I agree with you here, it's part of his 'special, big boy, secret Italian recipe, only I may stir the sauce' thing. Even when Leanna was unemployed and presumably sitting downstairs, Phil would have to go stir the sauce because she was too stupid to do it right. Not enough of the Italian old country blood in her. Too Asian.
But that said, it's also an attempt to make something that is mundane and only serves Phil sound exciting to the Wheelchair Army. Nobody benefits but Phil, it actively disrupts the stream, yet it's an event because he said so. It's basically the 'lite' version of the Jasper reveal. The next step is to get people to fund-raise for a 'saucy stream'.
Now, extra boring day because Phil is off, so let's indulge in some 'tism speculation of our own. Tevin recently pointed out that Phil chronically fingers the back of his head for prolonged periods of time. Pictured here from a recent GTA stream:
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This particular incident was also followed by Phil examining his hand:
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... as though he was expecting to have pulled something out? He then resumed touching the same spot.
So what is he doing? Is he touching the bald spot? Swirling the grease? Is he freakishly itchy? Or is this, like the 90 degree goatee stroke, just some weird tic that he has developed and lacks the self awareness to curb while he sits on camera for 4 hours?
I'm also curious to see if this now mysteriously stops for a while.