When did butter become so luxe?

In recent months, my social media feeds have been filled with tweets referencing lemony garlicky miso gochujang brown butter pasta. The gag is that the dish is “fake,” purely existing as an unlikely meme that satirizes a subset of online food culture, typically reserved for affluent individuals who go out of their way to invest in posh-sounding ingredients, indulge in organic produce and seek inspiration from the NYT Cooking app.

“NYT recipes: Lemony garlicky miso gochujang brown butter gnocchi,” read an X post from January. “Kids in Park Slope be like ‘Mommy can we have lemony garlicky miso gochujang brown butter pasta for dinner pleeease?’” read another. Eventually, the lemony garlicky miso gochujang brown butter multiverse expanded to extraordinary lengths, compelling NYT Cooking to ho