It’s an incredibly popular Italian dish, but even the most cultured food fans may have trouble recognizing one woman’s baffling statement.
That woman, named Lani Sanchez, inadvertently found herself at the center of a furious cultural debate online after she shared a recipe video for her favorite new dish: lemon chicken with gnocchi.
But it wasn’t the meal itself that caused a viral reaction, but rather the very unique way Lani pronounced the key ingredient, gnocchi.
Within minutes of the video going live on TikTok, it was flooded with comments from viewers who brutally mocked Lani for pronouncing gnocchi “yonkies,” with dozens of people pointing out her mistake and mocking her.
Stunned pasta lovers were outraged by an American woman’s statement about the dish; who called them ‘yonkies’
The attached short clip, taken from TikTok, shows a woman cooking her new favorite dish
The video was posted by food content creator Lani Sanchez
“This is a creamy lemon chicken with gnocchi,” Lani began her video.
“It’s so delicious and so easy to make,” she enthuses, as she mixes heavy cream, chicken stock and lemon juice with a cooked chicken breast and gnocchi.”
While no one had a problem with the court itself, it sparked a debate about how far away it was from the correct pronunciation.
“Yonkeez is killing me,” one person said on TikTok, while another interjected: “I was so confused about what yonkeez was until I saw the gnocchi bag.”
A third expressed his delight at Lani’s unique take on the word, saying, “I will never pronounce gnocchi any other way except yonkeez.” Obsessed.’
“The first time you said yonkees I thought it looked like a certain mushroom or something… NOT GNOCCHI,” another joked.
Meanwhile, the responses on X, formerly known as Twitter, were just as scathing, with one person writing: ‘Imagine the word gnocchi. imagine how you could say gnocchi.
“Imagine how you could pronounce gnocchi badly. Then listen.’
“I hate to be that guy, but her statement isn’t far off. “Gn” in Italian almost has a “ny” sound, with the n being very subtle,” one user commented on the video.
“Imagine a ny-aww key. (Italian American here who has been making gnocchi from scratch since I was a little bambino.)” they added.
While no one had a problem with the court itself, it sparked a debate about how far away it was from the correct pronunciation
On TikTok, viewers were quick to mock Lani’s pronunciation of the pasta dish – although she seemed to take the criticism in stride
“Except she leaves out the ‘n’ altogether from the beginning and adds an unnecessary ‘s’ to the end of a word that’s already plural,” another user replied.
The user continued: ‘There wouldn’t be anything close to an “aw” sound in the middle either. (Italian-American dual citizen who has lived and worked in both provinces.’
“I was expecting ghee-noh-ki and… she was very close to the correct pronunciation,” wrote another.
“I feel like I bit the bait while watching this clip,” they added.
“Dude, she said, Yonkeys, doesn’t sound like Nyockey at all,” one gnocchi lover argued.
“She certainly didn’t say it wrong enough for all of this,” another agreed.
“I wanted to say my grandma always said it ‘Yonkies.’ I was told that was the southern way of saying it,” someone else shared.
Provides references to another recent viral mispronunciation, of a man who mispronounced tzatziki “tz-i-tz-i.”
“Yes, the tzatziki man is a hundred times worse,” someone declared.
Despite the uproar over her pronunciation of the word, Lani appears to have taken the jokes in stride, responding to some of the more entertaining comments on her TikTok to poke fun at herself.
“Literally so funny,” she responded to someone who made fun of her statement, before admitting in another follow-up comment that she learned the pronunciation from her mother, who “has been saying it that way her whole life.”