food youtube channels that are not terrible

Does anyone else do the POV approach like Kenji?

Not that I’ve seen. Part of why it works for him is that he goes so light on editing. I think for others that rely on heavier use of editing it could get really disorienting

kenji is the only one of these cooking show youtubers i like. also chef john but he's so oldschool that it doesn't feel right to lump him in with the others, totally different lane of appeal

i had to take a break from him b/c i found him to be one of the most insufferable twitter personas i had ever encountered.

he's even more insufferable IRL if you can believe that.

Here's something from left field you probably didn't expect to be recommended here:
Thu Tran's Food Party (no longer on YT, it got picked up by IFC)

https://www.ifc.com/shows/food-party

A kids' cooking show that's equal parts Amy Sedaris/David Lynch/Fort Thunder.

also chef john but he's so oldschool that it doesn't feel right to lump him in with the others, totally different lane of appeal

isn't that what this thread is for though? or do we need to start a different thread for non-terrible, uncool food youtubers?

i mean i think chef john is super cool in his own way but you know what i mean

oh no i wasn't saying he doesn't belong in this thread, just that he's not part of that current "scene" of youtube cooking personalities that seem to have overlapping followings

http://www.youtube.com/c/KabitasKitchen

Indian food and other things

(Kabita’s Kitchen)

he's even more insufferable IRL if you can believe that.

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Wednesday, August 26, 2020 6:53 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

oh i can very much believe that

i def get a 'annoying redditor' vibe from him but his vids are too focused/streamlined for it to matter

i like this intentionally terrible guy more than babish
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSR5RNqaJFk&list=PL803A87744721C14C

er...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSR5RNqaJFk&list=PL803A87744721C14C&index=59&t=0s

that’s pretty intentionally terrible!!

Practically unwatchable even!

How many channels has matty matheson been on? This guy’s everywhere

I didn’t know who that guy was until I saw his book. I immediately wanted to hurt him.

https://imgur.com/KHGkvqT.jpg

frightening

Matty is certainly an acquired taste. I’m extremely hesitant to try and diagnose where his shit comes from. I probably would have resented him greatly in high school.

If I had known Kenji in high school I probably would still strongly resent him today.

oh it was completely 100% based on the front cover photo

I like matty. Has that kind of off-putting energy that an addict in recovery can have,but seems genuine and good-hearted.

I forget not everyone has heard of him, guess he was canada-famous first

i had never heard of him and based on pictures i'm not exactly running to his content

I think the best introduction to mr matheson is probably trying out his newer content where he’s promoting his forthcoming HOME STYLE COOKERY book, when his kid joins him in the kitchen it’s actually cute plus the lol this guy’s a dad effect

I know it’s nowhere in the rules that you gotta eat how you cook on youtube, especially if your channel is mostly stunt cooking, but I feel like I lost a little respect for Mr Babish when I learned his regular diet was chicken salads.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jAhGHxa3js

The Burger Show episode where Matty and Alvin compete at Babish’s house always kills me every time Matty chops into the carrot with that nice-looking knife

I used to work for MM before he was properly famous and seeing his face plastered everywhere fucking blows

(nothing substantive against him really, it was just a shitty time in my life)

"Action Bronson but worse" is a surprise celebrity turn

I haven't seen any of the content so I can't weigh in in that sense. But just imagine seeing your old boss from a really shit job pop up grinning in your youtube sidebar every day.

Babish is now the Babish Culinary Universe

We are LOVING Stump Sohla. I can’t wait to see what else they come up with now they have a full studio and crew.

(the latest one where she makes a 7 course tasting menu with only bodega ingredients was kind of a rerun of a bunch of Mythical Kitchen tricks)

(which is totally great actually)

not stating an opinion as to whether food52 is terrible or not terrible but i don't feel like working today and just refreshed my pie crust knowledge with this appropriately slow paced (v long) video. i have been improving over the past few years but i think i am brave enough to try mixing it by hand now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1fJ3GsmQBg

I’ve added Chilli Chump to my short list. He’s earnest and monomaniacal and that’s good enough for me.

Same for George Motz, the Burger Scholar, even though he sometimes gives me MAGA waves; maybe that’s just where he’s from.

