Bon Appetit Test Kitchen

I feel it demands a thread of its own.

Use this to discuss favorite series, attempts to do BATK tricks at home, and express your approval or disdain for the various personalities on display.

http://www.youtube.com/user/BonAppetitDotCom

I want to try making the omelette souffle, but I'm a bit intimidated

It's super easy. A little weird, but worth trying at least once.

Brad Leone is a hero

I tried the omelette souffle and it did not work, but it was still a good omelette.

i became aware of the videos through this link and maybe tombot on another thread. https://jezebel.com/my-obsession-with-the-bon-appetit-cinematic-universe-1839497437

soooo many videos. i need to just figure out a couple of things to make and start.

The roast chicken looks good too, although having it completely slathered on gojuchang may be too much spice for my family.

The home video era should be interesting (including whatever amazing upstate house Andy has gotten himself hooked up in)

For me the videos are more about entertainment than recipes, although I got a subscription to the mag for my bday and we've made a lot of the recipes. I do want to try Brad's cured egg yolks, but it seems like a waste of eggs rn.

i love carla's videos

i have watched a lot of these videos over the past 3 months. even if they weren't exactly hired for the purpose of internet video, the casting of the ba test kitchen is pretty impeccable.

Brad Leone is a hero
otm. i was watching an older video recently and molly was talking about listening to "i'm like a bird" in her high school carpool, and brad was like, "oh, for me high school carpool was more like smoking joints and listening to system of a down"

only thing i've made was carla's pot of butter beans, which isn't really a recipe, but they were pretty good even without bothering with the aioli.

favorite running gag is priya's apparent deep embarrassment at having a hot boyfriend that the internet knows about.

Molly drives my wife insane. When she reported in on the WFH video her immediately yelled “Oh of COURSE she’s in Joshua Tree”

she's such a cartoon millennial it's sort of hard to believe, but then is so knowledgeable and efficient when it comes to actual food stuff. like when she does videos with the editor-in-chief her vibe is "i've worked in dozens of restaurant kitchens and test recipes for a living, please get out of my way and don't make any dumb suggestions"

Rapo is truly a snoot though

He just shows up to remind everyone how BA in the 90s put sundried tomatoes in everything and it was dumb. And then make a remark that their work is only okay

carla is the best. I also like sohla, andy and of course claire. brad I like but not by himself, too much bro energy, but great playing off others.

the marinade in the gochujang pork recipe is reliable and easy to make if you can get the ingredients.

i only watched the focaccia one with Samin and Brad and really hated Brad for the first half and then warmed up to him.

Holy shit there goes the rest of my life I had no clue this existed.

Molly gives me "milk first then cereal" vibes

My wife has a very offensive but truly apt nickname for Molly.

I liked how in the recent cocktail ep Sohla was the only one who kept showing up to try every single drink, uncommented upon.

Also tbh it took an adjustment period when I learned Chris was straight.

After making quick breads all week, we tried a BA earl grey tea bread, and it overflowed the loaf pan and smoked up the whole kitchen/house. Then I looked up a blog post by Molly saying you need to precisely measure the inside of your pan, or else it will overflow. I fully blame Molly.

omg. so you mentioned this thing about chris (who I don't know) and in my mind I am like, "oh guy who you end up being surprised is straight? probably from boston." and lo and behold when I look him up online.

"Newton is a suburban city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is approximately 7 miles (11 km) west of downtown Boston."

I call it the Ed Norton Dissonance.

haha

I demand to learn the vulgar Molly nickname

I made the omelettes, they were good! Feel like i could whip them up any time, which is saying a lot for me because I'm very nervous about cooking anything without a detailed recipe in hand.

Also, lol, Newton, my high school's rival.

I am def gonna try Sohla's variant on a White Russian.

I liked how in the recent cocktail ep Sohla was the only one who kept showing up to try every single drink, uncommented upon.

Ok, after the coffee one, I legit hope that she's keeping it together.

Chris & Brad do Gourmet Makes was pretty lol, I'm glad the commenters got their wish (would be great if they have more swapped shows in the can).

Watched it this morning as a palate cleanser from reality and I was dying. Brad is such an ADD toddler and I love Chris a lot lot--I love their affection for each other even though they're opposites. Super great.

I made the Gojuchang roast chicken. It was ok, a lot of effort for what it is.

Really enjoyed the bagel bites episode of Gourmet Makes a week or two ago.

Andy >>> Antoni

One sure sign of mental/emotional decline has been developing a parasocial crush on a bon appetit person. Time to log off

Oh I have crushes on several. But they all spend way more time preparing food than I could ever stand.

