Santiago Massa

Santi (full name Santiago) Massa is the former Creative Director and the Current Host of Food Theory since Matthew’s Retirement from the Theory Channels (excluding GT Live) on March 9th 2024. Of the four hosts, Santi is the newest, having joined Theorists in 2023. He grew up watching Matpat in high school and was a fan of Game Theory.Food Theory: I Found the SPICIEST Fast Food Chicken Sandwich!-Food Theory, Time Stamp 0:40. First aired March 19 2024. He is Argentine, but grew up in Hong Kong and Californiacitation needed, i think its in one of the GT Lives. Described by Matpat as a "Chaos Gremlin", Santi is the most outgoing and the most antagonistic of the four new hosts, often getting into verbal arguments with Tom, or teased by Amy, Lee and Kai (the Theorist's Social Media Manager). He has a tendency to say things without thinking, often to the amusement of the other hosts. He is an avid rock climberGame Theory: Your Superpower Is In Your PANTS! (A Difficult Game About Climbing) -Game Theory, Time Stamp: 2:36. First aired, May 11, 2024. and an expert cook. 
== Creative Director of Food Theory ==
On February 1st, 2023, Matpat posted a job description for a Creative Director for Food Theory on Twitter/X, looking for someone who loved "food research and internet culture".@MatpatGT. "Exciting news: Theorist is HIRING!" Twitter, feb 1st 2023, https://x.com/MatPatGT/status/1620981260545048577. Santi, with previous experience working as a Creative Executive at Mythical and experience with videography and streaming media, was hired by March 2023.Santiago Massa LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/santiago-massa-904512b1 His first official credit was as a writer for the 2023 episode, Food Theory: Blue Raspberry is a Complete LIE! on April 25th. He participated off screen doing research for Food Theory: You Should Eat CANDY Before a Workout?!, in which a cartoon avatar of Santi was revealed for the first time. But besides this brief appearance, Santi made no other visible appearance. 
Santi's first official on screen appearance on Food Theory was in The New Starbucks Drink is a Total FAILURE!, which aired on June 18 2023. The episode required Santi to drink Starbuck's Oleato line of drinks, which are drip coffee and lattes infused with olive oil. Matpat is not a coffee drinker, a fact that has come up multiple times on Food Theory, so he did not feel qualified to discuss the taste of the Oleato drinks. Santi was disgusted by the drinks, saying, "It is disgusting and I hate this. This is by far, the worst thing that's ever happened to me."Food Theory: The New Starbucks Drink is a Total FAILURE! (Olive Oil Coffee)--Food Theory, Time Stamp: 2:32, first aired June 18th 2023. 
By July Santi was able to get Matt back by designing a water tasting experiment for Matpat and Steph to undertake in Food Theory: Is Expensive Water Actually WORTH It? (Taste Test). Santi designed an taste test of multiple brands of bottled water, ranging from inexpensive Dasani brand to the most expensive Voss brand, and then video chatted with Matt and Steph in North Carolina to walk them through the experiment on camera. This was an early example of Steph and Matt introducing Santi as their food science expert, priming the audience to recognize him as a familiar authority figure when Matt would step down the following year. 
Santi would continue to cowrite episodes for Food Theory, eventually making his way over to North Carolina in the fall of 2023, so he could co-host with Matt. He co-hosted the episodes Food Theory: We Debunked the WORST Onion Cutting Hacks!, Food Theory: Snack on Deez Nut Balls! , Food Theory: I Tried WEIRD Fair Food So You Don’t Have To! and I Baked a PRIME Cake! For these episodes, Santi typically served as the more experienced cook, but he also brought a chaotic masculine energy to their shoots. This is most obvious in the Prime Cake episode where Matt and Santi arm wrestled, tried to hang off of each other's biceps and Matt punched Santi in the stomach.I Baked a PRIME Cake-Food Theory, First Aired Dec 3 2023. Being paired with Santi put Matt in the unusual position of being the 'straight man' to Santi's high energy nervousness. For example, in the Onion cutting episode, Santi spent most of the episode making Matpat cry, as he proved immune to most of the onion's eye watering effects. Matt hypothesized that he failed to have any reaction to the onions because he'd had Intraocular Contact Lenses surgically implanted into his eyes in 2021, leaving Santi to bear the brunt of their experiments.We debunked the WORST Onion Cutting Hacks!-The Food Theorists, first aired Sept 3 2023. "Eye surgery today...wish me luck." -@MatPatGT, Twitter Post, Apr 2nd 2021. Matpat also guided Santi on a food tour of the 2023 North Carolina State Fair, introducing him to a number of fair food staples such as deep fried snickers and dill pickle donuts. He took great pleasure in Santi's suffering as he failed to handle the disgusting fair food and fair rides.I Tried WEIRD Fair Food So You Don't Have To! -Food Theory, first aired Nov 5 2023. At times, both the editors and Steph liked to poke fun at Matt and Santi's strong on screen chemistry, with multiple 'romantic' edits of the two together. In contrast, Santi had a slightly more antagonistic relationship with Steph, who calls him on his research and recipe design in multiple episodes (see: I Baked a PRIME Cake and Food Theory: I Fixed the FNAF Cookbook!).
