In a former life, I had to make charcuterie plates professionally. Despite the fact that I’ve made a thousand of them, I’ve never gotten tired of doing it. It’s fun to creatively arrange the different cheeses and meats next to condiments, fruit, nuts, etc. Whenever I go to a party I always bring a cheese plate–people are always happy about it and they don’t take too much work. It turns out that the latest TikTok trend is something called “girl dinner,” which is just another name for a charcuterie plate or snacking plate. (Maybe I should become a “girl dinner” influencer now?) But, like most things that blow up on TikTok, it’s not without its controversy. Some people think that “girl dinner” is just another way to encourage women to cut calories by eating smaller amounts.
What is “girl dinner”: A new trend showing aesthetically pleasing, easy-to-prepare food has taken over TikTok. It’s called the “girl dinner,” and it involves essentially putting a bunch of food you might have in your refrigerator together to make a meal. Popular snacks featured in a typical “girl dinner” include cheese, salami, olives, pickles, fruit, vegetables, bread, and eggs. They are typically arranged nicely on a plate, so it feels like a special treat.
The origins of the phrase “girl dinner”: The trend even has its own catchy jingle — a woman singing “girl dinner” over and over again to the sound of upbeat music. So far, the sound has been used in over 2,300 videos. The term “girl dinner” was coined by Olivia Maher, 28, who lives in Los Angeles, when she posted a video of her dinner of bread, cheese, grapes, and wine on May 12. In the video, which now has over 1.2 million views, she said, “I cannot find the TikTok right now but a girl just came on here and said how in medieval times peasants had to eat nothing but bread and cheese and how awful that was, and she was like, ‘that’s my ideal meal’. This is my dinner. I call this ‘girl dinner’ or ‘medieval peasant.'”
The inevitable backlash: As the trend has blown up, it also attracted negative attention. Some of it is lighthearted, with users creating parodies of a “girl dinner,” but others have questioned whether there may be negative aspects to these types of posts, expressing concern that some of the meals aren’t balanced enough, and questioning whether many of the plates contain enough food to count as a full meal.
“OK I am pro girl dinner I understand girl dinner I get it girl dinner heals your soul BUT some of these ‘girl dinners’ look a little suspiciously low cal to me,” TikTok user @siennabeluga said in a video which has over 720,000 views. The video’s top comment, written by TikTok user @alonia92, currently has over 23,500 likes. It said, “Literally. Some of them look really balanced with veggies/fruit/multiple proteins (cheese and meat). Some are olives and a piece of salami. Scary.”
I go on TikTok just occasionally because I have a sneaking suspicion it’s only a matter of time before The All-Knowing Algorithm senses that I have struggled with disordered eating. I do not want it to show me diet content, but I know that stuff is all over the place on TikTok, so I avoid getting sucked into the app for too long. The YouTube and Instagram algorithms know this about me and it’s a constant battle clicking the “I’m Not Interested” button below weight loss tip videos. So I get why people are concerned by this trend and how it could be used to camouflage disordered habits. I think that says less about the trend of “girl dinner” and more about the way that diet culture seems to impose itself on many different food trends. But I like the format of “girl dinner”. Making a snacking plate is usually easy to prepare and clean up which is always a plus. And a cheese plate done well is pretty well-balanced with carbs, protein, and fat. It’s satisfying to have so many different textures and flavors, and sometimes it’s nice to prioritize the sensory experience of a meal. I am going to go grocery shopping tomorrow and get some charcuterie fixings now.
@alanalavv Replying to @María GM thank you to everyone who commented ‘girl dinner’ on my snack plates and introduced me to the best concept / phrase ever 🫒🧡 #girldinner #snackplate #snackplates ♬ original sound – hanana
I agree that a really well done charcuterie plate should have a good balance of carbs, protein, and fats. And also be really filling. That to me looks like plenty of food really. I’ve done smaller plates for dinner and easily been full especially when you add the crackers/bread I eat with it.
It looks like enough food to me, too, but also looks like a tremendous amount of salt! Totally not food I enjoy (except for olives) but I think almost everyone has some version of this same thing – most people just don’t bother with the nice board and the photo.
Isn’t this just called cheese and crackers? Lol.
I love a good charcuterie board, and I agree, it’s a nice way to get creative with food. My favorites include good nuts, dried apricots, salty cheeses, and jams. Yummm.
Some of those look amazing! I would love to have halloumi, olives, almonds, hard-boiled eggs, bread, jam, and prosciutto for dinner. It could be expensive if you didn’t just have all of it already; I’d spend too much on the Murray’s section of Kroger!
It does remind me of a sophisticated version of a lot my toddler’s meals. I start with a divided plate and add bits of anything we have that he’ll tolerate until it looks balanced.
I do this pretty frequently when I’m the only one at home: make a meal out of what’s there. I don’t see a problem with it? A plate with cheese, pickles, bread, olives and grapes sounds pretty filling and satisfying. I love all of those foods. If there was a lot of cheese in the fridge, I might over-indulge if anything.
