Bon Appetit’s Controversial ‘Pho Is New Ramen’ Video Removed After Massive Backlash

A video launched on Bon Appetit that left the Asian community livid. Tyler Akin, owner of Stocked. in Philadelphia, was featured in Bon Appetite Magazine’s latest food video. The nearly two-minute video was an interview with Akin explaining the “proper” technique to eat the popular Vietnamese noodle dish pho, which he believes is on a trendy rise.

After a little more than 24 hours on the website Bon Appetit removed the video altogether, both from their Facebook and YouTube channels.

While we’re scrambling to find some footage for you guys, here’s the deets:

The chef claims that adding hoisin sauce or Sriracha, two staples iconic to the dish, would ruin the broth and that he doesn’t mess around with it. Patrons are supposed to try spoonfuls of the broth first before thinking of reaching for the black and red bottles. Ironically, the chef soon adds that he’ll drown that broth in as much lime juice as he can get his hands on.

Still, as someone who grew up eating Pho for nearly three decades, there’s really no wrong way to eat it. The beauty of the dish is that it’s just broth and noodles, with toppings and condiments served on the side. This lets the you create a dish that’s best for you and your taste buds.

Akin also calls pho the new ramen pretty early into the video. Never mind that the dishes are completely different and from two separate cultures. We can’t help but think of this scene from the King of the Hill:

We’re sure Bon Appetit’s intentions were well, but the Facebook video drew some heated comments from Asian followers regarding the cultural insensitivity of the content. Some of them were just savage, with Facebook users threatening to come into Akin’s restaurant and dousing his establishment with hoisin and sriracha.

With more than one million views, the video went viral, forcing Bon Appetit to go back and clarify the meaning of their article, before just removing it altogether hours later.

This led to backlash on the magazine’s Facebook timeline:

Sorry guys, you know as well as anyone the Internet is unforgiving. Especially when it comes to food.