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The absolute pinnacle of cooking video chefs today has to be J. Kenji Lopez-Alt[0], in large part because of his use of first person view. He straps a go-pro t
by mabbo 3y ago
The absolute pinnacle of cooking video chefs today has to be J. Kenji Lopez-Alt[0], in large part because of his use of first person view.
He straps a go-pro to this head and you see what he sees while he cooks. There's no cuts or retakes (unless he's waiting for something to cook or gets interrupted by his kids). There's no swaps. And it's all real- he's cooking dinner for his family.
And it doesn't always go perfectly. (See the excellent video titled "Doesn't matter, still pizza").
I'm a better cook for what I've learned watching him cook.
[0] - https://m.youtube.com/@JKenjiLopezAlt https://m.youtube.com/@JKenjiLopezAlt
- annexrichmond 3y agoIt may have been Chef John who really popularized this first person angle
- veryfancy 3y agoChef John is a delight. Charming man, straightforward recipes.
- CoastalCoder 3y agoIs there just one Chef John? Last time I googled around, it wasn't clear to me.
- arthens 3y agoThis is the one that comes to mind https://youtube.com/@foodwishes https://youtube.com/@foodwishes
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- kevinmchugh 3y agoI found his written work (which is how he built his following) _much_ more useful, but part of that's just about how I process information. Certainly it's valuable to be able to see how certain things are done, and it's hard for cooks to describe techniques sometimes.
- mabbo 3y agoFor my birthday my wife got me "The Food Lab" and I'm dying to read it, but it's like 800 pages and we have a toddler to take care of. The time has not been made yet.
- kevinmchugh 3y agoRead the intro section - it'll be maybe 30 minutes, and then just flip through and find recipes or topics that look interesting. It's a reference book. Check out the chili section, the weeknight chili might be a good fit. I've had the book since it came out and there's still whole sections I haven't read
- Matticus_Rex 3y agoI've been reading it in 5-10m increments for 5+ years. That's all you need to learn something neat.
- throw9away6 3y agoFood lab isn’t that dense I think it’s only 100 pages then recipes. The best reading is the first tome of modernist cuisine. The knowledge contained there on food safety really is mind blowing. Nobody else has dared to publish that kind of info in an accessible form.
- manishsharan 3y agoHis articles on SousVide cooking on SeriousEats have been very helpful to me. His writing style is accessible to beginners such as myself. And the results always beat restaurant foods in taste for similar meals.
- OJFord 3y agoThat's a ridiculous thing to say without saying which restaurants (or some idea of a class thereof that) you're eating in. As if any 'dummy' armed with some articles is 'always' beating 'restauraunts'. Don't get me wrong I'm not anti home cooking or massively pro restaurant, I love cooking & food, large categories of restaurant (and especially 'restauraunt') are no longer interesting to me due to the cost vs. taste relative to what I can do, but I don't kid myself, there's plenty of places I can eat the food of professional cooks and be impressed, inspired, enjoy it, find it good value; especially with company. And without touching the Michelin guide.
- amykhar 3y agoHe also taught me something pretty critical - you don't need a huge fancy kitchen to execute great food. Most of the work he does happens on a large cutting board, the sink, or the stove. When I moved into my current place with a tiny kitchen, I wasn't nearly as freaked out about it. I knew I would be able to work in it just fine.
- cuttysnark 3y agoI was humbled and inspired by the creativity and resourcefulness of some prison inmates. There's a Youtube channel[0] where they recreate "dishes" that can only be sourced from the commissary or leftovers from a provided meal. Ones I saw included: Laffy Taffy, ice cream and a breakfast burrito. I now look at my small kitchen in a different light. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1nWOkoNQWM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1nWOkoNQWM
- lacrimacida 3y agoConstraints raise creativity and sometimes new things are born
- bonniemuffin 3y agoHis kids book "Every night is pizza night" is also great. I've read several "get your kid to try new foods" books to my child, but that one actually got her excited to try red beans and tagine and dumplings and green pozole soup, and now those are all foods she will happily ask for!
- veryfancy 3y agoSame for my two sons. Wonderful book.
- dagw 3y agoWhile I'm a huge fan of J. Kenji Lopez-Alt and Serious Eats is my go to web site before cooking just about anything, nothing I've seen before or since beats Alton Brown and Good Eats when it comes to video based cooking education.
