Meredith Hayden—better known as Wishbone Kitchen and the internet’s “Gen Z Martha Stewart”—has amassed a huge audience on TikTok (2.3+ million) and Instagram (1.5+ million). Yet while social media food culture keeps escalating into bigger cheese pulls, wilder mashups, and ingredient lists the length of a CVS receipt, Hayden’s cooking philosophy is surprisingly simple.
When it comes to good pasta, the private-chef-turned-content-creator says it requires no gimmicks.
“The best pasta dishes are the simplest ones,” Hayden tells Good Housekeeping. “I’m not someone who loves overly cheesy and indulgent pasta dishes. I really love simple tomato or lemon or butter sauces that don’t need a ton of ingredients or super-complicated techniques and let the pasta speak for itself.”
Honestly? That’s a very Italian-grandmother-coded answer.
Hayden recently partnered with Barilla around the expansion of its Al Bronzo pasta line, which now includes a new shape called radiatori. Named for its resemblance to vintage steam radiators, the pasta has deep ridges and layered grooves designed to trap extra sauce. The traditional bronze-cut method gives the surface a slightly rougher texture, helping sauces cling better instead of sliding right off.
And according to Hayden, once you switch to bronze-cut pasta, it’s a game changer.
“If you’ve ever had regular spaghetti noodles and then tried bronze-cut spaghetti noodles, you will never go back,” Hayden says. “It literally gives you twice as much sauce in each bite.”
Meredith Hayden says simple pasta is better pasta
While social media increasingly rewards spectacle cooking, Hayden says her own For You Page is filled with food that feels practical instead of performative.
“When I think of food trends on my FYP, it’s people who just post their Sunday night dinner or an easy lunch…recipes that are functional but still elevated and beautiful.”
That same philosophy shapes the way she cooks pasta at home. Her formula is refreshingly low-maintenance. “When you start with really great pasta, you really don’t need to overcomplicate the rest,” Hayden says.
That less-is-more mentality extends to her sauce preferences, too. “I personally love a red sauce,” she says. “It’s been my favorite pasta sauce for my entire life.”
And in her opinion, it deserves more attention. “It doesn’t get as much glory as maybe a carbonara or cacio e pepe,” Hayden says.
That love of simple sauce doesn’t mean texture is an afterthought. For Hayden, it’s actually the thing that makes a pared-back pasta dish work.
“Texture is one of the most overlooked parts of a great pasta dish,” she says. “When the pasta really grips the sauce, you get a more balanced, flavorful bite every time.”
The pasta rule she swears by
If Hayden could convince home cooks to change one thing about the way they make pasta, it would be this: Stop fully cooking noodles in water before dumping sauce on top at the end.
Instead, she always finishes cooking pasta directly in the sauce itself.
“If the directions say cook for nine to 10 minutes, I’ll set a timer for seven or eight minutes and then transfer the still-little-crunchy pasta into the sauce,” she explains. “Then simmer the sauce and pasta together so the pasta really absorbs all of that sauce.”
That advice alone probably earns Hayden honorary nonna status.
Her hottest pasta take might divide people
Hayden also has strong opinions about matching sauces to noodle shapes—and yes, she knows people will defend their pasta pairings like sports fans defending their team.
“I think sometimes people use the wrong noodle for a dish,” she says.
For example, she firmly believes pesto belongs with short pasta shapes, not long strands.
“I would never do a bucatini with a pesto,” Hayden says. “There are certain sauces that have certain shapes.”
And then came her most controversial opinion of all: bow tie pasta slander.
“I don’t love a bow tie,” she admits. “I think it was so overdone in my childhood. We did a lot of bow tie pasta salads.”
Real talk, if you survived a 2000s picnic table covered in slightly warm mayo-based bow tie pasta salad, you probably understand.
Still, Hayden says she’s willing to revisit old pasta grudges. “I recently gave angel hair another chance, and it’s now one of my favorite pastas,” she says.
Character growth. We love to see it.
Meredith Hayden’s comfort pasta is refreshingly chaos-free
For someone whose dinner parties and recipes rack up millions of views online, Hayden’s go-to comfort pasta is surprisingly calm, cozy, and low-key.
Her dish? Bucatini finished in homemade red sauce with butter and Parmesan.
“I usually make [the sauce] in batches and keep it in my freezer,” Hayden says. “Then I’ll finish the bucatini in the red sauce, add a few tablespoons of butter and a quarter cup of Parmesan cheese, and plate it with extra parm.”
No unnecessary burrata explosions. No tossing fettuccine Alfredo inside a giant Parmigiano-Reggiano wheel for content. No spaghetti dumped directly onto tables in the name of “family-style dining.”
Just pasta doing what pasta does best.