I hope this livestream of sohla making thanksgiving food on babish lasts for a whole week

even though andrew keeps drinking blue moon which is just sad

this is just going to be the tombot talks about sohla thread

her one-handed boozy brunch today was very impressive and also made me miss going out for brunch, a lot

CLAIRE SAFFITZ IS BACK WITH A NEW CHANNEL

I dont know how OK people are with comedy cooking YTs but I love this guy (my partner HATES him fwiw).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwP6HyGavLs

Meyhem Lauren is my new favorite youtube chef (he’s on the munchies channel which is overall hit-or-miss)

Oh wait he has his own channel!!! YAY

omg his shirts. where does he get his clothes

my parents and i watch country life vlog religiously, in which an azerbaijani woman (turkic likely?) who lives on a farm makes traditional dishes using early 20th century techniques. often her husband helps her, her mom usually watches from the side and sometimes her children visit from the city. she always leaves a plate or two out for the ppl behind the camera. the dishes are similar enough to the persian / turkish / georgian food i grew up with to be recognizable but also different enough to provoke curiosity and conversation. there is no narration or dialogue, unless you count the times when grandma is facetiming relatives or begins to reminisce and ramble on about who knows what

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCIix6MklfJ

guess that link is busted, maybe this one works better?

youtube.com/channel/UCIix6MklfJFywa_36iDj8Sw

i love that kind of channel, and this is like my favorite kind of food, thanks for that one

I'm on hour 3 of watching this channel, very pleasant rainy Sunday viewing

I like matty. Has that kind of off-putting energy that an addict in recovery can have,but seems genuine and good-hearted.

I first got into his videos when he did a butter chicken for vice (i think) that looked hells of delicious. But I found a little of him went a verrrrrry long way and that his most recent videos (one is seemingly him having a breakdown after his sponsors quit the show after he made lots of jokes about diarrhea while making a meal) have strong "bad Chris Farley character" vibe.

George Motz kind of aggravated me till he started doing his episodes during lockdown and it was clear he is just bad dad joeks and his daughter was RHDE through every episode she had to shoot. Then I found him endearing.

There's a comedian who keeps appearing in the First We Feast shows who's always showing off his garage full of vintage VWs, and he seems immensely unfunny.

The Mythical Kitchen shows are pretty great. I don't think I'd ever cook anything they cook, but it's very entertaining to watch them, the man guy - looks like a nerd on roids - is funny, and he also clearly has unimpeachable cooking chops.

Sohla has been great of late. That any bean, any green, any pasta dish of hers has quickly become a mainstay here, and I'm glad she's on Babish's channel. I interviewed Babish for a story on his show and the BA vida a year or two ago, and he was very sweet and genuine. I slightly wonder if the grisly demise of the classic BA Kitchen period has besmirched the stars of their shows - loved Claire and Brad et al, but don't really wanna watch 'em in the light of what went down.

Sue Hulk - sometimes with Count Dankula (who has his own channel) is very very Scottish but they're so... real

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UC0dEenZnbL

Ha! I also watch mostly food vids on YT but have not watched any of those (except for Andy Cooks, watched one on pizza by him where his female assistant came in and drank a massive glass of wine while he made super-average pizzas and it absolutely had no vibe), will investigate - thanks Trayce!

Yeah Andy's stuff is super-basic, but I like to watch him for cheffy technique. He's very bog-standard aus/nz foods though (spag bol, steaks, stir frys etc)

The Fallow channel is deservedly popular at the moment - lots of good, technique-focused stuff from the guys who run one of London’s most highly-regarded Modern British restaurants.

Middle Eats (husband and wife team doing a bunch of regional Arab cooking) is always good.

Probably more on the vibes-based, rather than practical, end of the spectrum but Life In Wetland is a nice Kerala-village-life-and-cooking channel.

Probably more on the vibes-based, rather than practical, end of the spectrum but Life In Wetland is a nice Kerala-village-life-and-cooking channel.

am 100% here for this, grew up round the corner from the sri krsna kerala resto in Tooting, still dream of their food

enjoying watching the new Alton Brown videos but unfortunately he reminds me of the abusive chef on The Bear

Ilona Maher’s Last Meals episode is GREAT

Josh has like an instant rapport with her and she’s awesome

Alton Brown has become pretty unhinged iirc

He’s awful! Was not a fan even back in the day, but now? No, no, no.

uh oh what did I miss

(the answer is "everything" because I've never read anything about the dude, but specifically it seems he did Something Bad?)

