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This could literally kill me. It's totally raw. I'm pretty sure this is an AI image. I have no idea what to expect. Today I'm investigating the world of Facebook Marketplace food. Over the last few months, I've been seeing videos of people finding restaurant-level cuisine. on Facebook, then purchasing it for insane prices, going to complete strangers' homes, and then picking it up to eat. Seems harmless, except without proper food handling techniques, this food could actually kill you. So I want to find out, are these food vendors serving legitimate food? And more importantly, are they doing it legally?
I can't believe we're doing this. How's it going, man? How are you? Here for the order? Yes, sir. Beautiful. Yes, sir. What's your name? Kevin. Kevin, nice to meet you. Nice. Pleasure. So I chatted with Kevin and I was able to break the ice just enough to convince him to see how he runs this Facebook Marketplace operation. Beautiful home you have. Thank you, man. I appreciate you. Okay, so this is legit. The kitchen's looking clean. You got your mise en place over there.
I mean, this is like a legit setup. Do you work in restaurants? I did. I worked mostly in the front of the house. I got to ask you, man, like, what got you into Facebook Marketplace? Because you could have gone and like co-opened a restaurant or did like a pop-up. Why this route? Like, what. what attracted you to it? I didn't have enough money to like start a food truck or anything, and I didn't have any investors or anything, so I just started cooking from here. And so you're basically like, "I got a home kitchen, I love to cook, I can make this happen." 100%. What's your typical process? Like, if someone's on Facebook Marketplace and they're scrolling and they
see something and they press like message or buy or whatever, like, what happens for you? So a majority of the time, I have orders set up days and days ahead, and I usually take payment prior so I can get the day scheduled so I don't run into people not showing up. I don't have much food loss. Works for them, which works for my schedule and then kind of just go from there. How many customers are you serving a day? Like about 10 to 12. There it goes. I've said this before. This is the chef's anthem.
Do you feel like Facebook Marketplace should have a dedicated food section? 1,000%. Right now I'm selling my food right next to a guy that's selling a broken-down lawnmower. We have to list under, like, miscellaneous. I try to do it in like the kitchen section. But then you're next to people selling, like, hand-me-down stoves and stuff. What do you know about the legality behind. running a business like this? I don't think you need too many licenses and stuff as long as you're using your house under cottage law, I believe it is.
I think there's a little bit of gray area for stuff like this. I'm not necessarily keeping stuff at temp because it's all cooked fresh whenever they're coming, but I've had my food handler's card. I keep everything cleanly. I know hold temperatures, and all that stuff, so I'm not at risk of getting anyone sick or anything. People that aren't, are doing it for the wrong reasons, or don't have their heart in it, either aren't going to last anyways they're going to get exposed. I'm just doing me, trying to keep my head down and keep the customers coming in,
and that's all I can really do right now. I was genuinely impressed with Kevin's setup. I didn't think that this would be as professional as it is, but let's be real. We still have to put his food to the real test. We're testing for three different things here. Accuracy, safety, and taste. Accuracy. First, does this look like the photos? Actually, yes, this looks exactly like the photos. This actually looks better than the photos.
Now, safety. This is the determiner of legality. a temperature probe. But why? Because we can use this to identify something called the danger zone. Do you want to get sick or die? Call 1-800-THE-DANGER-ZONE. Danger zone! Did you know that if food sits out between the temperatures of 40 and 140 Fahrenheit, you might have so much bacteria accumulated on your food that you may just get something worse than a trip to the bathroom! So the danger zone doesn't just lie in the temperature, but not knowing how long it's been there.
Now. back to Josh. So now that we know that, let's give it a rip. It's really cold. They really should be hotter. Any fried food should be quite hot. You ever bite into a mozzarella stick and it just burns the [bleep] out of your mouth? That's probably. way above 140. Although it's in the danger zone. We chatted with him for nearly 30 minutes, so naturally it would drop in temp. We saw it coming out of the pot, so it should be safe. But that said, we have the last test: taste, which means I'm still going to eat it.