To me this has nothing to do with diet but just not wanting to cook. If it’s just me I’ll have cheese and bread. Whatever I can find since I’m tired. I don’t see what the big deal is.
I would call this back in the day a ‘single ladies’’ or ‘bachelorette’ dinner of some wine with cheese and crackers and other pickings.
I do sometimes think social media jumps the gun with these characterizations of what is disordered or controversial but then again who am I to say as generally I don’t have an issue with disordered eating so I can’t speak to whats triggering or not in this category.
But for the most part all of the friends I had who worked full time on the office and lived alone – this was obvi pre pandemic – made some version of a meal like this.
Like Carina says – it is simple and easy to clean up afterwards.
I do think it’s annoying who these kiddos on TikTok believe they invented everything tho – at least this is always the vibe that’s given off with these posts.
Honestly those plates don’t look that small. And as someone who’s neurodivergent with executive dysfunction, I often forget to eat, or can’t bring myself to eat something I was wanting to eat earlier because it will suddenly become unappetizing. So I often struggle with deciding what to eat. A snack board like this is great in those situations because I can just put together a bunch of little things until I’ve got a meal’s worth of food on there.
OMG, I get that “I wanted this at the grocery store but now very much do not want to eat it” thing far too frequently. So annoying! I try to eat fresh stuff but rely on pasta instead of bread because the bread might go bad.
I love to graze and have choices. It helps with the “ugh, no” reaction.
BTW if you like to camp, look up snackle box.
Bee, I just looked it up and that’s fantastic!
If it’s a balance of foods-great! I love appetizers for dinner sometimes. I have seen this on social media for years-but as a way to get toddlers/preschoolers to eat-not for adults.
This is a standard lunch for me, although I just put it on a plate, not a fancy board.
I saw this trend emerge, at first it was just women relating over being tired at the end of the day and deciding not to feel guilty over raiding the fridge for a cobbled-together meal, of which bread and cheese was almost always the easiest options. Then influencers came and styled it up and now it’s a “thing”, like can’t we just keep one thing simple and relatable? Why does everything have to be elevated to the point where you’re in Insta-worthy competition over how photogenic your junk dinner is?
I travel a lot in Europe and they offer these on most menus. Beautiful plates with cheese, meats fruits and veggies served with a bread or crackers. I wish more places here in the states would do the same. I have found a few but wish for more.
Ikr? This is nothing new, it’s called an “assiette d’ete” or “assiette de l’automne” or “assiette (whatever season)” in French, it’s perfectly lovely and healthy with a nice combination of cheeses, nuts, cured meats, marinated vegetables from a jar or can, or a small cup of soup with seasonal vegetables, fresh bread to serve with, dips…you’re basically limited only by your preferences and your imagination. My husband and I call it “fridge/pantry tartare” LOL. I always have a bunch of things like this on hand and it’s a great lunch or weeknight dinner for when you don’t want to cook and you’re more in the mood for nibbling and grazing than a full “meal.”
Right? This seems to me to just be a new name for a Ploughman’s lunch, which has been served in pubs forever… I do this at home too – my most recent fave: prosciutto, cantaloupe, old cheddar, french bread.
About six years ago the pub by my house (stateside) sold it as a Ploughman’s but after the pandemic it came back as the Charcuterie. Same dish, different fashionable name.
It’s my preferred meal, especially in the summer–no need to use the oven! My mother-in-law puts out a charcuterie board late in the afternoon to let people graze in the lead up to dinner. Everyone enjoys it.
This is very European. My German family raised us on meals like this. Usually there would be some dark rye or crispbread, paté, cheeses, various pickles, salami, fresh veggies, etc. Like a make-it yourself sandwich station. And we would drink copious amounts of black tea with it!
Basically, just a fancy german Abendbrot/Brotzeit 😉
“I think that says less about the trend of “girl dinner” and more about the way that diet culture seems to impose itself on many different food trends.”
I think this is the right take.
Whenever my husband is out of town this is how I eat. This is how i ate when i was single. Those plates looked fairly balanced and definitely not short on calories.
It’s healthier than grabbing a burger and fries.
So easy and quick. Cheese, fruit, crackers.
Gotta be better vs. fast food or McD’s.
I don’t know how it is a trend tho, it’s pretty common during summer time here.
All my meals are like this. Not necessarily charcuterie boards, but eating stuff from my fridge, with no specific types of food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I might have pasta for breakfast or eggs for dinner.
Pasta for breakfast! Yum! Reminds me of hitting the morning buffet in Vegas. My favorite breakfast, before I decided to cut fat calories, was an avocado with salsa, mmm.
My favorite breakfast is last night’s leftovers, haha. Already prepared! The budget Vegas buffet, lol.
