Remember when we made fun of Kendall Jenner for not knowing how to slice a cucumber? Well, it’s 2024, just two years after the viral video of Jenner perplexed fans, and it turns out that the reality TV star might not be the only one who struggles with it. The whole internet is now making trips to the hospital because of this one, inconspicuous vegetable.
It all started with a series of videos posted by TikTok content creator @logagm, aka Logan. Although I think now he’s more casually referred to as ‘king of the cucumbers’.
“I was about to go to sleep, but I was craving an entire cucumber,” the celebrated chef said in a video shared to the platform on 19 July.
The content creator showed off his trademark cooking style, which consists of using a whole cucumber and slicing it with a mandoline over a Tupperware container. Then the chef seasons, usually including delicious additions in the form of soy sauce (a cucumber classic), chilli crunch, shaved garlic, sesame seeds, rice vinegar, and sesame oil.
To finish the vegetables off, Logan passionately shakes the container, mixing the ingredients together. Then, he enjoys the literal fruits of his labour by eating one slice at a time with a pair of metal chopsticks. Following the success of his first few videos, this series became a staple on Logan’s page, which now boasts an impressive 5.4 million followers. Some of his most popular cucumber recipes have gotten over 20 million views.
Logan’s eager following has since been trying to replicate this meal complete with the chef’s very special slicing technique.
However, some have been doing so with little success. In fact, the attempt to grate the cucumber above the container has resulted in many users hurting themselves to the point where they had to visit the hospital.
One of these unlucky testers was one Bec Hardgrave, who gave the recipe a go only to end up wounded.
In a clip, which racked up more than 130,000 views, Bec first finely slices a cucumber using a mandolin but then shows the viewers footage of her in the hospital with a bandage covering her hand.
“I didn’t show the clip on TikTok because I didn’t want the clip to get flagged but after that, I sliced my hand on that mandolin,” Bec told viewers. “Here’s a warning for everyone.”
“I had just bought that mandolin from K-Mart and didn’t open up the box fully but it comes with a guard – so that doesn’t happen,” she added while showing a shot of her bandaged hand. “No stitches because it’s too wide to stitch. He said if I had brought the skin in with me, he could have stitched it on my hand so I just have to wait.”
Popular TikToker Alix Earle also warned users of how dangerous the mandolin is. “You guys said to be really careful with this,” she said of the mandoline. “Apparently, these are really sharp and dangerous.” In the video, Earle proceeded to slice the cucumber, being careful not to move her fingers close to the blades. “Oh, I see how these can be really dangerous,” the influencer confessed.
Over the past few weeks, others have been sharing their near injuries, near-cut experiences, and recovery from the Logan-mandolin-cucumber recipe on the video-sharing platforms.
So, may I suggest just sticking to the good, old-fashioned knife and maybe issuing an apology to Kendall Jenner? It looks like it’s easy to get swapped up in a fancier method of doing things when the easiest and safest one might be right in front of you.