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. :)
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.
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.
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.
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.
Advice on difficult to judge things like how to sauté onions correctly without burning them; how to deal with yeast (what does it mean when your bread is hollow? What about when it’s hard? Doesn’t rise?); how to make a cheese sauce that isn’t too thick, thin, or chunky; techniques for timing stuff to be ready at the right time (ie ‘cook the eggs last’); balancing things with lemon juice (in general the stuff about balancing acids); seasoning soups so they’re not bland.
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).
“Chef At Home” was a stellar Canadian cooking show! It was on the Food network. He did another couple of shows, one online too. However, CAH was, IMHO the best of the best.
Very relaxed and educational.
It was Hosted by Chef Michael Smith from PEI.
I could cook well enough before watching him. I cook WAY better now, with thanks to him for teaching me how to THINK in the kitchen, and not just “do”.
Also, once and a while? I’d like to see an episode on ‘mistakes & failures’. We ALL have them, and watching an experienced chef “fuck it up” once and a while is inspiring in that it teaches you to learn, and move on from your fails. “If HE/SHE can fail, then I should not be discouraged!
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.
More content like the Chinese Cooking Demystified channel, and the Food 52 stuff with chef Lucas Sin.
I like to watch stuff where I’m getting some of the history and geography of the techniques, ingredients and dishes being presented; while also being talked through the various chemical reactions going on at every stage and why they’re important to the desired outcome of the dish.
Plant based content would very much be appreciated too.
Like the brothers Green started, using YouTube to send each other interesting things they’d learned, pick a friend fictional or not and address everything to them. Act as if you are just making it to help them. If you wanted to go beyond the basics get a friend from culinary school and have them reply with another lesson twice the content half the work.
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.
