there's no denying that "Binging with Babish" did it a full year before Paytas did.