What do you look for in cooking related YouTube content?
(I'm not looking for simple lists of YouTube channels that you like.) even though I'm about to dump a list of channels that I like
There's a lot of YouTube cooking content. I was wondering what you look for in that content, and what you want to avoid?
I don't have a particularly coherent answer - I like a mix of content.
I do like plain and simple information, or informative content that gives details about technique or science or why a thing is done the way it is. Examples of this would be America's Test Kitchen, or J. Kenji López-Alt or Helen Rennie, or French Cooking Academy.
I also like recipes that I can actually make. I prefer recipes that don't have a massive array of ingredients that I don't have. Examples are Brian Lagerstrom (I like the way he tends to use a limited amount of equipment and he gives alternatives for ingredients if he thinks some thing is going to be hard to get) Not another cooking show has some nice recipes (his grilled cheese and tomato soup is fantastic).
Some channels I watch have Michelin Starred chefs discussing a recipe. I like watching this because I can't replicate most of it, but I can get ideas for improving taste or texture. Italia Squisita has a lot of content, and some of their videos are comparing a traditional Italian recipe (and these are excellent) with an elevated restaurant version. The staff canteen is a bit frustrating - it's almost exactly what I want, but it ends up missing the mark a bit. But they talk to chefs, mostly in the UK, about being a chef or about a dish. La pâte de Dom is self-taught, but they have a high level of skill in pastry.
And here's a list of videos that I can't categorise, and why I like them.
The Biryani Expert (sadly, channel appears not to be making content any more) taught me that biryani covers a quite wide range of different dishes.
Sheldo's Kitchen He seems like a nice bloke, and his food looks really nice and achievable to make. Again, sadly, he doesn't seem to have made any videos for a while, and he was saying that he has a lot on. But he has a calm style and I liked his content.
Cool Daddy, YummyBoy and Street Foods TV expose me to a lot of food that I'm not used to. I can't recreate a lot of it (I don't have a camel I can cut up and cook but it gives me ideas for new ways to combine ingredients or new flavour profiles to try.
So, what do you look for in content?
(In this thread I avoided dunking on creators, because there's a few that I really don't enjoy but I don't think me yelling about them is good discussion. But I'd totally join in if someone created another thread.
There's a few I didn't see you list:
Food Wishes
Simple, to the point, and instructive videos. Chef John is the man who finally taught me to expand my cooking and establish the basics for me. Through him, I found a true love for cooking. Highlights of his videos are that he doesn't spend much time talking about a dish, he has over a decade of content, a wide range of recipes, and they all turn out great.
Tasting History
I don't watch this for cooking ideas so much as for the history, but it's interesting nonetheless. I do feel that over the last year the quality has declined slightly, but I've also been watching less YouTube anyways.
Spain on A Fork
The best I can compare it to is French Cooking Academy, but for Spanish cuisine.
Edit:
I'll need to fix the links on browser. Trying to do this on mobile is a nightmare.DoneChef John of Food Wishes is honestly one of the greats. He teaches you techniques without you even realizing it. He encourages you to make recipes your own with his “that’s just you cooking” attitude. He’s inspired a load of other YouTube chefs, the most popular of which is probably Babish. He isn’t afraid to post his failures either, knowing that he isn’t perfect and recipes don’t always turn out. Finally, he has never asked me to “smash that like and subscribe button.”
Same with Tasting History. I don't watch him to get ideas for cooking, mostly because I can not get the stuff that Max cooks with. I watch him for the history side of things because I like the history of food and drinks.
I look for brevity. If the segment is really long, I won't watch it.
And if there's a recipe, it should be in the text description or a pinned comment, not just in the video.
Love Kenji, his stuffs great and I quite regularly have the Tamago Gohan for breakfast since its so easy and filling. The Somen noodles recipe has also been great through the heatwave we've had in the UK the past few weeks!
Tasting History with Max Miller is a channel that hits two of my interests, Cooking and History. Max is also just great fun to listen to.
I still enjoy Babish's content but don't watch it as often anymore. His basics series is great stuff though.
Adam Ragusea is great as well for the science side of food and recipes. His bagel recipe is awesome as well and I still use it regularly to make nice chewy, crispy bagels at home. I do find he can be quite "ackshually" opinionated though which can be quite grating. As a Brit, I appreciate him giving temps and measurements in °c and metric though.
100% on the AKSHUALLY thing regarding Adam Ragusea. I enjoy his content but he comes off as a know-it-all rather than informative at times, and it gets a bit grating.
Babish is fun to watch, but also a bit sensational. He goes waaaay over the top, and the videos are well made, but the content is over my head (and budget) quite often.
I like simple cooking channels for the most part. I'm no chef and I don't have elaborate knife skills etc, but I am an extremely good home cook (if I do say so myself). I prefer hearty, stick to your ribs type meals, and almost nothing I make doesn't involve butter and other rich ingredients. I can recommend 'Rachel Cooks With Love' if you like Tex Mex. Not fancy, but each and every recipe I've tried of hers has been excellent. I'm even growing and drying my own chilis now. I also enjoy Anti Chef because I find him funny and charming, and he doesn't edit out his many mistakes.
The Vanilla Bean Incident! I laughed so hard and was yelling "no no no" but he didn't hear me...
Haha I know, he is just darling sometimes 😀
It's really surprising to me to see the number of YouTube channels that are happy to put out recipes that do not work! It's always good to hear about people who test their recipes.
