It couldn’t be simpler. Cherry tomatoes go into a baking dish with olive oil, salt and pepper — and at the center of it all, a full block of creamy, salty feta cheese. Into the oven it goes to get all melty and roasty and delicious. Then add garlic, fresh basil, and cooked pasta, and you’ve got dinner.
That recipe, originally by Finnish blogger Jenni Häyrinen, took off on TikTok and sparked a feta craze that has affected real-world demand and supply — so much so that the New York Times dubbed the phenomenon “the TikTok feta effect.” Stores couldn’t keep it on shelves and cheesemakers expanded production to keep up. Häyrinen wrote that feta sales went up 300 percent in Finland after she first posted the recipe in 2019.