The fries actually taste great. Fresh potato flavor, seasoned really nicely with salt. I like them. Boudin ball, I don't really think I. I don't think this is something you eat with a fork, but I'll do it anyway. That's phenomenal. It's obviously still warm because we've got a cheese pull. It is obviously cooked through. There's no raw meat in here, so it's probably relatively, generally safe to eat. That said, we have one more test: the fried rice.
First check: does this look like the photo? It kind of does, but this one is clearly AI-enhanced. That said, he did plate it quite nicely, so I'm going to accept it. Consistent, even cuts. The egg looks lovely. I'm into it. The next test. We're in the danger zone again. If you feel the side of this package, it is still quite warm. The tuna, on the other hand, is raw fish and also in the danger zone. But I watched him slice it fresh. He gives it to you right away. So you're at a lot lower risk. Now for taste.
Honestly, the rice is really nice, flavor-wise. Really, really, really good. He nailed the seasoning. I don't love the rice choice, but I'm not bothered by it. It's delicious. Now. for this tuna. It's actually seasoned well. It's nice. I normally hate seared ahi tuna because it's relatively flavorless, but this one, on the other hand, it's marinated. You can taste the flavor. You get the crunch of the sesame seed on the outside. This is a strong start for Facebook Marketplace food, but we have more to see, and it better keep some consistency here.
This next one is a little scary. You've got images that aren't owned by the person advertising the food. We don't know who they are. So please, right now, while you have the chance, subscribe to the channel to find out if I survive the upcoming meals. And also in case we need to pay for surgery. Now, our next stop is. a gas station. Well, a Circle K, to be specific. At least it's a decent gas station, right? I don't mind a Circle K. We're here for a full pan lasagna and a Gordon Ramsay burger. I think our guy is here somewhere.
I see his car. which says Demon. on the back. Hell, yeah. How's it going? Is this Joshua? Nice to meet you, man. Nice to meet you. I'd love to ask you. I know I've got like, cameras on. You're like, what's going on? No, you're good. How long have you been doing this? I've been doing this about eight months now. So you have two completely different foods. You have a burger and a lasagna. Why the lasagna? So I'm originally from California.
Oh, nice. Me too. Shout out to the Dodgers. Dodger dog. So I moved out here the end of 2020, and I was just kind of missing home-cooked food. My grandmother's lasagna specifically. So I called my mom. I'm like, hey, what's her recipe? Started making my own lasagnas. And I was like, maybe I could start, like, a food truck, sell them. Unfortunately, the finances aren't there to go legit, but I was like, I've seen people sell food on Marketplace. Why don't I just list it on there, see what traction it gets. That's really cool, man. I appreciate you sharing that with us.
I'm going to go eat this. Thank you for meeting us here. Yeah. Thank you. I guess. on to the next for you. Hope you enjoy. So we have the lasagna. A full sheet pan is $40. First up, does this look like the image? No, it's definitely someone else's image. What about safety? I will say this one was a little on the edge. It was pretty low in temp, but the edges of the pan were still warm. So I'm feeling. somewhat okay here. It's a lot better than I thought it was gonna be. If I were to make this better, I would add way more sauce.
Maybe put a bechamel or something to add a little bit of moisture to it. Is it at the top of my list for all the lasagnas that are out there? No, not really, but it's not bad. Next up, the Gordon Ramsay burger. You get one burger and one burger only for $12. I don't know that Gordon Ramsay would serve his burger in foil. That said, does it look like the picture? Here's the photo and here's the burger. No, it does not at all, actually. But overall, it doesn't look half bad. You got a little bit of Maillard at the bottom.
It looks like a standard burger with American cheese. Now, final frontier. safety. So far, everything's been in the danger zone, which is not great. It's important to remember that with the danger zone, that it also depends on how long you're in the danger zone. This. feels like it's been a while, if I'm being honest. The lasagna, I think, was safer than this one, but we're about to taste it.
