One of The Rock's - AKA Dwayne Johnson's - most popular catchphrases during his wresting days was "If you smell what The Rock is cooking?!," but what exactly was he cooking? Dwayne Johnson is now one of the biggest movie stars in the world, and his star power was obvious right from his early wresting days with the WWE. His early movie vehicles failed to break him through, however, with the likes of Welcome To The Jungle, Walking Tall and the 2005 adaptation of video game Doom all underwhelming at the box-office.
It was really thanks to his supporting turn as Hobbs in 2011's Fast Five that he ascended to A-list status. In addition to returning for various Fast & Furious sequels and even earning his own spinoff in 2019, he's fronted blockbusters like San Andreas and Rampage. He remains something of a workaholic too, always balancing multiple film and television ventures, and his upcoming projects include movies like Jungle Cruise alongside Emily Blunt.
Dwayne Johnson's wrestling days are behind him now, though he still makes occasional appearances at WWE events. He also produced and co-starred in wresting drama Fighting With My Family, a biopic of wrestler Paige. The Rock certainly had a way with catchphrases, with one of his most iconic being "If you smell what The Rock is cooking?!" This basically means "If you know what I mean?" but still, some fans have often wondered what the canon answer to the question might be.
Dwayne Johnson (sort of) answered that query in 2016 when he posted a picture of himself on Instagram cooking up some pancakes, complete with the hashtag #AfterAllTheseYears #YaFinallySmellWhatImCooking. Of course, this is done in a very tongue in cheek manner, and he later replied to a fan on Twitter that he created a backstory for The Rock where he was once a chef who specialized in moist croquembouche, a fancy dessert consisting of a tower of profiteroles that's typically served at weddings.
Now whenever fans hear The Rock's "If you smell what The Rock is cooking?!" they can imagine its either pancakes or maybe some croquembouche - which are both fine options. What Dwayne Johnson really needs to do to bring his career full circle is to play a chef in an action movie where he specializes in moist croquembouche, but for now, he's busy developing movies like Hobbs & Shaw 2 and the long-awaited Black Adam, which he's been attached to for over a decade now.