Zoe Barrie is trending on TikTok after she made a video calling out the “Seasoning Police”.
The cooking niche on TikTok is very popular—the hashtag #cooking has over 147 billion views.
Although cooking videos are wholesome, they are not drama free.
In 2020, Mr. Nigel Ng, also known as Uncle Roger, mocked a BBC Food chef.
In a BBC Food episode, Hersha Verity poorly made egg-fried rice where Roger reacted to it—getting over 19 million views.
Due to her large following, Zoe Barrie sparked controversy after she called up her “critics”.
In this article, you’ll learn who is Zoe Barrie, what Seasoning Police means, the meme, and the drama on TikTok.
Who is Zoe Barrie?
Zoe Barrie is a TikTok influencer in the cooking niche.
In her videos, she shares cooking tips and tutorials that are viewed by millions of people.
Her TikTok, @zoebarrie has over 270k followers and she received over 6.1 million likes in total.
In March 2023, Zoe posted a video that shared her opinion on seasoning.
The video was made in response to a comment by @hudaam that said “Please season your chicken”.
The comment was referring to Zoe not seasoning her chicken.
At the start of the video, she said, “This is a PSA for the seasoning police on this app”.
In the video, Zoe explained that seasoning is not necessary and can be replaced with fresh ingredients.
It went viral on TikTok and other social media platforms like Twitter.
The video went viral and got over 1.4 million views.
Apparently, some people got offended and claimed that the phrase “Seasoning Police” is racist towards black people.
This is because there’s a stereotype that says that black people tend to use a lot of seasoning.
Other users claimed that Zoe is in no position to talk about “Spices” or “Seasoning” just because she’s white.
What does Seasoning Police mean?
Seasoning Police is a phrase said by Zoe Barrie that she used in a video to call out her “critics”.
In the video, she was responding to a user named @hudaam who told her to season her chicken.
Here’s @hudaam’s comment, “Please season your chicken”.
The video went viral on Twitter after users @bonethirty and @JustinTarnation posted it.
As the video got popular on Twitter, a number of ignorant users called Zoe racist for using the phrase, “Seasoning Police”.
Apparently, those users claimed that the phrase is racist toward black people because of the stereotype that black people use a lot of seasoning.
Other than that, Zoe was mocked for not using seasoning for her dishes.
Zoe’s point is that using Onions or Garlic is the same, if not better, than using “Onion powder” or “Garlic powder”.
This is because Onions or Garlic are the “fresh versions” of “Onion powder” or “Garlic powder”.
However, some users commented that Onions or Garlic are not the same as Onion powder or Garlic powder as Onions or Garlic are in fact, vegetables.
On the other hand, Onion powder and Garlic powder are blended versions of those vegetables—meant to use as seasoning.
The debate goes on and on in the comment sections of the same, reposted video.