Very sketchy politics; racist/antisemitic comments, etc.

sigh. he did give off That Vibe.

glad that’s settled, time to get back on the thread topic tyvm everyone

to make up for my error, I offer Internet Shaquille. he's charming, gives crisp advice, and other than living in Phoenix seems non-problematic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1Ao4uHUNGI

tombot are you no longer an Alton stan, honest Q

I hate his patronizing old wrong dad face. He is the uncle who cooks the bad burgers at the barbecue.

seriously his old recipes are wrong and his “science” was bullshit! Kenji might also be a pompous ass but at least he’s mostly right and not a wingnut

We are aligned on this!

Love Internet Shaquille, and also Kenji obvs. Love 2 watch a man with sky blue fingernails shakily make a grilled cheese at 3am with a headcam on, being monstered by his own dog. The best, no notes. This is television to me.

Sohla wrote an incredible piece about why she quit working for the NYT. I love her so much.

https://open.substack.com/pub/sohla/p/sorry-about-your-cookies

I’m watching James May, “Captain Slow” from Too Gear and current pub owner / gin entrepreneur, attempt Gordon Ramsay’s Beef Wellington

i like the "W2 Kitchen" guy and his overenthusiastic narration

Oh he’s good! Three episodes in and he’s already another fave. Definitely going to try his version of vegetarian mapo tofu

Bonus points for wearing a white dress shirt and no apron while cooking with chili oil

TIL there is a food content dude in the UK whose brand is “Big Nibbles.” I don’t think there’s any way on earth an American would decide to name his channel thus.

Now that Just a Dash is on Netflix, I have joined the Matty Matheson culinary universe

kind of cheated and skipped from the middle of s1 to s3 . I'll probably cherry pick my way through the ones that look interesting, and probably watch them all

I feel like the vibe is less controlled chaos than... chaotic order? all the kitchen stuff still has to be done and all the fundamentals are on point but everything other than the act of cooking is staged as completely unplanned, if not actually unplanned

I'm also counting how many times food stylist/recipe expert Michelle, who is really the co-star, yawns per episode

appreciating the subtle parody of "kids these days don't know real food. guess they eat chicken nuggets" which every other patronizing show has done, only for him to go to an elementary school career day and prepare chopped liver for the kids

I like this Italian food channel, the content and the couple's dynamic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHlqOBNMyvY

Emily Duncan’s “No Expert” channel is now running a series with all your old favorite chefs from epicurious, making their favorite dishes, called “Cooking Together.”

Oh always loved Emily on their Three Levels Of Chef series.

I just came across this Cadence Gao video. Is he worth a follow? He seems kinda edge-lordy but sincere in intent. Is this just how people talk these days?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWDqAjNz0p4

Oh dear. He’s def not for me based on that vid.

Chinese Cooking Demystified is absolutely top notch, I recommend you follow that instead!

I don't use YT a lot but I enjoy following Jon Kung on Tt. He just seems very cool. And he's a Michigander.

http://www.youtube.com/@jonkung

I might like Matty M in theory but I cannot be yelled at. I'm instantly exhausted.

I liked him early on but I kind of feel he got exhausted and felt the need to keep the shtick up to keep his Vice base interested but it often feels like he's phoning in the wackiness, the over-the-top-ness and I'd rather he'd just cook. All the comedy stuff in his YT vids is the stuff that makes me tire quickly of his YT vids.

I recently discovered the ex-Buzzfeed Worth It? dudes and very much enjoy their videos. They've started their own thing together - I may even have first come across it via this thread, and while, early on, the main white dude feels like he got his vibe wholesale from Joel McHale, pretty soon in the friendship between the three guys and their love for what their doing becomes very infectious. They're eating out rather than cooking themselves, but still, good "to have in the background while I myself am cooking" which is kind of why I go to Babish et al in the first place.

damn, that guy in the Chinese vegan food somehow figured out how to say "pronouns" with a hard r

Chinese vegan food video, I mean

The Elijah Wood episode of Last meals is really, really good.