I’ve been having this idea pretty much ever since I started culinairy school but haven’t been able to flush out how I want to do this.
My idea is to start a cooking channel on YouTube (yeah I know there’s already thousands of those, it’d be for my own education and enjoyment mostly) but don’t do your basic recipe videos. I want to go into basics, explain cooking techniques and their origin. A bit of a mix between Binging With Babish and Tasting History but try to be more “like an actual culinairy school”, if you know what I mean by that. I’m already writing a few script ideas, about produce/equipment knowledge or one about techniques you’ll find in almost all recipes for example. still thought I’d come and ask the lovely folks here about what they’d want to see.
So, I’m wondering: Let’s say you have little to no cooking experience. Maybe frying an egg seems like a challenge to you already. What would you want to see on a youtube channel to help you start cooking. What knowledge do you feel you’re missing to start preparing meals and understand what you’re doing?
I’m not expecting a lot of responses, but if I can find out what people who pretty much never cook feel is holding them back, then that would be an amazing starting point for me.
Edit: i wouldn’t mind ideas for a channel name either. :)
I would probably watch a youtube channel that focused more on how to improvise in cooking than how to follow a recipe, along with pointing out various useful techniques and pitfalls to avoid.
Hell, this might actually already exist. I confess I’ve never really looked.
I’ve looked and haven’t found anything to my satisfaction. I found that pretty much all channels either give you too much details in way too much of a robotic way or they don’t go deep enough into a subject. I’m not gonna say I’m gonna have a easy time finding the middle ground myself, but I do feel there’s still a place for that on YouTube and at least I feel I have the required knowledge for that.
Adam Ragusea is good for that.
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love Adam and he’s done a great job at demystifying a lot of what cooking is. I still do feel his channel is still leaning a bit too heavily on the assumption people have some cooking knowledge. When he goes into a topic he does thst super well, but he doesn’t offer the basic and broad knowledge I seek to offer.
Well feel free to drop a DM to me directly when you get it up and running and I’ll give it a look, for sure.
I will do. Currently writing, editing and such will be a whole new and different beast. Don’t expect anything soon haha
What about Kenji Lopez-Alt?
I think he gives a lot of great detail on techniques like braising, deglazing, etc. but in an approachable way. Maybe you see some things you think you could improve on, but his channel seems like a great place to use as a reference for the kind of content you’re aiming for.
Two things I usually wonder about -
- Substitutions - what if I don’t have all the ingredients, what if I don’t have the equipment for a step etc.
- Pairings - what combination of ingredients work and why but most importantly what won’t work and why.
Good luck with your show.
Good points! Thanks bud. Those questions are exactly what I would want to resolve. I don’t want to put out recipe videos as much as to give people the tools to answer these questions for themselves when watching or reading recipes from other people. Be able to tweak recipes to their liking, instead of getting worried when you can’t find a certain ingredient.
I do like the idea of specifically touching on techniques and skills. It often annoyed me in cooking shows that the chef will chop a bunch of veggies lightning fast and not comment at all on how you’re supposed to cut an onion, what kind of knife to use, etc.
One of the ideas I had was to make a series of short 2-3 minute long videos where I explain either 1 technique or some industry lingo. Then, whenever I use those techniques in a recipe video, link back to them in the video description so people can get a super condensed explanation without having to search for them or put the recipe video in pause for long.
I think this is a good idea but I would still like a quick explanation in each video (example: “were going to dice like this but more info can be found in the description”). I honestly may not have the time to watch the complete technique video in the moment but may go back for the next time.
Oh definitely. I was thinking about starting the video out by saying that all technique explanations can be found in the comments, then when it comes up in the video show a number or something corresponding to the link for it in the description. Hopefully this won’t break the flow of the video and still keeps it easy for people to find more information
I would watch the hell out of this.
Thanks. I recognised that what i would call basic cooking every one just knows, isn’t nearly as much of a thing thst I thought. Even just simple techniques and ideas are a lot harder for a lot of people than I used to think. I want to show people that cooking isn’t nearly ad difficult as a lot of people seem to think.
Post the recipes under the video in both metic and imperial units for the international audience.
Avoid using phrase like add X to it, explicitly say what you are adding together more important when using more then one pot/pan. Be literal about how to cook.
An example, Sheppards pie in the BBC site
Step 1 add beef, onion, celery, and carrot to the pan and cook for 5 min
Cool, says what, where and how long.
Step 2 add tomatoes, tomato puree, stock cubes, Worcestershire sauce, and mixed herbs. (To where?) Refill the tomato tin with water and pour into the pan, add a good pinch of salt and pepper (??) Bring to a simmer (what is that) stir regularly for 25 min.
Several things I find wrong, where are the tomato, stock, sauce, and herbs going? You don’t say add to the pan, but you do say add the water to the pan. What is a simmering temperature and a person like my who is bad at cooking has no idea how much a pinch is, 5g 10g?
Step 3 for the topping put potatoes into a large saucepan and cover with cold water, bring to boil then reduce the heat slightly and simmer for 10 min. Add the leaks return to simmer and cook for 2 min.
