The classic evening meal is blossoming on TikTok under the term “Girl Dinner” as the food trend of the summer – and causing controversy. Our author wonders why women are actually being talked into their food preferences again.
A piece of cheese, a few olives, cherry tomatoes, maybe two or three cornichons and of course fresh bread – the “girl dinner” is done, that is, the “girl dinner”, which is currently buzzing through social networks as the food trend of the summer. It all started with a TikTok video by screenwriter Olivia Maher, who explained the term using her own dinner: “Someone said how horrible it was that in the Middle Ages you only had bread and cheese – for me this is the perfect dinner, I call it ‘Girl Dinner’!” Camera pans to baguette and cheese, along with a glass of red wine.
The video has since been viewed 1.4 million times. For such a simple dinner, the “Girl Dinner” gets a tremendous response. From a German point of view, it is of course a bit amusing that the classic cheese sandwich and gherkin combo, the beloved evening meal, has made it into an international food trend under a new hashtag. In countless posts, girls around the world are now showing which evening snacks they like to prepare themselves in summer: Sometimes it’s baked nacho chips, sometimes there’s a slice of ham or a mini kabanossi next to the cheese, sometimes grapes are added.
The idea is always the same: you prepare a simple but carefully put together plate for dinner, just for yourself – with lots of delicacies that make the end of the day a little nicer. Speaking to the New York Times, Girl Dinner creator Maher said, “My girlfriends and I love to eat like this and it just feels like a girl’s dinner because we only make it like this when our boyfriends aren’t home, so we’re not eating a typical dinner.”
In culinary terms, the “Girl Dinner” follows other TikTok trends
What is meant by this is a warm evening meal, as is customary in Anglo-American countries in particular, in contrast to a form of cold evening meal that is social media-compatible because it is particularly nicely prepared. In culinary terms, the “Girl Dinner” follows trends that were already booming during the pandemic: just think of the “Charcuterie Board”, i.e. a kind of snack with folded and rolled slices of ham and salami, or the “Butter Board”, which made the rounds on Instagram & Co. not too long ago and served with whipped butter seasoned and decorated with herbs and edible flowers.
Cold dishes have been experiencing a revival among young people for some time, which is actually not particularly surprising – the ingredients are bought quickly and dinner is arranged much faster than an elaborate, cooked dinner. Who wants to stand in the kitchen forever, especially in summer evenings?!
What is new about the “Girl Dinner” is the idea behind the production: women prepare a delicious plate just for themselves. They take their time selecting and prettily arranging delicacies that they like themselves, regardless of the culinary preferences of others (“The cheese is too stinky for me!”). The perfect cheese and sausage arrangement is documented in the social networks with the corresponding posts for the personal “Girl Dinner”, but above all the joy of enjoyment.
And if you take a closer look at food content on social networks, then this aspect is really unusual. Self-prepared meals, posted by women in particular, usually serve representative purposes here: either it’s about demonstrating how incredibly healthy you eat (“here you can see my açai bowl”) – or about the opulent meals you’ve prepared for friends or family. Then the aspect of self-care is in the foreground. That as a woman you enjoy a small, delicious, maybe even slightly decadent meal all to yourself? This does not fit into the concept of a food culture in which enjoyment is reserved for special occasions and which demands restriction and modesty at home. After all, if there is too much cheese, every weight loss app will immediately sound the alarm!
At the “Girl Dinner” everyday enjoyment is celebrated
The “Girl Dinner” stages the female joy of enjoyment. And simply enjoying, celebrating food a little in everyday life is certainly a welcome trend in a world in which women are still bombarded with diet instructions on a daily basis. The “girl dinner” is a welcome contrast to the “cheat meal”, i.e. the willful “sin” when it comes to food – because after the enjoyable cheating you continue with the usual diet of oatmeal and quinoa bowl the next day.
So far so delicious. But as always when it comes to women and food and, in a broader sense, their bodies, the “Girl Dinner” naturally raises doubters directly. In response to the trend, nutrition experts in the US media are already discussing whether such a spartan bread-and-butter dinner is “problematic” because the meal cannot be balanced enough and you may not be consuming the perfect combination of macro and micro nutrients.
Honestly, this pseudo-debate alone, in which women are apparently not even expected to be able to put together a dinner plate that will fill them up, shows why the “Girl Dinner” trend is a pleasant TikTok phenomenon for a change. The trend is about the message that it probably makes more sense to just let women do their thing when it comes to food, instead of constantly trying to talk them into this area of life with “well-intentioned” advice. Developing a joyful relationship with food is difficult enough for many. In this sense: happy supper!