Nah, it doesn't taste bad, but it's totally raw. I don't want to eat a rare burger from somebody I don't know. I mean, look, it's a burger that's been sitting in foil, so the bun is soggy. It tastes seasoned decently with salt. Generally just tastes like a ballpark hamburger. It's not quite. good or bad. But that said, I feel like I'm starting to learn a little more. Though I do love the entrepreneurial aspect. I like this guy's story. Let's see what we find next. So we have another gas station to visit, but there's a big problem. As soon as our guy found us, Paul Blart, mall cop, did not like the fact that I had a camera on me. So he forced us to leave.
And I'm a law-abiding citizen, so of course we left. Except the next spot we went to also had a security guard. And at this point, we lost our guy yet again. I don't know where he is. I already gave him my full deposit for the food. So if he doesn't show up, theoretically he just walks with my money. I was really starting to lose hope. But then. All right, let's go. What's up, man? How you doing? Wait a minute. Are you the Josh that I always see?
See, the legit ones know. Can you tell me about your operation a little bit? Well, we operate everything. We do mainly catering for events. Everything gets cooked at a proper temperature at a proper facility, which we call it a ghost kitchen. What made you push for Facebook Marketplace? Wanted to get the feel of it before I dive in deeper and invest all of my savings into it. After posting it waited and I started getting a lot of bites and I was like, wow, this is it. And then I went out and bought a van and decaled it up and in advertising.
So basically this is my rolling billboard. Are you doing this by yourself or is it just you? No, it's me and my wife and I have a crew of three other people. How long have you been running it? The last four years now. Wow, okay, so you're in pretty deep. My customers, they refer me to other people. I get slammed on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Do you have a history as a chef, like in the past? Do you go to culinary school?
I didn't go to a culinary. Me neither. I'm not a fan of it, honestly. But I did travel to part of India. I am from Pakistan. Got the training from the Indian chefs. I know Pakistan is a more spicier than Indian food. Our food is a fire in the hole. Okay. I love that you have some spices staining your hand. That's a beautiful thing. That's a man that's got his hand in the work.
Yes, sir. I don't believe in gloves. My mom taught me. You know, the love is in bare hands. Beautiful. Well, this was great. We'll take the food and leave. But I appreciate you letting us do this interview. And thank you so much, man. Thank you. He wasn't that late. He was really nice. He's got good energy. That usually translates to good food, so I guess we'll find out.
First, we have the accuracy test. Notice the price is $1. Weird, right? Turns out he's only selling full trays for $50. Maybe this is so you find out what the price is later. I have no idea. But does it at least pass the accuracy test? Oh, wow. I mean, that looks great. That looks exactly like the image. It also smells incredible. And this whole thing is only $50. If I had to guess, this weighs 25 pounds. I mean, that's a good deal, guys. Now, safety. This is registering at 130 Fahrenheit, which is only 10 degrees under the start of the danger zone.
That tells me that this has not really been sitting that long at all. I can almost guarantee you this is safe. Now just taste. Smells fragrant. Smells nice. First bite. Wow, that's good. This is the Facebook Marketplace food I was looking for. My God. Banger. This is like, one of the best biryani I think I've ever had. It's seasoned super deeply with salt and robed in spices. I'm definitely ordering this from this guy. And for 50 bucks, I mean, Jesus, I mean, that's an insane deal.
If he upped his prices, I would pay more. He even includes this beautiful sort of green sauce. I don't know exactly what it is. I'm gonna give it a little pour. Okay. Give it a mix. It, like, cools it down a little bit. Honestly, it doesn't even need it. The rice is cooked nicely. It's moist even without the sauce. This is a pretty high bar to set. I just don't know if anyone's gonna be able to beat it. So let's find out. Okay, we're at our next spot.
