An anonymous banquet cook has spent weeks turning a routine prep task into a viral experiment: he sliced a cup of chives nearly every day until Reddit agreed the cuts were flawless. The stunt—part performance, part practice—has become a small-scale study in online accountability and why culinary minutiae can grip a broad audience right now.
The user, posting under the name now known as “Chivelord,” began the project on Oct. 7 with a simple promise: keep cutting chives daily until the community called them perfect. Early posts drew detailed critique rather than praise—readers pointed out long, uneven pieces and cuts that didn’t separate cleanly—and the thread quickly gathered a committed following.
Chivelord works in the banquet industry without formal chef training and says he picked chives because they present a particular knife challenge: they are slim, delicate and demand precise control. What started as a jokey idea—sparked by an Instagram account that judges herb cuts—turned into a daily ritual he felt compelled to maintain.
Not every entry passed muster. Fans flagged issues with his tools and technique, advising different cutting boards or sharper blades. One notable slip, later dubbed “Chivegate” by followers, came when he reposted an earlier image on Day 31 instead of a fresh cut; he apologized the next day and posted an over-abundant penance—two cups of chives and a playful arrangement shaped like a cat.
As the posts continued, the experiment blurred hobby with community service. Thousands of comments and hundreds of thousands of upvotes kept him accountable; followers messaged him when posts ran late, genuinely concerned about his well-being. By Dec. 21—about Day 70 in his count—Redditors agreed the chives had reached the standard he’d been seeking.
How professional chive-watchers reacted
Precision with herbs is often treated by cooks as a proxy for overall knife skills. Chefs interviewed online and the anonymous Instagram judge behind RateMyChives follow similar standards, and many professionals participate in the conversation around what “perfect” looks like.
Industry view: Chefs say neat, uniform chive cuts suggest disciplined technique and control.
Social response: The Reddit series occasionally hit r/all, bringing the niche experiment to a wider audience.
External critique: RateMyChives acknowledged awareness of the project but judged the final post as uneven and somewhat crushed, offering a median score rather than full endorsement.
RateMyChives told reporters that, while Chivelord may feel satisfied, the account’s grader would place the final effort well below top professional standards. The anonymous Instagram account also noted it had seen many submissions from followers and had been watching the Reddit run without reposting most of the images.
Chivelord says the exercise improved his confidence beyond chives. He reports becoming quicker and steadier with the knife across many tasks, crediting the constant feedback loop with accelerating his learning.
The story matters beyond its quirky surface. It highlights how online communities can enforce standards, foster skills through repetition and public critique, and even cultivate small rituals that generate real social ties. Hobbyist projects like this can propel a private practice into a public performance—complete with fans, criticism and reputation at stake.
“What do I do now?” he asked followers after the final post; replies urged rest, then a new challenge—perhaps onions. Whether he keeps posting or lets the account rest, the run has already illustrated a distinct trend: even the smallest, most technical acts in the kitchen can become shared cultural touchpoints when enough people tune in.
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