Philadelphia is well-known for its brotherly love, supposedly, and of course, the famous Philly cheesesteak sandwiches. However, one proud Philly cheesesteak sandwich chef might have taken his promotion a little too far after angrily claiming that his family recipe is the best in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Coincidentally, he also drew some harsh criticisms for his style of making Philly cheesesteak sandwiches, because he more or less smeared raw meat juice and bacteria on the bread:
Pat’s King of Steaks in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, is the shop in question, and its owner recently posted the video of his cooking on TikTok. Pat’s video quickly became famous (or perhaps notorious) for insinuating that other Philly cheesesteak stores are subpar for cutting their meat to make them easier to bite, “We don’t need to chop it up like baby food, like all the other places.”
But what alarmed some of the viewers was how Pat’s owner apparently handled the sandwich by using the same glove he used for handling the raw ribeye to also finish assembling the sandwich, possibly cross-contaminating the piece. Raw meat is well-known to be a bacterial magnet, especially for Salmonella, which is why we usually cook meat or wash our hands after handling it. Hence, some viewers thus mocked Pat’s owner for supposedly not following a standard food safety practice:
“‘I am a classically trained chef, now watch as I handle raw food before handling prepared food without changing my gloves or washing my hands'” points out one Reddit user
“The cross contamination is what makes it taste good!” responded another
“He handled raw meat then handled bread without changing his gloves. 🤮🤢🤮”
It’s not clear whether Pat’s owner served the cheesesteak sandwich he made for the video or ate it, or whether the possible cross-contamination is intended as a bait or viral hook or not. However, the owner’s aggressive and what many consider as arrogant level of marketing hasn’t gone unnoticed, and people further made fun of him for it.
A Little Too Serious for Sandwich?
Many viewers have since pointed out that Pat’s owner didn’t need to be angry, with one TikTok user asking, “Why is dude so angry? LOL” and “He mad as hell about those cheesesteaks aint he?”. Philadelphia natives, however, defended Pat’s owner, with one of them saying, “Because he’s a Philly OG. That’s just how they talk 💕”.
Some, however, found it funny how the cheesesteak sandwich was served with real ribeye only to be paired with something processed and unnatural like Cheese Whiz. “Naaaa I ain’t hitting this spot … lost me with no season and cheese wizzz 😅😂,” swears one TikTok user. Some defended Pat’s further, stating that authentic Philly cheesesteak sandwiches need to have Cheese Whiz.
It’s worth noting, however, that the very first and early Philly cheesesteak used Provolone cheese (and the earliest version didn’t even have cheese). Pat’s, however, is the one that popularized the Cheese Whiz version. Hence, an alleged chef in the comment section had to chime in with “Sous chef here. He takes this shit way too seriously, as do most chefs I’ve worked with. It’s a sandwich, dude. A sandwich. Relax.”