Jeanette. She has Jollof rice, which I'm a fan of. Let's see how it goes. Hi. Jeanette, right? Yes. Very nice to meet you. Pleasure. I know I've got these camera people here. We're shooting this thing. I know this is a weird question. Do you think it'd be okay if we came in to see your operation on how you're running this. .this Facebook Marketplace thing? Jeanette was extremely weirded out, which I can understand. But surprisingly, she let us come in so she could show off how she works this operation.
First of all, smells delicious. I have a couple questions. What's the story? Why jollof rice? Jollof rice is a very popular Nigerian dish. Growing up, Nigerian cooking is very important. Pause. Are you seeing this? This is our first glove wearing person of the entire video. This is a great sign that we have someone who really takes food safety seriously. Even I, myself, and chefs in fine dining rarely touch a pair of gloves, even though it is required by the FDA when handling ready-to-eat food. So, like,
I kind of just watched over my mom a lot over the years. It's just become more of a passion to just cook. What brought you to Facebook Marketplace with this? Honestly, it's kind of like a side hustle for me. My mom is a big cook, so we kind of just join hands together. So it's just kind of for fun. We take orders as they come with no pressure behind it. So how many orders do you usually get? Are you monitoring that or you guys are just kind of like, whatever happens, happens?
A little bit of both. We have some standing clients that actually order frequently, and then it's kind of just whatever comes through. And my mom works too, so it's whenever we have a chance. Does that keep it fun for you? Yes. And it allows us to bond as well when we're cooking together. Wow that's nice. Yeah. Oh, man. That makes me want to, like, start a little business with my mom. As you get older, it becomes harder and harder to spend time with your parents because you're busy working.
It's not that you don't want to, but, like, you're busy working. Yes. So you found a way to, like, marry the two. If you're both kind of doing this fun passion project together, you get to hang out more. I grew up in Saudi Arabia, so I. I left home at 15. I was away from my family, so this is kind of bringing us back together. Wow. Big portions. I appreciate that. Yes. So you've got your jollof rice, huge base of jollof, and then you're throwing in a chicken leg quarter, plantain. This is a traditional setup, essentially.
Traditionally, for salad, they prefer, like, coleslaw. Oh, I hate coleslaw. I do too. But it's not healthy. You're a thoughtful chef. Most chefs, the goal is, like, make it delicious, and if they die, they die. So you don't wanna make it a bigger thing. You wanna, like, let it be this thing where you. No, no, no. I see, I didn't say all that! If the money's flowing, I'm not gonna say no. But right now, it's just. it's fun.
It's great. It's- Gotcha. Yeah. Do you think it would be good if Facebook Marketplace put together a food tab? I definitely think that would help a lot. Facebook Marketplace, it's a little saturated with all the things that you can post on there. You could be scrolling for hours before you actually find something. I think a food tab would be amazing, actually. Has anyone asked you questions about, like, food safety or, like, health codes or anything like that? Oh, my gosh, yes. Every once in a while, there's a troll hiding behind an anonymous profile asking about, "Oh, your license or food safety." Sometimes it can be very defeating. But a lot of times I have my standing clients backing me up and word
of mouth just there to kind of support me along this journey. But it's brought me down a couple of times, kind of dealing and navigating those different trolls all the time. That's so weird. I wonder if it's organized. It's just, like, why there's so many people you could go after. Like, why a random person, like, just making Jollof rice? I don't know. And it's never somebody that's actually interested in ordering. It's just somebody that wants to, like, pull your legs or give you a hard time.
Well, thank you so much. Of course. This was great. You're so sweet. Thank you. Of course. Take care. We have our food, and we got a little baggie with napkins. Very appreciative of that. It also says, "Thank you for your order! Taste and see that the Lord is good." I can appreciate that. Now, this plate right here is $38. It's a little on the pricey end, but it's heavy. Now, is it accurate to the image on their page?