=== Food Theory Prime Episodes ===
2023 saw Food Theory devoting four episodes to the energy drink company Prime, which was co-created by Logan Paul and KSI. Santi was a writer or a cohost for three of the four episodes. However, on March 3 2024, Reddit User CherryPhoenix679 posted to the Game Theorist subreddit to say they had noticed 3 of the 4 Prime related Food Theory episodes had been set to "unlisted", meaning they would no longer show in YouTube search results.Prime videos have been removed from Food Theory-CherryPhoenix679, Reddit, March 6 2023. The missing episodes could still be found in playlists and in Google searches and links are provided below. 
==== Missing Prime Episodes ====
Episode 	Airdate 	Writers
"Logan Paul is LYING About Prime!" 	March 14 2023	Matthew Patrick and Stephanie Patrick
Food Theory: Is Logan Paul LYING About Prime Energy Too?! 	April 18 2023	Stephanie Patrick and Santi Massa
Food Theory: Logan Paul's LIES Aren't Over Yet! ($1,000,000 Gold Prime)	Dec 17 2023 	Writers: Matthew Patrick, Santi Massa, and Mike Keenan (The Pokémon Biologist)
Redditors broadly speculated why these three episodes in particular were unlisted but as of May 2024 there has been no explanation provided by Theorist. The only remaining Prime episode currently unaffected is the I Baked a Prime Cake episode, which aired December 3rd 2023.
=== Prime Cake ===
I Baked a Prime Cake is a notable episode for Santi as it established a few reoccurring bits in Food Theory lore. One was the previously mentioned hypermasculinity that Santi and Matt created in the kitchen when they tried to arm wrestle each other ("the most masculine episode of Food Theory!" according to Matpat). The other major lore event was the cake itself. During that episode Santi miscalculated the impact of the texture of the Prime hydration packets on the frosting he was creating for their Prime infused cake. He also did not take into consideration that the amount of salt in the hydration packets would create an overly dense cake, with batter that was "tighter and more elastic" resulting in his Prime cake being rock hard, thin and heavy, with frosting that had a "floam" like texture that was unpalatable. Santi would carry this failure like a chip on his shoulder into 2024. 
== Transition to Food Theory Host ==
On January 9, 2024, Matpat announced that he was retiring from the on-air host role for all the Theorist channels and that he would be replaced by the four Creative Directors. In Goodbye Internet, Matpat introduced Santi to the wider Theorist and internet audience. Matt mentioned that Santi grew up watching Game Theory as his childhood show, a fact that made him feel incredibly old.Goodbye Internet-Game Theory. First Aired January 9 2024. 
To prepare the audience for the big change, Santi appeared in several social media announcements created by Social Media Manger Kai. Kai created a series of new host cards in the style of a Pokémon or Magic the Gathering card, where she listed a few key facts about the new hosts on one side and the host's specialty attacks on the other side. The other three hosts, Tom, Amy and Lee all had 87 HP or health points listed. Santi was the only host to have 83 HP, a fact that he complained about heavily in Instagram comments."Say Sup to Santi, the new Host of Food Theory"-Team Theorist, Instagram post, 2024. Kai, the Social Media Manager later explained she gave Santi 83 HP because she was mad at him for skipping the "I Quit Sugar for 30 Days" Food Theory episode so he could go on his honeymoon, making her suffer in his place.Food Theory: I Quit Sugar for 30 Days!-Food Theory, First Aired Feb 13 2024.
In Matt's final Food Theory episode, Food Theory Finale: MatPat’s Last Bite, the episode cold opened with Matt and Santi sitting on the GT Live couch, both men looking depressed. Matt expressed his sadness regarding his imminent departure and Santi, while feeling "pumped" about Matt leaving, feels like he will never make up for his infamous PRIM cake episode. Matt then offers Santi the chance at redemption by tasking him with baking him a "bromance cake". Matt admitted that of all the channels, Food Theory has "always been a bit more personal", so it made sense that the final episode would focus on both Matt and Santi, with a celebratory cake for Matt and a redemption cake for Santi.Food Theory Finale: MatPat's Last Bite-Food Theory, first aired March 7 2024. Santi went around Team Theorist asking staff about their favorite episodes of Food Theory so that he could combine elements of each into a final cake. Team Theorist contributed the following ingredients to the cake:
* Head Editor Dan: Contributed Mountain Dew for The Secret Recipe for Mountain Dew Pizza episode
* Kai: Contributed pine for the Christmas Tree episodesI Ate My Whole Christmas Tree...And So Can You!Can You Make Cookies Out of Your Christmas Tree?I Made Ice Cream Out of My Christmas Tree! 