She and her husband ("My Ron") always have some at the end to let us know it was "just delicious" (she has a few regular phrases). Her enchilada sauce is outstanding btw, very easy to make, too.
I like food channels that either help me learn new flavor combinations or techniques.
Chef Wang. This man is so smart and he's done several series that are really different in particular focus (see his playlists). I avoid eating meat so a lot of his specific recipes aren't for me, but there's still much to learn from each video anyway.
Rick Bayless. Of course.
Chinese Cooking Demystified. I appreciate that this duo really explain everything, give deep dives into specific dishes, and also carefully identify ingredients so I can find them in my store. They recently moved to... Thailand, I think?... and I notice they are doing cross-over videos with other cultural-focused channels, so I think they are really making a name for themselves in a smart way. They're on reddit as well - u/mthmchris.
ChainBaker. I'm trying to up my baking game, and I like that he approaches some of his videos as almost experiments. Really helps me understand how specific ingredients function in bread.
Not entirely cooking, but Beryl Shereshewsky. She's created an entire online community which is interesting in itself. She picks one ingredient or focus and then people around the world tell her how it's used in their country. Then she picks a few people, they make a video snippet talking about the dish, and she makes it (quickly). Each video is about 10-15 minutes and has about 5 people's recipes so there's not a lot of detail but she links recipes in the comments. I just really enjoy learning how one "thing" is interpreted in different places.
I'm a huge fan of Claire Saffitz super talented baker
As a different take from most of the other top comments, I generally don’t go to YouTube for food education, or recipes. It is much easier for me to use and refer to text based recipes or instructions while I am actively cooking. Instead, my YouTube food videos tend to be entirely entertainment based, and if I see something worth trying, that’s an absolute bonus.
Dancing Bacons goes to a lot of unique and interesting street food vendors, unique restaurants and cook at home type foods. The creators partner (who my partner and I lovingly refer to as Mrs. Bacons) has an infectious smile and laugh, and we enjoy seeing them enjoy food.
Mythical Kitchen is the intersection of incredible food knowledge and absolute stupidity that’s infectious. Chef Josh has this unhinged chaotic ADHD energy that is endlessly entertaining to watch, and while they can do shitpost foods like a three course tasking menu out of Gatorade, you can also see that they actually do have a lot of knowledge, that they use to make the most ridiculous shit.
Imamu Room and Xiaoying Cuisine both fall under the kind of ASMR cooking that is really enjoying to watch while relaxing and not wanting to actually pay close attention to what is going on.
Alex He often picks dishes and tries to find out as much as possible about them to improve his own dish. These videos sometimes evolve into whole mini-series spanning months. Like currently he is trying to improve his ramen and for that is traveling around the world - sadly not Japan due to, at the time, travel restrictions - to find insights from world class chefs.
At the core of it, I tend to not watch cooking-related youtube videos because I just want the ingredients, the specific amount of said ingredients, cook time, and the order in which I prepare those ingredients. Most of the time I'll wind up scanning back and forth for the ingredients and specific amount because my attention span is absolute garbage and I'll forget them if I don't write them down. I also don't like to touch my phone when I cook, so that complicates the issue for me.
So if the video has all the stuff listed out on the screen at the beginning or in the description, which is rare in my experience, that's the one for me. Otherwise I'll look up the info on Google and wing it, or cook what's in my repertoire.
Chef Jean-Pierre
I remember watching him on TV with my dad. I rediscovered him a few months ago on YouTube. He's doing his own YouTube stuff now and it's great.
He's clear, simple, and pretty entertaining. He ran a cooking school and restaurants in the past, so he has good technical knowledge of how things work. Not exactly to the same calibre as, like, a molecular gastronomist. But he explains why he does things a certain way and teaches principles well.
His style of cooking is very relaxed. He shows his mistakes and how you can recover from mistakes. Or adapt a recipe to fit what's on hand. I think those are two of the most important skills for home cooks to learn in the kitchen.
Glen and Friends Cooking
This is a great channel full of a variety of cooking, baking, and mixology. The recipes are always interesting, well-presented and clear. The presenter has a long history as a kitchen professional. He actually films his videos from a professional kitchen videography set in his backyard.
Most of the recipes he makes are pretty simple, and his presentation style is always easy to follow. My favourite series he does is called The Old Cookbook Series. He takes a recipe from a vintage cookbook and prepares it. Most of these are inherently quite simple. But he also goes into why the recipe works -- what each ingredient is doing, etc.
AwareHouse Chef
The presenter, George, owns a restaurant and has been a chef for 30+ years. He also used to be some sort of engineer and it shows. His videos are clear and technical, but still accessible. He makes recipes, but also deep dives into specific ingredients or tools. The production value of his videos is always very high and he really enjoys engaging with his community.
I disagree with some of his personal opinions. For example, he's a huge proponent of non-GMO, organic foods, avoiding possible trace amounts of metals leaching into foods from cookware. "Clean cooking" in general. I'm just not so concerned with such things. However, his opinions are well-reasoned and he's never overbearing. You can tell he's very genuine and well-intentioned.
Mobile Home Gourmet
The presenter, Dennis, is calm and clear. He's pretty knowledge and comes across as a pleasant person. His recipes are usually pretty simple in their execution, probably because he doesn't have that much room to work in. But his technique is good. If you watch a few of his videos, you'll start to see variations on the same core techniques. I think that's a great strength of his content.
He hasn't uploaded new videos in a while. I think I remember him saying that his health was declining a bit. Hope he's okay...