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.

Would bookmark

https://gabyskitchen.com/

https://gabyskitchen.com🕸/

Bon Appétit, the multimedia food-journalism outlet that has experienced a summer of racial strife in the workplace, has a new editor in chief: Dawn Davis, a prominent editor and executive who has been one of the few Black power players in the book world.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/27/business/media/bon-appetit-dawn-davis-editor.html

Sohla has joined the Babish Culinary Universe, and it is good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zDZV-jGJ6w

meanwhile BA has attempted a woke relaunch. the metrics are not too encouraging so far and the whole thing has a gross post-Deadspin-exodus vibe, fairly or not.

Absolutelyfuckingnot. RIP

I’d love to confidently boycott it but once the algorithm starts suggesting new Brad videos I’m going to end up watching them

Ew. Brad is the LEAST appealing chef to me. I can barely watch his videos esp when the editors over-hack them.

Sohla said something fascinating a while back. When asked about how the other chefs were responding to the initial airing of the test kitchen inequality, she said something like (and I paraphrase), "Everyone is reacting differently. Some of my colleagues have already put out supportive statements, but, like, Brad just discovered racism yesterday."

Lol Brad strikes me as a real creep

It’s certainly possible to be a creep and a doofus at the same time, that’s true.

I find Brad's incoherence winning, he doesn't seem like a creep but a charming clod IMO

I don't know how much is the peeping on drama element, but the two new videos have 250k views per day so sadly the reboot might work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PsJilIaFio

Sohla has another show

This recipe seemed nuts to me at first -soaking the pasta in stock before cooking??? - but OMG was it delicious
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5wxY614qGE

i watched that with interest and i don't even like cooked greens

I often cook my noodles in lightly stock cube'd water

I recently made the best oven fries by soaking the potatoes in hot (not boiling) water for 10 min first, so I'm definitely going to try soaking the pasta before cooking it.

these videos have way too much "having a laugh" in them now

omg just cook

you are right, that is the thing i don't like about them. they are the mom recipe blog of cooking instruction, except you can't just scroll through the lols.

I guess that's the BATK legacy

I often cook my noodles in lightly stock cube'd water

I've never tried it before, and NOM the results were OM NOM NOM (also, you can make a pasta bake from the leftovers with a little extra cheese and some breadcrumbs and that is fantastic also)

There's a printed recipe for these dishes in the blurbage in the YT video if watching Sohla have fun is noxious to you

Jacques Pepin would never do the "wacky" stuff.

I don't blame millennials for much, but I do blame them for wackifying otherwise perfectly good cooking videos

I do like Sohla, tho. It's not her, it is the editing.

yeah it's not her at all, it's the need to make everything "cute" and "funny" when her technical skill and regular personality would be enough

of the new folks, I think Harold is quickly becoming my favorite.

I’m half-watching Harold make General Tso’s chicken and just... why do people in this show keep using the term “slurry”? 😬 like i get the usefulness of the term but I’m definitely not the only person watching who thinks of this every time one of them says it.

I know he's not BA but whenever I watch one of Matty Matheson's videos I have to switch off after a minute or so of really unfunny self-conscious weirdness and yelling and unpleasant, billowing ego.

Sohla and Priya have a video in the newly-built NYT Cooking test kitchen...

welcome to my mid twenties xp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksgkpdxPPy8

The NY Times is building a huge kitchen studio

Guys I made a whole other thread for non-BA youtube cooking content but OK

#onetestkitchen

Which thread Tombot because I would like to get in on that

food youtube channels that are not terrible

thanks!

LOL

Bon Appétit
Bon Appétit
5 days ago
You may have noticed that we removed the most recent episode of ‘It’s Alive’ about seafood canning. Unfortunately, we showcased the canning process inaccurately and we apologize. In the video, we chose to use a water bath instead of a pressure canner so we’d be able to physically show the audience what was happening within the jars throughout the canning process. We know how important it is to show safe food handling for our audiences and realize this wasn't a responsible way of demonstrating the process. We made a mistake, and we promise to learn from it.
If you tried to can seafood in the way we did in this video, we recommend that you discard your resulting product and start over. For more info on safely canning at home, please refer to the USDA's Complete Guide to Home Canning. The information is based on research conducted by the National Center for Home Food Preservation in cooperation with USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Learn more about both here: https://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/pu...
For more about safe food handling and preventing botulism, please consult the CDC here: https://www.cdc.gov/botulism/consumer...

5.7K

Jesus

You're dead with Brad

well that's monumentally stupid

It's Botulism! with Brad

I have this idea that I want to do a video series where a set of contestants "cover" a BA recipe, with the goal to do it as cheaply and deliciously as possible. handicaps (i.e. must be vegan, convenience stores only, etc) are handed out at random. whoever spends the most money loses even if they made the tastiest dish. penalties for using fancy kitchen implements. etc.

my q is: what would be the cheapest way to rig up 3-4 people with head mounted cameras kenji style, that would actually be watchable sound/video quality-wise?

I'm joining the New York Times Food desk! This is a dream job, one that I hope will not only allow me to tell great stories (and film more video!), but bring new voices into the fold at the Times. It's been...a year, and I'm feeling really grateful today.https://t.co/kTDAWToZVM

— Priya Krishna (@priyakrishna) March 24, 2021

Priya's cool, I love her vids.

https://www.grubstreet.com/2021/03/bon-appetit-test-kitchen-hbo-max-series-enjoy-your-meal.html

the link I followed made me think that Conde Nast/Bon Appetit itself was developing a workplace sitcom based on the Test Kitchen, the reality is less terrible

I like this guy's wine videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqW_sMhA5-Y

He’s very good.

yeah he’s good!
i watched a thing of his about wine labels & learned a lot