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I’ve been watching Kenji’s YouTube channel for quite a while and it’s one of my favorite channels. One of his favorite chefs is Jacque Pepin (and mine!) and it

by dylanz 5y ago

I’ve been watching Kenji’s YouTube channel for quite a while and it’s one of my favorite channels. One of his favorite chefs is Jacque Pepin (and mine!) and it shows. He’s not pretentious, mellow, substitutes ingredients the recipe calls for with ingredients he actually has in his house, and geeks out on history and science. Lastly his dogs are pretty darn cute and get to taste some great dishes.

aniforprez 5y ago
I've found Ethan Chlebowski and Kenji's videos really put in a lot of great, simple tips that make for some good cooking. For the most part, their videos aren't necessarily about the dish itself but the processes whilst cooking them. Kenji's boiling eggs video and Ethan's risotto-like pasta video have helped me immensely and just watching them cook has added some great techniques to my own repertoire. It really does help that they're quite honest about making mistakes and tend to include how and why they failed sometimes
- kenneth 5y ago
  I watch an absurd amount of cooking YouTube, and I follow a bunch of creators for different reasons. They each have their appeal: - Kenji → got into him because of Food Lab optimization articles, but discovered I enjoyed the unique perspective of his food videos done in real-time first-person - Alex (french guy cooking) → basically a YouTube native version of Kenji's food lab where he does series where he goes really deep into topics beyond just the recipe level, but really figuring out every aspect that affects a dish or style of cooking. He also does a ton of custom builds to test his ideas. - Adam Ragusea → incredibly practical home cooking, optimizing for what the average person might care about vs. doing things "right" -- combined with deep dives into various scientific topics, aided by interviews with experts (usually college professors). The recipe videos are good for getting a sense of how he throws things together on the fly - Pro Home Cooks → he focuses on making everything from scratch, which is interesting in dishes where people would use pre-made components (bread, pickles, noodles, etc.) - Joshua Weissman → very entertaining, highly ridiculous, with various series focused on affordable foods, recreating fast foods concepts, etc. makes a lot of things from scratch - Ethan → comes up with some interesting novel techniques, and is highly specifics in his recipes an outcomes, focused on healthy food. He certainly has his quirks which can get a bit grating, but he's very consistent in what he produces. - Babish → almost purely entertainment and less educational, but well produced videos - About To Eat → also has some interesting series, like the ones focusing on specific ingredients, tools, or techniques - Epicurious → has interesting series pitting amateur cooks vs. chefs that end up showing various levels of complexity of the same dishes - Muchnie "why we eat" → experienced chefs explain the cultural roots and history of dishes while showing how they're made etc. etc.… I watch too much food YouTube.
  - dharmon 5y ago
    Probably my favorite, that you're missing on this list (mostly likely cause his channel only recently "blew up"), is Brian Lagerstrom, formerly called Weeds & Sardines. Another recent fave is Middle Eats. I probably make his lentil fatteh recipe every couple of weeks. I tend to avoid cooking "entertainment" a la Babish and Weissman. Weissman is frustrating cause it used to be a legit cooking channel, but at some point a few years ago he stopped trying to make recipes that you would actually want to eat and focused on food porn. Then he got super lazy where you can tell he doesn't even test his recipes before filming.
    - kenneth 5y ago
      Actually I recently discovered Brian Lagerstrom and have enjoyed his videos so far, but I haven't been watching him for long hence my forgetfulness. Good call.
  - tmoertel 5y ago
    If you follow those creators, you may want to try Glen And Friends Cooking (https://www.youtube.com/c/GlenAndFriendsCooking https://www.youtube.com/c/GlenAndFriendsCooking) for interesting takes on cooking and recipes, with new episodes every few days. The subjects are fascinating and vary widely, but they do have some regular segments. On Sundays, for example, they do "The Old Cookbook Show," in which they pick quirky recipes from old cookbooks, typically 50 to 100 years old, but sometimes going back centuries. They cook the recipes and then describe how the resulting dishes taste—sometimes with disastrous results but other times with the rediscovery of a forgotten dish. For example, one recent epsiode is on a "100 Year Old Mississippi Cheese Pie Recipe," believed to be the precursor of the "chess pie" of southern United States fame.
  - dylanz 5y ago
    This list is awesome. Thanks for posting it!
  - jgable 5y ago
    It’s funny, I actually find Babish quite educational because his videos are so tightly edited. Explains the techniques and recipe in seven minutes flat. My wife and I have made many of his recipes (that he usually borrows from others) because he makes them so appealing, shows common mistakes, and does it so quickly.
dvtrn 5y ago
I get way too excited about the end of the videos for the summoning of his four-legged food tasters :)