I have to say that avocados are some of the healthiest fats you can eat. My Dr actually told me to eat avocados. Best Dr instruction ever, lol. I slice them and top triscuits, add to salads, sammitches… if there’s a Target near you, they have squeezable guacamole that stays fresh. It’s so great and probably going to be everywhere soon. I could never give up avocados.
While I’m up, I really appreciate your comments on the Sarah Brady threads. Thank you. It’s a frustrating subject.
I eat the same way Bee. I don’t like any breakfast foods. So I eat last night’s leftovers for breakfast. Salad for lunch. Then make something new for dinner. Rinse and repeat. It’s easy and I don’t get bored with food.
So, it’s the lazy snack dinner my hubby and I have been making for 40 years, and we totally did not invent, because my relatives were serving that for decades at get togethers before I started doing it.
We call it that too, snack dinner. We’ve been doing it forever and my kids love it, and my mom does too now that her kids are all out lol (we’d do snack dinner sometimes on vacation, but it wasn’t a regular home thing for us). But that just goes to show that it’s been around forever, and that’s the main thing I hate about social media is how something that’s not new gets a new name put on it and someone gets credit for ‘inventing’ it.
Yes, exactly! “Snacks for Dinner” is what we call it.
I just had this kind of thing for lunch yesterday (minus the wine). I’m moving away from dinner entirely, and having my biggest meal at lunch and then a snack (much like these meals) around 4 pm. I don’t do manual labor and don’t need 3000 calories a day, or even three “full” meals.
I do this for lunch all the time. I’ve always called it a ploughman’s plate because there’s a pub near my house that has it on the menu that way.
It’s hilarious how TikTok finds perfectly normal things and ‘brands’ them as something new. It’s just a time saving way to make a meal with decent food!
My partner (M) and I (F) love a meal like this, we think of it more as a mezze platter and it’s a great way to use up bits of leftovers too that aren’t enough for a full meal and make it different with crudités and houmous or apple and a bit of cheese. Easy and tasty! I also find sometimes you need less carb with a meal like that which isn’t a bad thing.
I guess this just isn’t for me as I don’t eat meat or cheese and I’m not a “girl” but a grown ass woman. 😊
I’m glad I’m not the only one bristling at the ‘girl’ part of the name. It’s so diminutive and diminishing to label anything vaguely fem as ‘girl’. /rant
I’ve been eating snack plates since I moved out on my own, almost 30 years ago. It’s my preferred way to eat a meal and when I don’t have my kids I almost exclusively eat these for meals.
What a wonderful idea! Looks pretty and there’s less dishes to wash. I love it. All these years living in Spain, serving everything in all different plates.
We do this as a family on Friday nights pretty often. We call it “cheese and bread dinner”. If I was single, I’d probably have this or a protein topped salad for dinner every night. I don’t love cooking and this is a nice way to get in a variety of foods
I hate that TikTok calls this a “girl dinner” the tile is giving toxicity when the meal is not.
These are nothing new and you can find pre-made ones of all sizes in any grocery store, Walmart, target, Wawa and so on. They make ones for kids as well.
My husband just had a bit of a health scare, already super fit and a healthy eater, he has gone above and beyond….but it’s funny because I had seen this trend in the NY Times (I think?) and then yesterday I was sitting on our patio and out he comes with a plate of hummus, carrots, olives, grapes, cherries and some nut thins. I told him he had the ‘girl dinner’…and he said, it’s great, I’d eat like this every day 🙂
Hope your husband is doing okay mellie! ‘girl dinner’ sounds so silly when you say it out loud doesn’t it :’)
This is what I prepare on Christmas to feed the family and it’s amazing. Super easy and everyone can eat at their own pace. Plus I don’t spend my holiday in a hot kitchen for hours (I do that on Christmas Eve instead) while everyone has fun.
I think this is fun and how I love to eat. Little nibbles of all my favorite foods. As to the backlash? God. It is exhausting. Eat what you want to eat. Women are not babies who constantly need to be told what to do. How to dress and what to put in our mouths.
I just scrounged through my refrig and had an early wfh lunch of lox, half an avocado, a boiled egg, and a handful of almonds because 1. that’s all I could find and 2. I could not be bothered to cook for just me. Lazy, no….just being hip and, with the times, call it my “girl lunch”, who knew? LOL
Our family has been doing this for YEARS. We used to call it “surprise plates”. Kids loved them. We still do it.
They should call themselves dinfluencers, lol.
When people call it charcuterie, I think it misses the point. It’s a meal that a woman makes that’s just what SHE wants to eat. It doesn’t have to be composed dishes, it removes the labor of mealtime that is usually put on the woman.
Kids call that “Lunchables”
My folks have been calling that a ‘Picnic Lunch’ since…the 1950s? My Grandpa got sent to Germany during the Korean War and used all his leave time to go to every museum and art gallery in Europe he could visit within a 3 day leave, and brought back this idea. No clue where he got it from.