Ok first half is good, but now we have 2 simmering pans and which one does the leeks go into?
Step 4 pre heat the oven to 220/200 fan/gas. Drain potatoes and leek and return to the pan.
Oh the leek goes into the potatoes.
I know this sounds like wow you don’t know what you are doing at all, or I should make assumptions but when dealing with absolute beginners it helps to say the extra few words to know what goes where.
Also don’t assume people are watching the video, there will be a non zero amount that will listen only so using explicit instructions will help.
These are all great things to keep in mind, thank you. People with pretty much no knowledge is who I want to focus on. I have a cousin who om learning to cook and hence am seeing how limiting not knowing how to cook can be.
Also, to sort of respond to the recipe critism in your comment and to showcase what I want to do with the channel:
Step 3 for the topping put potatoes into a large saucepan and cover with cold water, bring to boil then reduce the heat slightly and simmer for 10 min. Add the leaks return to simmer and cook for 2 min.
Say I’d have this step in a recipe (I’m not planning on doing a lot of recipe videos, but still) i would not only want to be really clear on what to do and tell people to put the potatoes in cold water. I want to explain that there’s a good reason for starting potatoes out in cold water. Understanding why things are done makes it much easier to translate that knowledge and techniques in other areas of the kitchen.
Btw, you start potatoes out in cold water because they’re fairly dense as to vegetables go and have a super high starch content. If, like you do with pasta, drop them in boiling water the ourside of the potatoes will be overcooked before the inside in done. This will give you an almost waxy skin over potatoes because of those starches coagulating.
On that same vein, recipes where you have the same ingredient going to multiple places irritate me when they don’t specify quantity in the main recipe, but only in the ingredients list.
For example if the ingredients are 2 cups of soy sauce, 1.5 cups for sauce, 0.5 cups for marinade, I want the recipe to say “add soy sauce to marinade (0.5 cups)” or something like that not, “add soy sauce to marinade” or “add remainder of soy sauce to marinade”.
Remainder could work if a very recent instruction says something to the effect of “measure 2 cups of soy sauce, add 1.5 cups to sauce” so there is a remainder to add, not just “lol add the rest idiot”
Recipes that are attainable for a home chef.
My biggest pet peeves are when I see a channel insist that I buy a brand new piece of equipment or an ingredient that can only be found in a specialty shop. I love Babish, but it annoys me when he says, “Go to your local Mexican grocery store,” or something of that nature. I do not have one, and if I do, it’s more catered towards a white American and not the immigrants looking for their countries ingredients. I had to stop watching Joshua Weissman because he would constantly say I needed a certain piece of equipment that was $100+ or a fresh ingredient and there was no way I would ever be able to get it fresh.
The cooking channel I love the most is Internet Shaquillle. He never says you have to buy a certain product. He’ll straight up show you things you can buy at Kroger for $2. And he’ll give alternatives if you don’t have certain equipment. Ethan Chlebowski is another fantastic one.
Adam Ragusea is the solution to your problems.
I would love to see more technique and theory videos. There’s piles of recipes and such, but, like, what does it mean to dice something as opposed to julienne it? How the hell do you chop things so fast without losing a finger or leaving a hand-span of un-chopped stuff behind? Why does it matter if my pots are “heavy bottomed” or not and what even is that?
Etc ad nauseam.
Heavy bottomed pans you make the cookin world go round.
I really liked Alton Brown’s show Good Eats. I thought he did a nice job explaining the science behind cooking methods and ingredients in an easy to understand way.
Things I would like to know:
- How to cut veggies properly. This could be on a per recipe basis like “in this recipe we will dice onions, here’s how”. I’ve been cooking for years but sometimes I get tripped up on what’s best for the veggies in that specific recipe and I just guess.
- When to add things to the pan and how long to cook/what temp before adding more stuff. I feel like other cooking shows don’t explain that some things need to cook longer than others.
- Explain mixing things to get the right flavor, for example this is salty so we add sweet/acidic. I feel like this is probably super important and why my food always tastes off.
- I have health issues with my intestines and am super sensitive to grease. Too much oil/butter and I’ll be sick. So I personally would like to know ways to cook with less oil/butter but still taste good. Or maybe ways to use the oil in food already (I’m thinking ground beef/bacon) so you don’t add more (I have no idea if this is possible just an idea in case it is).
These are some interesting questions, I would love to respond to all of them but honestly to correctly answer them I’d be here typing a whole essay.
America’s Test Kitchen does some really great stuff for both beginner and experienced cooks, namely presenting one method/recipe after testing a number of alternatives, and including the reasons why they prefer the method/recipe they settled on. “Many people also do it this way, and here’s how that turns out and why I prefer the method shown.” Or “Here’s what happens if you add more butter, and this is what it looks like if you add more eggs/use an egg substitute etc.” They get into the chemistry/science of why the chosen method is best or why an easier method can work as well as a more traditional one, and you feel like you learn both the how of cooking something and the why behind a specific recipe, which makes it a lot easier to understand and follow. A final benefit is that it can make a lot of recipes more approachable for a home cool with things like “in professional kitchens, they will use XYZ in order to ZYX. If you don’t have access to XYZ, YYY ingredient has a similar effect and is more common in home kitchens…”
Yeah, I think you might have pointed out a downfall for me and many other who would want to do a similar thing as me. For example, I use agar agar (a certain thickening agent) on an almost daily basis at work. It’s great but I should recognise that most people do not have access to this kind of stuff. Like, it’s easy to see people won’t have a sous vide or vacume machine at home, but there will be stuff I take for granded that far out of reach for most people.
