{"id":2300,"date":"2026-02-15T17:54:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T17:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/?p=2300"},"modified":"2026-02-15T17:54:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T17:54:11","slug":"usa-olympian-ben-richardson-goes-viral-for-instagram-food-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/?p=2300","title":{"rendered":"USA Olympian Ben Richardson Goes Viral for Instagram Food Reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-journey-body=\"standard-article\">\n<ul data-node-id=\"0\" class=\"css-kw9lqy emevuu60\">\n<li data-node-id=\"0.0\">U.S. men&#8217;s curling Olympian Ben Richardson is going viral for his deadpan Instagram food reviews from the Olympic Village in Italy.<\/li>\n<li data-node-id=\"0.1\">His simple, low-key ratings of pizza, pasta, ice cream, and more have racked up millions of views and comments.<\/li>\n<li data-node-id=\"0.2\">Fans (and even official brand accounts) are obsessed, even if no one fully understands his scoring system.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr data-node-id=\"1\" class=\"css-18pb4rg emevuu60\"\/>\n<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"2\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">So far, aside from the medals, Olympic athletes in Milano Cortina seem to be just as focused on the food as they are on competition. First, we got pasta shaped like Olympic rings. Then it became all about the chocolate lava cakes. Clearly, everyone&#8217;s just trying to stay fueled and sane in between events.<\/p>\n<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"3\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">Enter <a href=\"https:\/\/www.teamusa.com\/profiles\/ben-richardson\" target=\"_blank\" data-vars-ga-outbound-link=\"https:\/\/www.teamusa.com\/profiles\/ben-richardson\" data-vars-ga-ux-element=\"Hyperlink\" data-vars-ga-call-to-action=\"Ben Richardson\" data-node-id=\"3.1\" class=\"body-link css-8bav6j emevuu60\">Ben Richardson<\/a>, a curler for Team USA who has accidentally become one of the internet&#8217;s favorite new food reviewers.<\/p>\n<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"4\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">Last week, Richardson quietly started posting short Instagram videos reviewing meals in the Olympic Village. No flashy editing or dramatic commentary (he&#8217;s certainly no Guy Fieri). Just Ben staring straight into the camera, calmly welcoming viewers, and announcing the dish of the day.<\/p>\n<section data-embed=\"watch-next\" data-lazy-id=\"P0-16\" data-node-id=\"5\" class=\"embed\"\/>\n<section data-embed=\"instagram\" data-lazy-id=\"P0-17\" data-node-id=\"6\" class=\"embed\"\/>\n<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"7\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">&#8220;On today&#8217;s episode, we have the pizza,&#8221; he said in his first-ever video.<\/p>\n<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"8\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">He takes a bite. Pauses. Then delivers his verdict: &#8220;That is quite good. I&#8217;d give it a solid 8 out of 10.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"9\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">That&#8217;s it. No ingredient list. No texture notes. Not a drop of explanation. And somehow, people are completely hooked.<\/p>\n<section data-embed=\"editorial-link\" data-lazy-id=\"P0-18\" data-node-id=\"10\" class=\"embed\">\n<aside class=\"css-1fm2v8u e94w1mj9\">\n<h6 class=\"css-18s47pf e94w1mj7\"><span aria-hidden=\"true\" data-theme-key=\"title-design-element-before\" class=\"css-0 eagam8p0\"\/><span class=\"css-8lle59 e94w1mj5\">Related Story<\/span><span aria-hidden=\"true\" data-theme-key=\"title-design-element-after\" class=\"css-0 eagam8p1\"\/><\/h6>\n<\/aside>\n<\/section>\n<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"11\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">The pizza video alone cracked a million views, and his daily reviews have surpassed more than 20 million combined views. Richardson has since moved on to rating everything in sight\u2014strawberry ice cream, waffles, seafood lasagna, pasta, tiramisu, and cappuccinos. He&#8217;s clearly making his way through the Olympic dining hall one tray at a time.<\/p>\n<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"12\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">The reviews are charmingly minimal. Most dishes are simply described as &#8220;good&#8221; or &#8220;tasty,&#8221; while the scores are wildly unpredictable. <\/p>\n<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"13\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">One commenter summed up the confusion perfectly: &#8220;You said the pizza was quite good and gave it an 8. You said this ice cream was nothing special and gave it a 7.6. Idk what\u2019s good and what\u2019s not. This is pure chaos.&#8221; Another added, &#8220;I don&#8217;t fully understand the 0.1 increments on the scoring system, but I&#8217;m here for the specificity \ud83d\ude02.&#8221; <\/p>\n<section data-embed=\"instagram\" data-lazy-id=\"P0-19\" data-node-id=\"14\" class=\"embed\"\/>\n<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"15\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">Part of the appeal is how unintentionally funny the whole thing feels. Also, it doesn&#8217;t hurt that he&#8217;s easy on the eyes.<\/p>\n<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"16\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">Curling may be the job right now, but at this rate, Richardson might be sliding straight into a Food Network pilot once the Games wrap. And judging by the comment sections, plenty of people would absolutely tune in.<\/p>\n<section data-embed=\"editorial-link\" data-lazy-id=\"P0-20\" data-node-id=\"17\" class=\"embed\">\n<aside class=\"css-fcvumo e94w1mj1\"\/><\/section>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>U.S. men&#8217;s curling Olympian Ben Richardson is going viral for his deadpan Instagram food reviews from the Olympic Village in Italy. His simple, low-key ratings of pizza, pasta, ice cream, and more have racked up millions of views and comments. Fans (and even official brand accounts) are obsessed, even if [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}