The Cost n’ Mayor pasta salad has become the talking point of the latest episode of SNACKS!, after Marideth Bachelor (one half of viral dance duo Austin and Marideth Telenko) revealed the stripped-back recipe she relied on throughout college. The dish contains just four ingredients: pasta, mayo, salt, and pepper.
The stage name Cost n’ Mayor belongs to the duo formed by Austin and Marideth Telenko, and it was Marideth who brought the recipe to the table, framing it plainly as a question of budget over ambition. ‘You’re in college, and you don’t have any money,’ she explained on the episode. ‘But you got a hankering for a pasta salad.’
Her method, as she described it, is exactly what it sounds like. Cook pasta, combine it with mayo, add salt and pepper, then let it cool before eating. Taken at face value, that is a functional, if minimal, pasta salad. The recipe held up reasonably well until Marideth added a detail that divided the room.
The Hot Mayo Moment That Changed Everything
‘One day I was really in a hurry, so I just ate it hot,’ she said. ‘I’m so sorry. I didn’t have time for the pasta to cool off.’
Hot pasta mixed with mayonnaise is the kind of food confession that tends to stop a conversation. Austin appeared sceptical when the topic first surfaced, which, given the visual, was understandable. But his scepticism did not hold. ‘I can’t sit idly by,’ he said. ‘I’ve tried it, and it’s good.’
That admission is the detail that gives the Cost n’ Mayor pasta salad its staying power as a talking point. The move from reluctant observer to willing participant is a credibility shift that Marideth’s recipe probably needed.
Marideth also offered the one piece of practical guidance she considers non-negotiable for anyone considering a recreation: use a lot of pepper. Whether that adjusts the experience meaningfully is left to the individual, but it is the only modification she endorses.
Cost n’ Mayor on SNACKS! and Where to Listen
The full episode is available to stream via Spotify, where Marideth Bachelor is credited under that name on the episode listing, a detail that separates the pair’s given names from the Cost n’ Mayor stage identity they use publicly. Episodes are also available on Apple podcasts and can be watched in full on YouTube.
The SNACKS! format draws out exactly this kind of food memory: the meals people kept long after the circumstances that produced them had changed. A four-ingredient pasta salad eaten hot, out of convenience rather than preference, sits squarely in that territory. It is not a recipe anyone would design deliberately. It is the kind of thing that survives because the ingredients were always available and the effort required was minimal.
Marideth’s willingness to describe eating it warm, rather than quietly retiring the habit at graduation, is what made it a SNACKS! moment rather than a private one. And Austin’s confirmation that he has tried it and found it acceptable gives the Cost n’ Mayor pasta salad a cross-examined credibility that a solo defence would not carry.
The standing instruction, if you attempt it: pasta, mayo, salt, and a significant amount of pepper. Cold is the conventional approach. Hot, according to Marideth Bachelor, is the version that actually happened, and, according to Austin Telenko, is the version that works.