I mean, there is an upside to being with someone who cooks all the time.

Ugh, Molly making that gross ostrich egg with whipped cream and salmon roe, only for both of them to agree that it's gross, just wasting food. On the other hand, can't wait to see what show swap today brings us!

there's lots of wasting food going on in bon appetit. the whole taking one bite from every dish on a restaurant menu feature !

the ostrich egg was just eldritch tho, no arguments

I feel like the food waste that happens in the BATK and related adventures is somewhat justified in that they aim to teach people how to make better food at home, thus enriching lives and possibly leading to less food waste in the form of thousands of inedible household kitchen disasters. That’s probably what they tell themselves.

Also OF COURSE Molly made the most insufferable thing in the coffee episode. I’d grab a drink with Sohla anytime though. I also like how they wove all the pourover silliness together in the editing room.

Brad’s visit to Tillamook made us wish we got Tillamook ice cream here out east.

I made the the spicy katsu chicken sandwiches, although I dialed back the spice level. They were good, nice crunch.

I made Molly’s Grown-Up Mac & Cheese. She used all parm, I did cheddar, fontina, parm bc I value cheesiness. It was silky and wonderful with no roux necessary. Whole stick of butter though. But it’s spread throughout a lb of pasta.

For the Delaney restaurant series, they always insist that the crew eats the food and that it doesn't go to waste.

I'm baking the BA 'shockingly easy no - knead focaccia' today, it has indeed been easy going so far.

Claire doing Brad's show was delightful btw.

Yes it was. The editing on that show is top notch.

I want a dirtbag covers podcast where ppl attempt to approximate these recipes on a strict budget w no fancy gadgets.

The crew did an "In Coversation" thing at the 92nd Street Y a little over a month ago, though I wouldn't recommend it unless you've watched a lot of the regular videos.

https://youtu.be/eUJzqChe3FQ

Chris's having worked at Vogue maybe another bit of "wait, he's not gay?" dissonance.

I need to know how many of the same navy shirt jacket suit Amiel owns. Like does he have 12 of them or does he just wear the same one EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

We made a version of this last night and it was surprisingly amazing:
https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/pasta-al-limone

For the Delaney restaurant series, they always insist that the crew eats the food and that it doesn't go to waste.

ok, this makes sense and I probably should've just assumed this. I guess I often don't consider how many crew members there are for these things

i almost never watch these but the one where claire tries to make her own jelly bellies was really entertaining. i appreciate that she takes a stupid task very seriously and gets genuinely frustrated when things go wrong over and over.

I had no idea this thread existed but the bf was just watching the video tour of their home kitchens and paused to turn round and go, "wait, Chris has a wife and kids?" at me and then I click here and it's a running theme of this thread

anyway I haven't explored the full, uh, Bon Appetit universe but I like the ones where he recreates dishes after a blindfold tasting and gets all the surprising obscure ingredients

I had also assumed Chris Morocco was gay, as had my gf

God, of course Delaney hasn't cooked anything in his parents' house and just chose to do show & tell with the vinyl he brought with him, jesus.

looool

the Gourmet Makes for cadbury eggs was seriously impressive

I'm planning to make Molly's chicken soup today, which is p much the same as any chx soup but with pulling out the breasts earlier and adding a lot of dill. Anyway the point is to freeze it for later so I'm going the whole two carcasses and prob like 16 C of water if I can fit it in the pot.

She does it with ditalini pasta but for the g/f versh should I sub in rice or thai rice noodles? Not for the frozen tubs, just for what we're eating today.

ok I am definitely going to try to make a shrimp salad sandwich (inspired by the "pantry sandwich" home ep)

Rick's grilled cheese + spicy tomato soup/dip looked heavenly and super easy to make also

The latest episode with pantry sandwiches was extremely enticing imo

Claire opening a jar of tuna in olive oil was ADORABLE sorry but it was

Also Brad being all “yeah so I just have some elk + venison meatloaf lying around plus dome pickled vegetables I already made, I’m making cold sandwich out of that, word” i.e. “Shit, I forgot that assignment was due today”

Also Amiel really is a Wes Anderson character

yeah Brad's version of pantry cooking was so inaccessible that the captions had to make fun of him

today I made a breakfast sandwich using Cristina's techniques and it was excellent I must say, pan fried english muffins w bacon fat >>> toasted with butter

I've been obsessed with these videos for about 18 months, ever since the one where Claire and Brad make sourdough bread. I love Brad's stoner metalhead vibe, and the way the editing makes subtle jibes at his expense, and Claire's laser-guided on-it-ness. But I love em all really, though I went off Claire slightly after the Creme Egg one, because a) she hates the filling but the filling is delicious, and b) she tried to make a custard for the filling when it is not a custard, which was making my partner literally scream on the sofa next to me. The "Making Perfect" on pizza was my favourite TV event of 2019.