* Amy: Contributed bread for I Wore Panera's Bread Gloves for 24 Hours! 
* Ash: Contributed chocolate for Are Double Stuff Oreos a SCAM?
* Lee: Contributed Diet Coke for I Quit Diet Coke!
* Josiah: Contributed Prime for all the Prime episodes
* Tom: Contributed Pink Sauce from The Pink Sauce Mystery SOLVED
* And Santi added French fries for the first ever Food Theory episode, Never Order McDonald's Medium Fries!
The final cake was mountain dew and diet coke, mixed with pine and bread croutons, decorated with Oreos and cake bits designed to look like French fries. Matt brought out the entire staff to taste test and it thankfully passed, with reviews ranging from "it's dense" to "acceptable" by the crew. But Steph and Matt really liked it, which made it a fitting finale for the two of them. 
== Food Theory Host ==
On March 19th, 2024, Santi hosted his first episode titled, I Found the SPICIEST Fast Food Chicken Sandwich! Santi introduced the episode as a homage to a older Food Theory episode, "Don't Order These Chicken Sandwiches!". He ranked spicy chicken sandwiches from Popeyes, Chick-fil-A, Burger King, McDonalds, Wendy's KFC, Dave's Hot Chicken and Howlin' Ray's and determined Wendy's was the overall winner, with Howling Ray's ranked as the spiciest chicken sandwich and a strong second place.Food Theory: I Found the SPICIEST Fast Food Chicken Sandwich!-Food Theory, Air Date: Mar 19 2024. The episode had around 1.6 million views as of June 2024.
== Other Notable Appearances ==
=== Creators in Fashion ===
On April 25th 2024, Santi appeared on the runway of Creators in Fashion (CIF), the first YouTube creator led fashion show, hosted by Matpat and Amy. See the CIF entry for more information. 
=== MatPat's Final Theory ===
In the In the "Chaos Ending" of "Matpat's Final Theory", Santi and Tom are seen fighting, with Tom holding Santi at arms length and taunting him. Later, Santi is shown pinning Tom down in a headlock. He is last seen sleeping in the ruined staff common room.All OFFICIAL Endings! (MatPat's FINAL Theory)-Originally Posted to Game Theory unlisted. First Air Date Mar 12 2024.
== Complete List of GT Live Appearances ==
Episode 	Air Date 	Notes
[https://youtu.be/XoO4LJ-26-g?si=J_UFD497bWZz_0Uu Project Playtime Phase 2: Incineration	Jun 9 2023 	1st (vocal) Appearance; Co-Hosted with Lee, Tom, Amy, Dan (discord call, voice only)
TheoristS (Mr. TomatoS Fangame) 	Aug 11 2023	1st On Camera GT Live appearance
Gamer Drinks Taste Test (GFuel, Mountain Dew, Coca Cola) 	Sept 4 2023	
Meet the NEW Theorist Hosts! 	Feb 6 2024 	Co-Hosted with Tom, Lee, Amy and Matpat
Theory Review: What's NEXT For FoodTheory?! 	Feb 21 2024	
== Trivia ==
* The Lore established in the GT Live episode, "Are They The Next MatPat?! | Meet The NEW Theorist Hosts!", Matt, Tom, Lee and Amy are allowed to punch Santi once, for any reason, at any time.Are They The Next MatPat?! | Meet The NEW Theorist Hosts--GT Live, Time Stamp: 10:00, first aired, Feb 6th 2024. It has been approved by HR manager Rachel. 
* According to the man himself, if he was a muffin flavor, he would be a "steak muffin". However, the rest of Team Theorist think he's more of a "banana nut" muffin.
* If Santi was a DND class, he thinks he would be a Paladin; Jason however, says he is a "Arcane Trickster, at best".
* Matpat and the other hosts (and the community at large) has also decided that if Santi was a Pokémon he would be a Ponyta. 
* He knows "a lot" about hip hop and rap and has promised to teach Matpat someday.
* Santi was married around the time of the I Quit Sugar for 30 Days Food Theory episode, since Kai mentions him going on his honeymoon. Apparently he went to Japan where he "ate sushi and lived his best life".
== Citations ==
Category:Theorists
Category:Food Theory
Category:The Food Theorists
Category:Channel Hosts