You’re not going to believe what’s inside Eve Scampoli’s refrigerator.
A live orchid, eucalyptus sprigs and a framed photo of her cat, just for starters.
A lot of TikTok commenters think she must not cook, but we’re not so sure. There’s yogurt, eggs and vegetables on the shelves. Meat and a locked-and-loaded cheese grater are tucked away in the drawers. Bottled beverages are overrepresented, perhaps, and we aren’t sure where her ketchup is, but there are tons of possible meals here when you include pantry staples like beans and dried pasta.
Oh wait, she keeps the dried pasta in her refrigerator, too.
As you might imagine, the reactions are mixed. For some people, it’s an organized and inspirational work of art.
"Ok these videos did inspire me to organize my fridge and freezer but I got too much food for decorations," one user commented on Scampoli's TikTok.
"stop it!!! This is the dream !!" wrote another.
"I truly hate myself for loving this," admitted another TikTok user.
For others, it’s a bizarre waste of effort.
"If we're decorating fridges I'm out," another person commented on her TikTok.
"The bottle of wine on top of the pasta next to the orchid is SENDING ME," CBC Radio producer Nicola MacLeod tweeted in response to a screenshot of one of Scampoli's TikToks posted by Twitter user @chlsperry.
“Honestly I respect anyone who can remain alive with such a near-terminal case of ADS (aesthetic derangement syndrome),” quipped New Yorker writer Helen Rosner on Twitter.
A few people are concerned about the wellbeing of her cat, too.
“maybe the cat died in the fridge, have some respect,” one person jokingly tweeted.
TODAY.com caught up with Scampoli to ask, well, why? She tells us she grew up with parents who made Sunday the centerpiece of the week for cleaning and cooking, with the emphasis on traditional Italian meals. When she started her human resources job, she moved into her own place and had to learn to manage meals on her own.
“At first I had trouble with proportions, because I had to learn to turn from family style to cooking just for me," says Scampoli. She found herself wasting food, so she focused on learning to shop strategically.
The method to this madness? In an extension of her family’s weekly routine, she stops by Publix every Sunday, planning her meals on the fly around ingredients that look the best. Then she comes home to restock — and redecorate — with a glass of wine. There are some specialty groceries on the spotless shelves, such as quail eggs and prosciutto di Parma, but for the most part, she chooses familiar brands like Chobani yogurt and Sabra hummus. All told, there are about a dozen fridge makeovers on her TikTok account, from the earliest small bouquet amongst the blueberries and Brussels sprouts, to a Halloween diorama of skeletons and ornamental eggplant stems, to even more elaborate spectacles.
With the camera set up, she opens the refrigerator doors and starts with greenery, adding decorative items from around her house along with the groceries. She takes a sip of wine as she asks the cat (alive and well) for his opinion on the produce tableau, and repeatedly turns off the fridge door alarm.
Her Christmas episode features a snow globe filled with eggs, a square foot of Michelob Ultra and an Elf on the Shelf. A tall canister of tiny tomatoes replaces what had been red and green embellished jars earlier in the video. “The candles were definitely a bad idea,” she says, chuckling.
Her most popular version, sporting eucalyptus sprigs, individual servings of vitamins in tiny bottles and fresh basil in an herb keeper, has almost 4 million views.
Although she’s dead serious on one level and has a series of influencer fridge makeovers planned, Scampoli is most certainly in on the joke. She laughs about having dropped a decorative decanter of tequila on her eggs, and chooses a voiceover that deadpans about the simplicity of keeping such an organized home — "just don’t ever have a husband, don’t have children, and don’t have pets." She answers critics with skill, too, making eggplant Parmesan and chicken Marsala on camera.
Are we saying you should decorate your refrigerator like it’s a centerfold in Architectural Digest? Only if it brings you joy. If you have several people in the house or you collect mustard like it’s Fabergé eggs, your kitchen isn’t going to look like this, and that’s OK! But we could all learn a thing or two from Scampoli’s masterpieces:
Drink your water.
Eat your vegetables.
Spend time doing things that make you happy.
And, most importantly, don’t forget to laugh.