I wrote a thing for the Guardian lasy year on these YouTube cookery stars and interviewed Claire, and she was awesome. She is clearly pretty freaked out about everything that has happened since they started doing these videos. I also interviewed Babish for the piece, who was an absolute sweetheart, really earnest and heartfelt, and Scott Weiner of Really Dough, who really loves pizza.

i tried to watch the garlic ginger paste video last night but they went waaaay too overboard on the frenetic/jokey editing on that one

I got hooked thanks to Carla, so I hope she gets a TV show out of this, if that's still a thing.

Also, I swear by BA's recipes. If I have ingredients I don't know what to do with, or am looking for a recipe for a certain dish, I always check them first. We get a lot of courgette in our veg delivery, and I've been doing their Summer Squash pasta recipe to use it up, and it is delicious. And I'll second the recommendation for Molly's Adult's Mac'n'Cheese. Often if I'm cooking alone in the kitchen, I'll whack one of their YouTubes on in the background, to keep me company.

Rick Martinez is aces too, <3 his nail polish. And Carla's great. She did a fantastic interview with Pamela Adlon on the podcast recently.

Loved Claire eating matzoh while also having clearly baked a giant pan of bread. It's rough for Jewish bakers.

Brad’s visit to Tillamook made us wish we got Tillamook ice cream here out east.

― El Tomboto, Saturday, April 4, 2020 12:27 AM (three weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

I've seen it at the Social Safeway, and I think at the Cathedral Heights Giant.

Will keep an eye out! Thank you.

I've been into the videos (thanks to Tombot actually), but since lockdown we've actually started making a ton of the recipes, they've been great for inspiration. I think between my wife & I we've done:

-focaccia
-Earl Grey tea bread
-banana bread
-buckwheat chocolate chip cookies
-Tahini billionaire bars (with spicy additions)
-spaghetti al limone (except not spaghetti, and this has really changed our approach to pasta tbh, using parmesan + pasta water + lemon for a sauce rather than drowning it in red sauce, although that's still delicious too)
-sour cream biscuits
-galette (used the dough for a caramelized garlic tart from the Plenty book)
-maybe more things, it's all a blur of cooking and youtube

Probably going to make that souffled omelet again, gonna see if it comes out as well with one less egg

Watched the sandwich video, I'd like to make that grilled cheese w salsa.

I did end up making Molly's best chicken noodle soup. It was a perfectly fine chx soup but no more than that. It's in the freezer for future use. Also Molly's adult mac'n'cheese which I will def make again even with having to use gluten free pasta, which is not ideal. Idk what else to try next, I never did find the curry pastes I wanted, or olek sambal to make Chris' spicy pork noodles.

this is great
https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/summer-squash-and-basil-pasta

as is this
https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/creamy-pappardelle-with-leeks-and-bacon

and so is this
https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/kale-minestrone-pistou

I liked the dill in molly's soup. Actually, I've been using dill more in general since I made that soup.

My wife made Gaby’s pantry sandwich yesterday, it got an excellent review

Gaby was the only one who used good bread.

We definitely make stuff like Rick's soup & sandwich all the time, although imagine having the sort of approach to life that lets you use a tablespoon of butter per side for a grilled cheese.

I cannot fucking abide the cutesy editing on this show. I nevertheless made the burnt cheesecake and am going to do the choco birthday cake next. But I shut the video off as soon as it gets too much and then just go to the print recipe on the website.

if I ever make recipes from bon appetite - which I do fairly often.- I do it from the text on the website. for me the video viewing is just background while pottering around the apartment or laying on the couch too tired to concentrate on reading or watching a film or whatever.

I think the website has a pretty good hit-rate but their recipes have definitely done me dirty on multiple occasions. recently i made this chickpea recipe quite faithfully https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/quite-possibly-the-best-chickpeas and it was bad

Try it with garbanzo beans

I also hold a grudge against BA for killing Gourmet, which was far superior imo

i've been trying since this thread made me aware of it but man i just can't vibe with this channel at all.

I cannot fucking abide the cutesy editing on this show

The editing differs pretty vastly based on whomst's show you're watching!

Loved all the praise for the humble potato on Claire's tater tots vid

Brad made a cameo with Mythical Chef Josh, the guy who makes all the strongo nuevo cuisine that Rhett and Link attempt to eat on the Good Mythical Morning channel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FEHKH6cxko