In keeping with the recent TikTok trend of fast food employees sharing how fan-favorite items are prepared, a former Little Caesars worker has gone viral showing how the chain allegedly produces their marinara sauce.
Tye, who goes by the username @tye_pearson on the video-sharing platform, shared now-viral footage of his day at work at a Little Caesars franchise in Georgia last week.
The brief clip shows Tye using an extended mixing attachment on a power drill to stir the marinara sauce ingredients in a large plastic container placed on the floor. He blends the tomato paste, herbs and spices, and water together with the drill, before cutting to a final clip showing the finished pizza sauce.
@tye_pearson making sauce at little ceasers! #fyp #littlecaesarspizza #pizzasauce
♬ Fast - Sueco the Child
"Making sauce at Little [Caesars]!" he captioned the video, which has since been viewed over 4.3 million times and liked nearly 430,000 times. Many flocked to the comments section to discuss how the chain reportedly prepares their sauce, with several expressing disdain.
"Who else thought that was mud just me okay," one viewer wrote. "[I'm] so mad I saw this," another added.
"@healthdepartment," one viewer boldly commented.
Most viewers seemingly took issue with the fact that the sauce was being prepared on the floor, which in the video appears to be damaged and dirtied.
"Bro it's on the floor wtf," one said. "Yeah not on the floor homie," another chimed in. Tye even claimed in response to one concerned viewer that the marinara sauce was made on the floor "because they don't care."
Several other Little Caesars employees also weighed in, with a few seemingly confirming similar conditions in their franchises. "I exposed our Little Caesars ... we had expired cheese [and were] still using it," one person claimed. "I used to do this with my hands and would be so tired after," another alleged.
Tye shared with Newsweek that he had no intention of producing such a viral video. "I just was making sauce one day and felt the need to post it and it just went viral overnight," he said.
@tye_pearson making crazy bread at little ceasers #littlecaesarspizza #foryoupage #fypシ
♬ Spongebob - Dante9k
He also posted subsequent videos showing how Little Caesars makes their dough and "crazy bread." He showed what the dough looks like when it rises and how it is flattened for the breadsticks.
However, Tye claimed that upon the video's takeoff on TikTok, he was let go from Little Caesars.
"They asked me to delete [the videos] and when I did they fired me," he claimed. "They said I wasn't supposed to record saying that it was in the terms but I never signed anything like that."
Tye also told Newsweek that he did not post the video with malicious intent. "I don't feel like showing people what [they're] eating is bad or harmful," he noted.
"I feel as if me posting the video helps Little [Caesars] being both bad and good because the comments were good and bad just like everything in life," he added.
Indeed, several in the comments proclaimed their loyalty to Little Caesars, regardless of how they prepare their marinara sauce.
"For those that think this is unhealthy or unsafe. At least they make their sauce. Cannot say the same for Domino's," one alleged. "Why y'all complaining it's paste, seasoning and water made in a clean bucket. It's also going to be in an extremely hot oven," another noted.
Tye also told Newsweek that he was struck by how many viewers resonated with the video. "I didn't think it was going to explode like it did ... [I'm] just a small town regular person who posted what they did at work," he said.
Newsweek reached out to Little Caesars for comment on the video but did not immediately hear back in time for publication.
Similar to Tye, other TikTokers have shared "company secrets" with their following. In late May, a Chick-fil-A employee shared how his location utilizes a conveyor belt to speed things up at the drive-thru. Last week, a KFC employee shared how her location prepares their famous mashed potatoes.
