TikTok is notorious for starting new, yet odd trends, especially in fashion, slang, comedy, style, and most importantly, food.
From Dubai chocolate to 2020 whipped coffee to Wingstop mukbangs, many people have been influenced to expand their horizons and palate.
These trends usually fade into obscurity, but one recent meal is here to stay, at least for now: the Tiffany Plate.
What is the Tiffany Plate?
The trending food, started by TikToker and influencer Tiffany Magee, @tiffanymagee, was a meal plan that she started to eat once a day as part of a weight loss program.
She also claims that it helps alleviate symptoms of Lyme Disease after being put on a highly restrictive diet by her doctor.
While the included foods on the plate vary because she often switches the flavor of electrolytes she puts in her water, the sauce she mixes with her cottage cheese, a select few key ingredients usually remain the same.
Every Tiffany Plate includes two chicken apple sausages, raw broccoli florets, carrot sticks, and the worst thing I’ve ever had the pleasure of putting in my mouth, hearts of palm.
She also sometimes includes pickled onions, radishes, dragonfruit, brie cheese bites, nougat, and eggs.
Trying the Plate
I was feeling very brave one Saturday and went on an adventure to my local Stop and Shop to collect the ingredients needed to make the plate at home.
I already had broccoli and carrot sticks at home, so I didn’t need to repurchase, but for everything else, it came to around $40, which was really expensive considering it was mostly vegetables.
I was mostly intrigued by the hearts of palm, which had a very vague description on the can and were a whopping $6.
Preparing the plate was actually fairly easy, but the sausages did take a long time to prepare (time I wish I didn’t waste).
I went into the plate fairly open, but my ambition faltered when I opened the can of hearts of palm and was subjected to the absolutely RANCID smell. I’m not sure how to accurately describe it, but it was akin to something rotting, which was not what I was imagining, especially when a lot of social media users said it tasted like artichoke.
The smell was so atrocious that my mom promptly got up from the kitchen table and left.
The first thing I tried, the chicken apple sausage was fairly good. It was a simple sausage with a crispy outside and a slightly sweet flavor coming from the apple inclusions.
It was a good time all around until I dipped it into the cottage cheese and mustard mixture. At first, I thought it was just an odd textural combination and taste that I might not like because I don’t even like cottage cheese or mustard, but my mom, a fanatic of both items, tried it and was almost more disgusted than I was. Her face screwed up into a look of sheer horror and regret and my standards immediately plummeted through the floor.
The broccoli florets and carrot sticks in the dip were significantly less gross, but as I was chewing, I just couldn’t get behind the flavor profile. The cottage cheese was bland and chunky, and the mustard completely overpowered any flavor it might’ve had. With every bite, I was more baffled by the fact that Magee eats this plate every single day.
I wish I could have gone back in time to warn my past self to quit while she was ahead and not put the hearts of palm in her mouth, because I have never experienced anything like it.
After ten minutes of silent self-encouragement, I began to break the hearts of palm in two while I read the back of the can. It unsettingly peeled like string cheese, and I grew a little more fearful as I read that the hearts of palm came from the inside of a palm tree.
Horrendous flavor. It was extremely chewy and wet, but almost fishy, and it was out as soon as it went in.
My mom refused to touch them, but my disappointment with the meal majorly outweighed my prior excitement.
And made me ask myself a few burning questions: Who would eat this? And why is it so popular?
TikTok users allege that there might be a darker force at play behind this foul meal.
Tiffany Plate: The Controversy
Rumors are beginning to emerge that Tiffany Magee, the creator of the trend, might be involved in the Church of Scientology.
The Church of Scientology is a religious organization founded in the mid-twentieth century surrounding the belief that humans are immortal.
However, according to the official website for Scientology, “Scientology is a religion in its highest meaning, as it helps bring Man to total freedom and truth”.
Some famous examples of Scientologists are actors Tom Cruise and John Travolta.
However, the religion is famously regarded to be more similar to a cult with its odd practices and difficulty to leave. Many members of the religion have been tried and/or charged with manslaughter, tampering with witnesses in a trial, fraud, human trafficking, and embezzlement.
Some TikTok users, who even claim past affiliation with the religion, say that Magee’s father, Chris Estey, the owner of a skincare business, is a high-ranking official in Scientology (MLM sector), and his daughter is just as involved.
On http://tonyortega.org, a website that covers Scientology-based news, there is a 2021 article listing Estey and his family as “Elite Ambassadors” of the organization.
While at first these allegations seemed unlikely, photos emerged of Magee at hotels where Scientology events were happening and even at the events themselves. Her husband can also be seen pictured on the Clearwater Scientology page.
She also participated in a toy drive for an unnamed organization and slipped up when some users questioned where the toys were going. Instead of a foster care facility like she initially said, she provided the name of a school, and then finally settled on a winter wonderland event conveniently held at a Scientology church. (https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8MxryWH/)
Magee even addressed the first rumors in a 2023 TikTok video, but seemingly danced around the topic at hand. While she stands up for everyone having a right to religion, she never truly clarifies where she stands.
The questioning of her beliefs has ramped up with the plate’s growing popularity, but Magee has taken to blocking users who ask, avoiding questions in her livestreams, and filtering comments. Some people also claim that they received cease and desist letters.
However, even if it is the truth or not, the idea of eating a platter with a potential dark origin and that could potentially be funding a cult-adjacent agenda didn’t sit well with many social media users.