A Midwestern mom’s cooking videos are going viral — not for her enthusiasm about cooking, but rather her lack thereof.
On Nov. 21, TikToker Jessica Secrest (@applesauceandadhd) posted a video in which instructs her audience how to make a Tex-Mex Tater Tot casserole. Seems normal, right? But it’s her “aggressive” attitude that has resonated with so many across the internet.
“Tonight we’re having taco Tater Tot casserole. This is it,” Secrest says, thunking the finished product onto her kitchen counter. Rewinding to the start by slapping a massive skillet, the mother of two instructs her audience clearly, concisely and with an air of annoyance that you don’t know this information already. “Brown up your beef, chop it up … aggressively.”
She adds what she calls “a metric ton” of garlic to the meat (twice), saying, “And to those of you who look at this and say that’s so much garlic, yes and no. This garlic in the jar is much, much milder.”
Secrest then sprinkles onion powder into the dish, warning viewers against seasoning over a stove because condensation causes spices to clump. Still, she does it herself anyway, endearingly. “Be better than me,” she says, sternly.
She then adds taco seasoning, water, salsa and beans to the skillet, all the while using the tone of a woman whom you, the viewer, have annoyed with questions all day long — but who still loves you, if that makes sense.
“I’m going to add in a bag of corn. It’s frozen. It’s fine,” she says before adding cheese and popping it into the oven. Later, she puts the final touches on the meal. “It’s been about 20 minutes. I top my casserole with some cheese. Why? Because I live in the Midwest.”
Secrest presents her finished casserole with a steely gaze, informing us that this is one of the only ways that her husband will eat Tater Tots, realizing that’s a “weird problem to have.”
“I know what you’re thinking. Is it even good?” she says, digging in and taking a bite at the end of the video. “Of course it’s good. I made it. This is delicious. Make this.”
While not her first “aggressive cooking” tutorial, this particular video did go the most viral so far, garnering over 15 million views on TikTok and millions more views on X.
Most of the responses to to Secrest’s casserole tutorial laud her assertive instruction, clear language and familiarity to people in their own households.
“I would trust her with my life,” tweeted one person.
“this character makes it to the end of any movie,” wrote another.
“I love being yelled at by you thank you,” commented one TikTok user.
“I apologize for whatever I did to you 😭,” wrote another.
“i really love this, i can’t explain it. so sick of the fake ‘i love cooking (24/7)!’ tutorials,” tweeted someone else. “I’m the cook in my family and sometimes i hate it. it’s nice to see her match my energy some days.”
For Secrest, who lives in the Grand Rapids, Michigan area with her husband Matthew and two kids Arthur and Alice, all the attention on her no-nonsense cooking tutorials makes sense to her, but is still a little surreal.
“It’s really strange. A lot of the time people come for the aggressive tutorials and they don’t realize that they like it,” Secrest tells TODAY.com. “A lot of people feel like they’re in the kitchen with their mom and she’s told them 800 times how to make this dish and you just didn’t listen. A lot of people who have lost their parents feel at home with my videos.”
Secrest says she started her TikTok account because her son Arthur was diagnosed with ADHD in January, and it was meant to serve as a diary of sorts, noting the dietary changes that were recommended by his doctors and making gentler-in-tone cooking videos along the way.
Inspiration struck, however, when Secrest was scrolling TikTok in early August and saw someone using a kitchen tool incorrectly. Slightly incensed, she created her first aggressive cooking tutorial.
“If I have to watch one more video of one of you making an Uncrustable the wrong way I’m going to revolt,” Secrest says in a video with over a million views. She dutifully and curtly shows viewers how to correctly use an Uncrustable maker, creating a peanut butter and honey snack. “For Christ’s sake, if you’re going to make an Uncrustable, make it right.”
Since then, Secrest has made several other aggressive cooking tutorials, from baked potatoes to chicken with broccoli to apple cinnamon roll French toast.
And it’s working: Secrest says her follower count has exploded over the past year, going from under 10,000 followers to 1.2 million.
“I think a lot of what resonates with people in my videos is that I’m a real person, in a real house, making real food for a real family — and it’s not super stylized or aesthetic anything. It’s just real life in the Midwest,” she says. “You’re just transported into my home with a really annoyed mom who’s had a day.”