by dylanz 5y ago

aniforprez 5y ago

I've found Ethan Chlebowski and Kenji's videos really put in a lot of great, simple tips that make for some good cooking. For the most part, their videos aren't necessarily about the dish itself but the processes whilst cooking them. Kenji's boiling eggs video and Ethan's risotto-like pasta video have helped me immensely and just watching them cook has added some great techniques to my own repertoire. It really does help that they're quite honest about making mistakes and tend to include how and why they failed sometimes

kenneth 5y ago
I watch an absurd amount of cooking YouTube, and I follow a bunch of creators for different reasons. They each have their appeal: - Kenji → got into him because of Food Lab optimization articles, but discovered I enjoyed the unique perspective of his food videos done in real-time first-person - Alex (french guy cooking) → basically a YouTube native version of Kenji's food lab where he does series where he goes really deep into topics beyond just the recipe level, but really figuring out every aspect that affects a dish or style of cooking. He also does a ton of custom builds to test his ideas. - Adam Ragusea → incredibly practical home cooking, optimizing for what the average person might care about vs. doing things "right" -- combined with deep dives into various scientific topics, aided by interviews with experts (usually college professors). The recipe videos are good for getting a sense of how he throws things together on the fly - Pro Home Cooks → he focuses on making everything from scratch, which is interesting in dishes where people would use pre-made components (bread, pickles, noodles, etc.) - Joshua Weissman → very entertaining, highly ridiculous, with various series focused on affordable foods, recreating fast foods concepts, etc. makes a lot of things from scratch - Ethan → comes up with some interesting novel techniques, and is highly specifics in his recipes an outcomes, focused on healthy food. He certainly has his quirks which can get a bit grating, but he's very consistent in what he produces. - Babish → almost purely entertainment and less educational, but well produced videos - About To Eat → also has some interesting series, like the ones focusing on specific ingredients, tools, or techniques - Epicurious → has interesting series pitting amateur cooks vs. chefs that end up showing various levels of complexity of the same dishes - Muchnie "why we eat" → experienced chefs explain the cultural roots and history of dishes while showing how they're made etc. etc.… I watch too much food YouTube.
- dharmon 5y ago
  Probably my favorite, that you're missing on this list (mostly likely cause his channel only recently "blew up"), is Brian Lagerstrom, formerly called Weeds & Sardines. Another recent fave is Middle Eats. I probably make his lentil fatteh recipe every couple of weeks. I tend to avoid cooking "entertainment" a la Babish and Weissman. Weissman is frustrating cause it used to be a legit cooking channel, but at some point a few years ago he stopped trying to make recipes that you would actually want to eat and focused on food porn. Then he got super lazy where you can tell he doesn't even test his recipes before filming.
  - kenneth 5y ago
    Actually I recently discovered Brian Lagerstrom and have enjoyed his videos so far, but I haven't been watching him for long hence my forgetfulness. Good call.
- tmoertel 5y ago
  If you follow those creators, you may want to try Glen And Friends Cooking (https://www.youtube.com/c/GlenAndFriendsCooking https://www.youtube.com/c/GlenAndFriendsCooking) for interesting takes on cooking and recipes, with new episodes every few days. The subjects are fascinating and vary widely, but they do have some regular segments. On Sundays, for example, they do "The Old Cookbook Show," in which they pick quirky recipes from old cookbooks, typically 50 to 100 years old, but sometimes going back centuries. They cook the recipes and then describe how the resulting dishes taste—sometimes with disastrous results but other times with the rediscovery of a forgotten dish. For example, one recent epsiode is on a "100 Year Old Mississippi Cheese Pie Recipe," believed to be the precursor of the "chess pie" of southern United States fame.
- dylanz 5y ago
  This list is awesome. Thanks for posting it!
- jgable 5y ago
  It’s funny, I actually find Babish quite educational because his videos are so tightly edited. Explains the techniques and recipe in seven minutes flat. My wife and I have made many of his recipes (that he usually borrows from others) because he makes them so appealing, shows common mistakes, and does it so quickly.

dvtrn 5y ago

I get way too excited about the end of the videos for the summoning of his four-legged food tasters :)