Exactly, it’s definitely a shortcoming of a lot of recipes and cooking shows. Like just in case I do have agar agar, I’d love to hear how to use it in the given recipe, but many more people probably want to hear that ~and then~ their other more common options, as well as how those compare to the more professional technique/ingredients. They do the same thing with materials, too. Like “traditionally this is made in a round bottom wok, but we get great results with this type of pan that you’re more likely to have/know how to use.” Sending huge luck for ya, and looking forward to checking out your videos when you start!
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Pretty much this. I tend to see a lot of those videos with studio kitchen setups that look extraordinarily decorated, unlike any normal kitchen, which opt to take cinematic shots of sauteing instead of actually presenting the cooking process as it would naturally occur. Maybe it’s fine for entertainment but it’s not what I would want to learn from either.
One of my favorite tutorials for any food I’ve made is one that I go to for falafels (Rafika’s Kitchen, I think the channel was called). I know the recipe by heart now, but I always remember how she spoke about how practical it was to make, offering viable substitutes, hacks, and advice that would suit the average viewer. Tips she gives like re-using oil for frying are rarely covered, but are the backbone of cooking practically at home.
Adam Ragusea on YouTube might be the vibe you’re looking for. His video style varies a bit, but he often tries to show the whole cooking process (speeding up boring stuff like dicing a bunch of onions, but not cutting it out) because he thinks it gives a better idea of how much work the average home cook will actually need to do. His philosophy is to make food that’s approachable for amateurs and also discuss why he’s making the choices he’s making, because what works for him might not work for you. As far as ingredients go, I often see him spooning flour directly out of the bag while he cooks, but the video quality is still pretty good so it’s pleasant to watch.
Alternatively, if you like comedy in your cooking shows, check out You Suck At Cooking. Also very unpretentious, but maybe not a great how-to channel.
Yes what I want I true step by step that any layman can follow and make great dishes.
I’d think something like have each episode demonstrating not only how to cook a particular meal, but also go over all the vast myriad of cooking utensils, pots, pans, bowls, dishes, etc, and how to properly use them.
It would be really cool to see how different cooking techniques change the food on the chemical level.
This would be really cool indeed, but would probably be too difficult for me to showcase. At least at first.
I really want to see no bullshit science based cooking. With percise measurmene. Like whats the exact temperature and time to cook a salmon staek medium rare. I really need exact measurements based on science and experiments.
TIL salmon can be medium rare.
Dont know if this is the right term. Its at a phase where its clearly cooked but its juicy and very very sofr that it melts in your mouth. I think its at around 70c core temp. Not sure.
…so cooked properly?
You can sous-vide salmon to about 45 degrees Celsius, which is lower than you’re likely to pan-fry or bake it. I’d definitely equate that to medium-rare. It’s not quite cooked, but still falls apart.
Boy lemme tell you about tuna steaks then… XD
I would love to see a show about how to adapt traditional meals to vegetarian or reduced meat dishes, but absolutely not presented by a vegetarian or vegan. Existing presenters can’t seem to stop talking about vegetarianism/veganism. I would appreciate the information, but I can only abide their purity spiral attitudes briefly.
I was a vegetarian for environmental reasons for almost 11 years. I started eating meat again when I started my studies, although still very little. I feel I’d be the perfect candidate for this.
I think there are a lot of “meat is an accent, not the whole dish” recipes out there, from all over the world. Adapting flavors to a more western palette is going to be tricky, but it can be done. So long as they are presented as good recipes instead of “here is a half step step to vegetarianism”, I think people would dig it.
Without putting too much emphasis on it, showing people how to find fresh veg/fruit/herbs outside of a grocery would be useful, as would some tips on how to buy ethically raised meat/dairy. Having to make trips to different places seems like a chore (and certainly can be), but showing how it can be a pleasant social experience would help a lot to build a larger community of like-minded foodies. Spend local, reduce waste, encourage a local market for superior produce, network with like-minded people, etc…
Your mentioning fried eggs reminds me of a time I had a coworker who was telling me about the breakfast he made for his kid every weekend: fried pork roll slices and scrambled eggs. I asked why not fried eggs since it would probably be better with that meal. He said he could never get through frying an egg without it breaking and just turning into scrambled eggs anyway so he’d given up years ago. So I gave him some tips I learned in culinary school. Make sure the oil is already hot, Crack the egg into a separate bowl ahead of time, and either use a small pan or tilt the pan to the egg and oil are in one “corner.” He came back the next day and he said it worked wonders for him and he’d been able to fry an egg for the first time in his life.
So maybe that sort of thing? Like, focus a lot on those tiny little tricks that aren’t necessarily in recipes or even required but make the job so much easier.
