5 Reasons Rihanna’s Mac and Cheese Recipe Gets the Side Eye

Memorial Day means cookout season is officially underway and I couldn’t be more excited. There’s something special about stuffing your face with delicious food outside on paper plates while swatting bugs away.

You probably already have your meat marinating, but you can’t forget your sides. And when it comes to side dishes, nothing beats macaroni and cheese for me (no shade to potato salad and deviled eggs). So you can imagine how excited I was to see people talking about Rihanna’s recipe for one of my favorites.

The Rude Boy singer first shared her recipe with Esquire in 2014. And ever since, fans and foodies everywhere have tried to recreate it.

Some love it, like this PopSugar piece which said, “this pasta recipe is sure to make you want to take a bow.”

While others are skeptical, like this TikTok user whose face says it all:

And since I consider myself something of a macaroni connoisseur (aka snob), I had to weigh in. So let me start by saying, my family is from Alabama, so I’m partial to a good old fashioned macaroni and cheese casserole – the kind with mounds of hand-grated cheese and lots of butter, milk and eggs to make it extra creamy.

Rihanna is from Barbados, and her recipe borrows flavors from Caribbean macaroni pie. So if you’re looking for soul food, this ain’t it. I’m not saying I’m going to write it off all together, I just don’t know if I’m ready to serve this at my cookout. Lord knows I love me some RiRi, but here are five things I have to question about her macaroni and cheese recipe.

Okay, let’s just start with the most egregious offense here. Rihanna’s recipe calls for a medium white onion, a red bell pepper and 6 spring onions. And when you’re talking about soul food, that’s right up there with raisins in the potato salad. Let’s just put it out there – vegetables have no place in macaroni and cheese. I mean it’s in the name, after all. The macaroni is important, but we all know that the cheese is the star of the show.

And while we’re talking about cheese, I have to talk about the cheese (or lack of) in this recipe. Rihanna’s recipe calls for 900 g (just under two pounds) of shredded Colby Jack cheese. And that’s a great place to start. But why stop there? My favorite mac and cheese recipes go heavy on the cheese. Why not throw in some cheddar? And if you’re feeling fancy, why not add a little Gruyère while you’re at it?

You might want to debate me on this, but it’s hard to deny what a difference a good roux makes when it comes to making macaroni and cheese. As far as I’m concerned, there’s no such thing as too much fat, so for me, this recipe is missing the milk, butter, flour and eggs that make this dish so creamy and delicious that you’ll want to fight your relatives for the leftovers.

Mustard and ketchup are fine on hamburgers, but I can’t figure out why we’re putting them in this macaroni and cheese (a quarter cup of each, to be exact). Although some who have tried the recipe say the condiments, along with the 1-1/2 tablespoons of Jamaican Scotch Bonnet Pepper Sauce add a sweet and spicy flavor, I’m just not sure I’m ready to go there.

They say good things come to those who wait, which is why I’m worried that this recipe only cooks for 15 minutes. If it doesn’t take 45 minutes to an hour to make, I have questions.