You won’t believe what’s inside Eve Scampoli’s fridge.
A live orchid, eucalyptus twigs, and a framed photo of her cat, just for starters.
Many TikTok commenters think she shouldn’t cook, but we’re not so sure. There are yogurt, eggs and vegetables on the shelves. Meat and a closed and loaded cheese grater are stored in the drawers. Bottled beverages are overrepresented, perhaps, and we’re not sure where your ketchup is, but there are tons of possible meals here when you include pantry staples like beans and dry pasta.
Oh wait, she also keeps dry pasta in her fridge.
As you can imagine, the reactions are mixed. For some people, it’s an organized and inspiring piece of art.
“Ok these videos inspired me to organize my fridge and freezer but I have too much food to decorate,” commented one Scampoli TikTok user.
“Enough! This is the dream!” wrote another.
“I really hate myself for loving this,” another TikTok user admitted.
For others, it’s a strange waste of effort.
“If we are decorating refrigerators, I stay out,” another person commented on his 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 stay alive with such a near-terminal case of ADS (cosmetic disorder syndrome),” joked New Yorker writer Helen Rosner on Twitter.
Some people are also concerned about the well-being of their cat.
“Maybe the cat died in the fridge, have some respect,” one person joked. tweeted.
TODAY.com caught up with Scampoli to ask, well, why? She tells us that she grew up with parents who made Sunday the centerpiece of the week to clean up and cook, with an emphasis on traditional Italian foods. 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 the proportions, because I had to learn how to go from family style to cooking just for myself,” says Scampoli. He discovered that she was wasting food, so she focused on learning how to shop strategically.
The method of this madness? In an extension of his family’s weekly routine, he stops by Publix every Sunday and plans his meals on the go around the best-looking ingredients. Then he comes home to restock and redecorate with a glass of wine. There are a few specialty foods on the spotless shelves, like quail eggs and prosciutto di Parma, but for the most part, stick with familiar brands like Chobani yogurt and Sabra hummus. In all, there are about a dozen fridge makeovers on her TikTok account, from the first little bouquet between blueberries and Brussels sprouts, to a Halloween diorama of skeletons and ornamental eggplant stalks, to spectacles. even more elaborate.
With the camera set up, you open the refrigerator doors and start with the greenery, add decorative items from your house along with the groceries. She takes a sip of wine while asking the cat (alive and well) his opinion of the produce chart, repeatedly turning off the alarm on the refrigerator door.
His Christmas episode features a snow globe filled with eggs, a square foot of Michelob Ultra, and an elf on the shelf. A tall can of small tomatoes replaces what had been jars garnished with red and green earlier in the video. “The candles were definitely a bad idea,” she says with a laugh.
Its most popular version, with eucalyptus sprigs, individual servings of vitamins in small jars, and fresh basil in a herbarium, has nearly 4 million views.
Though she’s dead serious on one level and has a series of influential fridge makeovers planned, Scampoli is certainly in on the joke. He laughs about dropping a decorative tequila bottle on his eggs and chooses a voiceover that deadpans about the simplicity of keeping such an organized home: “just never have a husband, don’t have kids, and don’t have pets.” He also responds to criticism with skill, preparing eggplant parmigiana and chicken marsala on camera.
Are we saying you should decorate your fridge like it’s a centerfold in Architectural Digest? Only if it brings you joy. If you have multiple people in the house or collect mustard like Faberge eggs, your kitchen won’t look like this, and that’s okay! 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.
This article was originally published on TODAY.com