There is so much cooking on YouTube and most of it is not v good. What are the ones where you rly feel like you’ve learned a lot from them.
My two faves are:
Family in northwest China
This lady is incredibly good at making dough of seemingly every single variety. She constantly surprises me with what she does with her ingredients and she explains things very well despite never going into much detail. Her video style is super clear and allows her technique to shine. It’s not some shitty aesthetic thing with lofi hip hop and carefully arranged lighting. She’s cooking in her kitchen like a normal person and there’s the same shitty royalty fres song in the background of like every video and she eats at a table with a surface protector mat thing on it that has mad air bubbles in it. She’s a normal real human. She has also spawned a number of copycats who make very similarly styled videos which are all also p decent.
French cooking academy
This guy shows cooking technique super well, though he often skips the preparation. But he knows exactly how to manipulate his sauces and broths etc and it is super valuable to watch imo. He has a depth of knowledge and really likes to go into detail about how the cooking needs to be done and also what is happening at any given moment and the effect it has on the dish.
its a family that travels around and cooks mostly huge portions outside then give it to a bunch of people who eat and enjoy the food. bunch of shots of animals and landscapes interspersed
i also like maangchi! she comes off like a mid nineties cooking show on PBS and sometimes that’s what i want. also im able to cook like half of her shit
i think the bon appetit channel is good, everything that claire touches with her anxiety hands is perfect and i like how brad is a jersey guy BUT IM NOTICING IN GETTING MORE INTO THE ‘CHARACTERS’ and less into the COOKING so i think theyrr leaning into being yourtub personalities which can be very hit or miss for some people
another channel of big portions for huge family AND SHE HAS A REALLY CUTE DOG TOO
With Bon Appétit channel now verboten (and rightfully so), I’ve begun to return to some of my other favorite YouTube food channels. Some I follow for my fascination with food science, or for their focuses on “historical” recipes. Others, I continue to watch out of a sick and morbid curiosity – a feeling of not being able to look away, even years down the line.
They all share one thing in common, though: I have never actually followed a recipe from any of them, because I am nothing if not a fake deep foodie / total coward in the kitchen. Still, it’s comforting to watch other people making food and talk their way through the process. As it so happens, I’ve got a few recommendos to pitch here.
Townsends - ‘18th Century Cooking’: While this channel’s primary purpose is ostensibly to promote the wares of a historical re-enactment (“living history”) company, they’ve since managed to provide hundreds of hours of well-researched food history – documentation for recipes and cooking techniques primarily derived from the 18th century. They utilize a lot of period cookbooks, consult with other historians / re-enactor types, and generally provide a lot of insight into the culinary habits of folk from 300 years ago.
Adam Ragusea: Journalist-turned-home chef and food scientist. His content bounces between recipe / kitchen technique videos and deep dives on the science / politics of food; where both focuses yield as much in the way of the “hows” and “whys” as he’s able to provide, and where he consults frequently with professors of food sciences in order to get to the bottom of culinary mysteries. Very much from the classic Alton Brown school of presenting food, but without quite so much of the “pretentious” shtick.
Freezerburns: A classic guilty pleasure of mine. Featuring a man reviewing frozen foods (well before the likes of ‘Wolfe Pit’ and other modern-day contemporaries), and slowly losing his will and interest over the course of years. You tuned into the channel hoping to watch him eat some particularly disgusting stuff; and over time, you kept watching to see him completely burn out on the whole format / look for any excuse to exit it.
After several attempts to “update” the show with actual cooking suggestions fell completely flat, he finally exited with a highly performative / scripted spectacle; where he pretended to “spontaneously” quit mid-review of some Kid Cuisine meal, and infamously exclaiming (to an empty room / complete lack of film crew) to “take this mic off of me!”
Glen & Friends Cooking: Have to give mention to Glen (and his friends) here as well. He gets into a lot of historical recipes, as well as attempting to determine the histories of modern recipes / getting to the bottom of what’s truly “authentic” (and if there’s even any sort of value to that claim). He also gets into soda-making and other drink stuffs, which I don’t seem to see quite as often on the YouTube cooking space.
You Suck At Cooking: The best comedy piss-take cooking channel I’ve found in my time (all due respect to Kay). There are genuine recipes on display of course, as well as solid suggestions for modifications to the likes of staple foods (ramen and mac and such); but truth be told, I come here for the oddball editing and comedy structure. There’s something to be said for channels which buck the pretention of the typical cooking show, while still maintaining high production value and very deliberate approaches.
Burger Scholar Sessions: I’m sure we can all agree that ‘Hot Ones’ is played out, and that the larger First We Feast channel is home to some pretty bog-standard clickbait-cookery content. All that being said: Giving George “Hamburger America” Motz his own show is the best thing they’ve done in years – having featured him in episodes across their other shows over the course of years.
It still suffers some of the same ““comedy””" editing traps as some of the other FWF content, but George’s charisma still manages to shine through and transcend it. His passion for this particular foodthing is infectious, and I could honestly listen to him speak on regional recipes / hamburger history for hours.
