Your Recipe Video Looks Tasty, But Wearing Jewelry Is An Immediate No
There's no denying a lot of people are learning how to cook from the internet. While television channels like Food Network and long-form video platforms such as YouTube led the charge in the early aughts, young people today are scrolling TikTok and Instagram for recipe inspiration.
Though TikTok started out as a place to share dance challenges and lip-sync videos, the pandemic changed all of that. With everyone stuck at home trying to fill time, millions of users flocked to the social media platform, and after a short while, #TikTokFood racked up billions of views. Over the last few years, the momentum has only picked up speed, with studies showing that more than a third of TikTok users have ordered food or visited a restaurant based on a content creator's recommendation.
Living in an age where nearly everyone has a phone in their pocket with the ability to shoot, edit, and upload a video to these platforms means the days of producers doing quality control on set are long gone, and with a decrease in cross-checking comes a natural increase in content faux pas.
One of the hardest faux pas to stomach is people cooking with jewelry on. And while this might not seem like a huge deal at first glance, when you start to think about the food, dirt, and other debris stuck in jewelry, the ick factor starts to increase — and that's before you consider the potential health risks.
The secret ingredient is dirt, dust, and pet dander
As anyone who's ever worked in a professional kitchen or restaurant is aware, proper food safety procedures are fairly strict to prevent foodborne illness and cross-contamination. And while we don't expect home cooks and content creators to go so far as to wear gloves while cooking, basic kitchen food safety should be followed like washing your hands with soap and warm water and removing your rings and dangly bracelets before diving into a recipe.
Rings will unavoidably come into contact with cleaning products, makeup and lotions, and pets in the home, as well as other surfaces like doorknobs, desks and counters, and bus and train interiors or steering wheels and seatbelts throughout the day. Unless you disinfect your jewelry regularly — which most people don't — it won't be 100% sterile. While it's unlikely you'll end up seriously ill from cooking with jewelry on (though there is a chance), avoiding foodborne illness is always a worthwhile endeavor. No one wants the final course of their dinner party to be a round of food poisoning.
On top of the fact that your jewelry is not as clean as you might think, rings and bracelets have nooks and crannies where bacteria, dust, and other debris can hide, and those areas will absolutely not be cleaned by simple hand washing. Think about how disgusting it is when you find a piece of hair in your food. Now, think about all the tiny pieces of pet dander, dust, and dirt that are transferred from your ring to that pizza dough you're kneading. You may not be able to see it, but it's there.
Food can ruin jewelry
Beyond the ick factor, there's also the chance you could ruin your jewelry in the kitchen. Wearing a precious engagement ring or a family heirloom? These items might look nice on camera, but cooking oils, butter, or raw meat can harm jewelry.
Delicate materials like gold can get bent or dinged up by metal pots, bowls, and cast iron skillets, while most gemstones should not come into contact with cooking oils, which can dirty them and even reduce their sparkle over time. Oils can also dull the surface of your ring or make it slippery and easy to drop, and it would be a shame to lose a treasured piece of jewelry in your lasagna or throw it away with your eggshells. And if you're using an appliance like a stand mixer, pasta roller, or meat grinder, your bracelet or necklace could get caught in the machinery — at worst harming you, at best ruining a piece you love.
Not only can debris from the nooks are crannies of jewelry get caught in food, but the opposite can happen and dough or raw meat, cheese, and oils can get stuck in your jewelry. If not properly cleaned, you'll be walking around with tiny bits of food rotting away on your hands and wrists.
Taking off jewelry is easy, so why risk it?
From ick-factor to potential concerns over food safety, it's just plain awkward to watch someone handling ingredients like egg yolks or raw meat, or kneading bread or fresh pasta dough with jewelry-clad hands once you start to think about it. All in all, there are simply no positives to leaving your jewelry on while filming a recipe video. It's easy to remove and leaves us wondering if you simply forgot to do so or if there is a reason you chose to wear it in the shot — either to show off or to sell a product.
Fast-paced cooking videos can be tricky enough to follow without the sparkle of a bunch of bling getting in the way, so do everyone a favor and keep your jewelry in a safe place, off your hands and wrists.