A chef has transformed a McDonald’s meal into a shepherd’s pie in a viral TikTok – but viewers are divided.
Content creator Danny Kim, 26, from Maryland, US, challenged chef Nicholas Martino to create the popular British dish with the fast food staple as his main ingredients.
Handing him a bag filled with fries, a double quarter pounder burger with cheese, and ketchup, Danny dared the chef to transform the meal.
Nicholas starts by deconstructing the burger and putting the plain buns in the oven.
He chops the beef patties until they resemble mince to “coax as much natural flavours out as possible”.
He then chops the gherkins and onions before adding them to the frying pan alongside shallots, garlic and fresh thyme.
Meanwhile, Nicholas roughly chops the fries before adding them to a saucepan with some heavy cream.
Once the fried vegetable mixture has softened, he adds the burger mince and some ketchup for a “sweet tang” and some Worcestershire sauce.
He later adds some lamb demi glaze and tosses the mixture.
In a hot pan, he adds some Coca Cola – which came with the McDonald’s meal – allowing it to reduce before adding tomato paste and Worcestershire sauce.
He blends the creamy fries mixture to create a smooth mash and folds in egg yolks to help it caramelise on top. He adds the complete mix to a piping bag.
Meanwhile, he removes the toasted buns from the oven.
Finally, it is time to construct the pie.
In a pie dish, Nicholas adds the beef, adding chunks of roasted carrot and roasted swede, before piping the mashed potato in delicate swirls, covering the meat.
He cooks the pie and turns his attention to the buns – which he chops finely to create breadcrumbs, which he adds to a mixture of melted butter and thyme.
Nicholas removed the cooked pie from the oven and sprinkles the breadcrumbs on top to garnish.
He finishes with the Coca Cola brown sauce and streaks it across the top of the pie.
He says: “That’s it. Turned the double quarter pounder with cheese, two fries and a Coca Cola into a beautiful English shepherd’s pie.”
Nicholas and Danny tuck in, declaring the finished meal a triumph.
Danny says: “That’s delicious – you killed it.”
The clip was shared on TikTok, where it racked up 392,000 likes and was viewed 6.3 million times.
Several viewers also corrected the chef on the proper name for the dish.
Shepherd’s pie typically uses lamb mince, while a cottage pie uses beef – like the McDonald’s burger.
Meanwhile other followers were left divided on the outcome – debating whether or not they would prefer the basic fast food meal.
One fan said: “I’d love to try that. It looks amazing.”
“Recycling at its finest,” another user agreed.
Someone else commented: “Looks so good they must cook good food.”
“This one was actually legit,” agreed another fan.
Someone else called the dish “amazing”, while a British user gave their stamp of approval too, calling it “decent”.
But not everyone was sold on the dish.
One person said: “Is it just me or is it a sin to put mash in a blender?”
“The pie looks good but I’ll just take the McDonald’s,” another user commented.
Someone else said: “Now I’m craving McDonalds.”
“No don’t destroy McDonald’s,” agreed another viewer.
One user added: “They always gotta ruin the fries.”
“Immediately no,” said someone else.
Another person joked: “Cry’s in British.” [sic]
Danny has previously challenged other chefs to transform fast food, including Ashish Alfred, who he dared to turn a McDonald’s Fillet-o-Fish meal into two gourmet dishes.
However, followers declared Nicholas’ triumph the “best transformation yet”.