Yeah, actually, I would say that looks exactly like the image because she's cooking the food and using real photos, like she should. Very appreciative of that. Now, safety. Temp's 112. Not great. The important thing to remember about temperature is it is time and temperature. How long was it in the danger zone? If in the danger zone, this is obviously in the danger zone. It's a little on the lower end.
I prefer it to be closer to 120. Now, before we get to the rice, let's go with the chicken first. That is way better than I was expecting. I was thinking there's not a lot of color on this chicken. I usually much prefer to see some, like, browning. It does not need it. I mean, it's seasoned to the bone. Salted really nicely. It's fragrant. It's cooked perfectly. It's juicy. Now, a little bit of plantain. Very simple, plantains fried in oil. Delicious, fragrant.
Nothing wrong with them. But the most important, Jollof rice. I've never even seen Jollof rice in Austin. Could this theoretically, theoretically be the best? Oh, yeah. Look at the color of this rice right out the gate. I appreciate that the rice isn't mush. It's still al dente. It's got some chew, some toothsomeness. And there's some sweetness from her pepper mix. Just the lightest little tinge of heat. But it's not spicy.
It's just like a little bit of warming spice. In a way, it is a proper Jollof cooked absolutely perfect. Jeanette was incredibly sweet, and it's clear to me that the love and passion that she puts in her food is shining through right here. I love that she's doing this for fun with her mom, because at the end of the day, if a restaurant was serving this, they'd be screaming at the rooftops, "This is the best Jollof ever! This best Jollof!" They're just doing this. for fun. I don't know that we're going to be able to keep up this consistency every single time.
There's no way all these places are that good. So we move on. We're at our next location. We're in a quaint little neighborhood. Love it. But I do have a problem. I'm pretty sure this is an AI image, so I'm not sure how this is going to go. I have no idea what to expect. Hi! Wow. You got the whole getup and everything. Oh, I have that apron. Yeah. It's my favorite apron. Thank you. So nice to meet you. I'm Josh. Is that your business card?
Yes. Oh, this is legit. Oh, my God. I love it. I'd love to ask you a couple questions if you're down for that. Yeah, that's fine. Did you work in culinary. school? Is this like a passion of yours? Like, what's your history? Yes, I recently just graduated from culinary school. It's mostly just a side hustle. I'm a single mom, so it's another way that I can make money from home. They're pinging her left and right.
She's got a busy business here. Guys, are there a lot of restaurants out here, or do you feel like you're kind of fixing that problem? Yes. This particular area, I don't feel like we have a lot of restaurants and a lot of quick go-to places that have comfort meals and, like, meals that feel like home. Well, awesome. Well, I'm excited to eat this. Thank you so much for talking to us about this, and thank you for the plate. I appreciate you.
Yeah. So nice to meet you. Yeah. And thank you for the business card too. She got to get back to another order. She's getting hit up crazy. She's got this branded. This is the only one that I think we've had like that so far. If I got this from Uber Eats, I'd think this came from a restaurant. This whole plate is $25, and it's. it's hefty. This weighs a lot. Our first test, accuracy. Does this look like the image?
Well, first of all, before I even open this, the image is AI. But if the plate looks good, the plate looks good. So let's find out. Here we go. Oh, wow. This looks legit. And it smells insane. Like the smokiness on the chicken. This looks great. That's a pass. Now the safety check. First the Mac. Not bad. Close to 130. I mean, it's hot. It's burning my hand. It's not too far under 140, which tells me this has not been sitting for very long. So totally safe. Chicken. around the same.
We're looking at 120, 125, depending on which leg. Definitely fully cooked. Safety check. Pass. Final verdict is taste. I'm going to go with the chicken last because that's clearly the star of the show. I'm going to go. Let's go Mac and cheese. I really like Mac and cheese. I mean, it's. it's actually pretty good. I mean, it's great. I don't know if she's making it or not, but it's delicious. Super smoky, fatty. Nice. We got baked beans. This has ground beef in it, which I'm. I'm not sure I've ever seen in a baked bean, honestly. Those are great.