- tkahnoski 3y agoI was "A man, a can and a plan" cook prior to being introduced to Good Eats videos. Particularly since Alton delves straight into the scientific 'why' things are happening. I don't remember exact recipes well, but processes and how things work I can hold well so his explanation of what's happening with the mallard reaction or gluten in bread or any number of topics have made it possible for me to execute very simple meals very well. In hindsight, most other cooking shows at the time were basically just food porn. Watch me make this simple recipe, trust me it's easy in 30 minutes! (Ignore prep instructions, ignore how to pick produce, ignore any explanation of why you're doing what you're doing).
- tengbretson 3y agoGood Eats sets the standard for educational cooking content, but actually implementing the recipes Alton demonstrates usually results in a nearly day-long cooking project.
- Spivak 3y agoI'm not entirely sure what else you expect? Cooking takes a long-ass time, it is a day-long full-time affair. You can hide the real time by doing prep, outright fully preparing parts of dishes agreed of time, having multiple people or buying premade but someone is putting in those hours somewhere.
- wnolens 3y agoCan't stand the mic picking up his chewing.
- x0x0 3y agoKenji Lopez Alt really helped me learn how to cook. Much like software, when you read a cook book, there's normally all sorts of background knowledge required to understand how to make that recipe. Watching him do it conveys way more info than the written recipe. eg here's what that chop should look like, here's what the veggies should look like, here's how tolerant / not tolerant various pieces of the recipe are to changes, etc. If you think you'd like to cook, you should watch 20 or 30 videos from his channel.
- shepherdjerred 3y ago95% of what I know about cooking came from Kenji. I love the scientific approach he takes when explaining why things work.
- veryfancy 3y agoReally dig Kenji’s low-stakes YouTube vids. He makes it look easy in a way that ends up actually being easy.
- Camry 3y agoTo me, Food Wishes is definitely the peak of practical home cooking videos in the tradition of Jacque Pepin. I feel like Kenji et al. make recipes tailored to hobbyist and for entertainment/spectacle, while Chef John makes recipes for the regular joe.
- terribleperson 3y agoMuch of Kenji's Serious Eats era output was the results-at-any-cost hobbyist stuff, but he's gotten much less obsessed with perfection since then. Even among the Serious Eats/Food Lab recipes there are some very practical recipes, like the Foolproof Pan Pizza and any of the 'weeknight' dishes in the Food Lab. I've cooked several Chef John recipes to great results (real aioli, peanut butter fudge, beef stroganoff), but Kenji's decision to always provide weight measurements makes cooking easier for me.
- freitzkriesler2 3y agoI love serious eats. One of my favorite food blogs. Have yet to have a bad recipe from them.
- tootie 3y agoI watch a lot of cooking YouTube and Kenji is great, but I'd also put Chef John's Food Wishes and America's Test Kitchen up there.
- stephenr 3y agoI've seen exactly one "Americas test kitchen" video. It claimed with confidence that the only way to make pork skin crunchy (ie into crackling) is to fry the pork after it's been roasted (ie turn it upside down in a pan of oil/fat) I didn't even watch the rest of the video. I don't know if they're catering to people who can't work the knob on an oven or if they themselves are just incompetent but that one claim was enough for me to never watch their shit again.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- tootie 3y agoThey've been operating in one form or another for like 20 years and their whole deal is experimenting to find optimal recipes. Kenji Lopez started on that show and has guest appeared recently.
- stephenr 3y agoI saw your original reply, claiming I "misremembered". It took me about 30 seconds to find this: https://www.americastestkitchen.com/recipes/8116-crispy-slow-roasted-pork-belly https://www.americastestkitchen.com/recipes/8116-crispy-slow... That isn't the video I saw, but they still happily fry it: > Finally, we fry the skin, which causes it to dramatically puff up and crisp. I don't care how long they've been doing whatever it is they do. If you need to put pork in oil to make the skin crispy you suck at cooking.
- stephenr 3y agoHere is the video, right at the point where they make their absolutely ridiculous fucking claim: > We tried to get that skin crisp in a hot oven and under the broiler, and it just didn't work. The only way to get it crisp was using hot oil. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ucXLDX_xrE&t=390s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ucXLDX_xrE&t=390s No need to apologise, I'll just take you deleting your original reply as apology enough.
- deafpolygon 3y agoNot only his first person view, but he's the only one that discusses how to cook while he's doing it. Not just little factoids. He keeps his recipes simple, so the average person could replicate it.
- fyrn_ 3y agoI'd recommend Helen Rennie for cooking content if you like Kenji. Not first person but from a similarly pragmatic perspective.