[carelesswhisper]

This way of learning resonates a lot with how I learnt to properly cook. I could cook some simple enough dishes fine, but then I got really into watching a few cooking channels on YouTube and (with a bit of practice) noticeably improved.

It’s actually mad the amount of stuff you pick up through watching someone who’s good at what they do doing it and explaining it well, prodding at your understanding while they do it.

[efigle2501]

Can you recommend some channels? I can cook, but I'd like to learn more.

[carelesswhisper]

My go-to ones have been:

Binging with Babish/Basics with Babish This guys shtick is that he recreates dishes from film/tv. He used to be a video editor iirc so the production quality is great and it’s very focused on the food itself (as you can tell by you very rarely seeing his face). As he got more popular he made the Basics series. Can’t recommend them both enough Binging: https://youtu.be/bJUiWdM__Qw Basics: https://youtu.be/Upqp21Dm5vg

Food Wishes This is done by a guy called Chef John. Similarly to Babish he’s very focused on the food/process, and is very good at explaining some principles and encouraging you to think for yourself (he’ll often not give precise amounts and encourage you to add some, taste, add more if needed). His voice/inflections can be grating when you first watch his videos but you grow to love it. He’s got an endless supply of all sorts of dishes so he’s a great resource https://youtu.be/ifWWRZSWS18

It’s Alive with Brad/Bon Appetit This is a series from a channel about making pickled/fermented food. A lot more specific but it’s hilarious and I’ve made some of the stuff from the series and really enjoyed it. Even if you’re not gonna make any of this stuff I’d still recommend these for pure entertainment value. There’s also a bunch of content on Bon Appetit (the channel), some of Claire’s vids are very good, mostly baking-related. Brad: https://youtu.be/UGjCeAbWKPo Claire: https://youtu.be/yxGczEE3NSw

Other channels I’ll look at include Alex French Guy Cooking and J Kenji Lopez Alt. Alex does a lot of cool stuff on Ramen, and is quite experimental, exploring different techniques for doing things etc. Kenji is very scientific with how he cooks things and explains the reasoning behind, say, why you should shake your boiled potatoes before you put them in the oven to roast them. Alex: https://youtu.be/HzIdk8UHHUU Kenji: https://youtu.be/argKpeiKFfo

If I think of any others I’ll comment again!

[jamiek88]

This is very helpful.

My wife likes watching cooking shows but it is more about the competition and elimination/personalities than the technical side of the cooking etc.

I like to cook, she doesn't really - she bakes so it works out okay as a team - and I kind of watch along but these links are way more relevant to me personally.

Appreciate it!

[mutagen]

Fantastic recommendations! This hits my favorites out of my wife's cooking viewing and they've both entertained and improved our cooking and the enjoyment of creating memorable dishes.

[garfieldnate]

How do these compare to Good Eats, besides being more readily available?

[Tcepsa]

+1 for Alex French Guy Cooking (mentioned in sibling comment). I like his method of chopping onions; most of the onions I chop don't need to look particularly pretty, so it's great.

Also, You Suck At Cooking https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCekQr9znsk2vWxBo3YiLq2w is one of my guilty pleasures. I think he's hilarious and figured it was purely a spoof channel, but then I actually watched a couple and if you don't mind and/or enjoy his fooling around (and have a moderately well-tuned BS detector to tell when he's fooling around) the recipes are pretty good. I particularly like how he doesn't spend a whole lot of time measuring things out. It's a great counter to the precision generally present in recipe books, which used to be a big hangup for me (pipettes broth into Pyrex measuring cup "gotta get EXACTLY 1 C broth in this soup!" => dumps broth into drinking glass "Eh, close enough!") I'm still adjusting to that style but it has already saved me both time and unnecessary tension. (Seriously. The error margins in most cooking seem ridiculously large to me!)

[iopuy]

Cooking Alone has some good content.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxnR4FnZUGyUogykxh_AlgA?app...

[cf498]

Her cooking tutorials consists of "How do you prepare Instant Mix XYZ"?

You sure thats the channel you meant?

[danvayn]

Thank you.