I like baked beans. I think a lot of people like to shit on them, but I see a little fleck of onion. Texture is really nice. I grew up eating these. Okay, I got a Southern Texas mom. These are great. Now, the pièce de résistance, the chicken. Really good. This fly. I wish it was five times bigger so I could pick it up and choke it in the air and look it in the eye. This reminds me of the plates that I would have at, like, my Uncle Larry's house, we'd have barbecue.
We'd be grilling stuff. We'd have Mac and cheese. I mean, all these things, right? Anyone who grew up in a Southern family knows what this tastes like. It tastes like legit homestyle food. Cooked properly, seasoned properly. Nothing's dry in this. Everything is flavored to the max. It's great. I'm kind of shocked. We're really on the up and up. We're just getting better and better. I just can't guarantee that's going to continue to happen. So we move on. But now we moved on to our most dangerous dish in this entire video.
Completely raw fish. If we can actually find the place. Now, our next location, when we messaged them, just said, "We close at 9, show up at this address." So here we are. I don't know. This is apparently where we get seafood and aguachile. At this point, I was pretty nervous. I'm really starting to second-guess this decision. I'm literally in the middle of nowhere picking up raw seafood from a complete stranger off Facebook. I couldn't find the spot, but then I found this tiny little trailer with a window in it and some nice ladies saying they had aguachile.
So I guess this is the spot. We have a mixed aguachile of green and red aguachile. This is one of their specialties. So we're going to focus on this. We also got a tostada, which I thought, amazing. It has octopus, but I think we just focus on this now. Question is, does this look like the photo? Actually, it looks incredible for something served in a plastic bowl. Looks beautiful. But let me be honest with you guys here.
This could literally kill me, because we have a bunch of raw seafood. If this isn't at the correct temperature, there's a real safety questionability here, so we'll check. Oh, boy. 62.8. It's almost room temperature. For something that really needs to be cold, I will say they made this a few minutes ago, and it is also 100 degrees outside. And I've been holding this in my hand for a minute. It probably came out closer to 50 degrees. Could kill me, but I think it's very unlikely at this stage. I would say it's on the edge, but it's still kind of a pass, I would say.
Now the final thing, the taste. We're in the middle of nowhere next to a vape shop, so I don't know how good this could be, but hopefully good. I mean, it's phenomenal. It's super traditional. Even the tostada's seasoned nicely with salt. You know how I feel about that? The crunch, the corn flavor. They're frying these tostadas fresh, I would assume, or buying them somewhere where they're frying them fresh. But the shrimp itself, super fresh, oceanic flavors.
There's no, like, off-flavors or anything like that. But the salt level, the heat level-- level, the depth of flavor on the red is so good. Let me just try the green real quick. Honestly, low-key brings me back to Topolobampo in Sinaloa. I would say it's just as good, the fact that you can get this quality of aguachile for essentially, like, 15, 20 bucks randomly on the side of the street off Facebook Marketplace in Austin. Which, by the way, Austin does not have a lot of really solid, traditional aguachile places.
This is incredibly good. But now that we've been to all of these places, we've seen all these people, we've met them, we've seen their operations. They've been good, there's been iffy, there's been bad. That leaves me with one really important thing to say about this whole Facebook Marketplace food thing. Think about Uber. It enabled people to make money in an easy way. Clock in, clock out, whenever you want. What if Facebook. implemented a food tab and regulated it and made it so people could get a food license?
Maybe there's a world where instead of this being illegal or not quite done properly, this could turn into a revolution for people who love to cook, for people who want to make money on the side, and just generally for people to share their food when they can't afford to open a restaurant. This could be a big deal, guys. But there's only one way to find out where it goes, and it looks like it's headed in the right direction, so. So that being said, love you, subscribe. Bye.
