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Comment by aniforprez | Hacker News Reader

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

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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.

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.

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.

If you follow those creators, you may want to try Glen And Friends Cooking (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.

This list is awesome. Thanks for posting it!

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.

You should check out Jack Scalfani (Cooking with Jack). He cooks stuff you'll never see from the guys you've listed.

Oh and another I forgot to mention that's a favorite is "Not another cooking show" by a NYC creator who perfectly makes videos of primarily Italian-American fare. Love the way he edits.

I'd like to add one of my smaller favourites: Internet Shaquille[0], his videos are short and to the point and highly un-pretentious.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/c/internetshaquille

Since other people are linking their favorites to this comment, I thought I'd add mine:

https://www.youtube.com/c/middleeats

Middle Eastern / Levantine cuisines don't get enough love on YouTube (or in English speaking spaces in general) so I love learning about new dishes through Obi's well made videos.

This list is pretty good, though I've found Alex to be quite grating and very low on the information side of things for a long time(that noodle tier list was an absurd waste of time). Still sometimes entertaining to watch and I just yesterday cooked the carbonara he outlined in his last video.

There is also "My name is andong" who is really good imho. Informative and fun, more trying to showcase new things or in different lights.

There's also Chef John who is one of the OG food tubers. His narration style is a 1:1 template for how Joshua weissman talks in a lot of his recipes. He's mostly on the recipe side less on information but still enjoyable.

Gotta add Refika to the list.

She's way more natural and earnest than most of these bros. Weissman is insufferable.

Another one I'd put in this list is Not Another Cooking Show, which has solid advice in a very low key format, and a bit of an emphasis on Italian American cuisine specifically.

Come on, you have to mention FoodWishes.

Chef John of Foodwishes pioneered the "food channel on youtube" and regularly referenced in recipes used by folks like Babish or Adam.

Chef John is the most no-nonsense cooking channel on YT, where you learn exactly what you need to to cook and nothing more. He has built a treasure trove of recipes over 14 years on youtube, and all of them are consistently great. To top it all off, he always has great suggestions for substitutions.

A few others:

Helen Rennie is also an excellent youtube channel in the same vein as Kenji. Very science oriented, incredibly detailed, a proper teacher and a little bit of the Adam Ragusea-esque snark.

Chinese food : Chinese cooking demystified (english) & Chef WangGang (mandarin)

Thai food : Pailin's kitchen

Indian food : VahChef (Indian Food channels are notoriously hit or miss when they step out of their regional specialties. Vah Chef's strength is in the consistency. For others, find the right kind of regional mom's youtube channel

Apart from About to Eat which has some female hosts and Epicurious/Munchies who have no set of hosts, every single one of the individual creators on your list are men.

Here are some great women creators on the platform that are also worth a follow:

Beryl Shereshewsky - tests how different ingredients/techniques are used around the world with a particular emphasis on personal stories from fans and highlighting lesser known cuisines.

Helen Rennie - Similarly science based cooking focused on approachable home recipes with a Eastern European slant.

How to Cook That - Baking channel that does a lot of viral video debunking and science based explanation of baking.

Maangchi - One of the first popular Korean food YT channels.

Pailin's Kitchen - Popular Thai recipes.

With Trial & Error - Science based breakdown of how popular industrial candy is made and replicating at home.

Claire Saffitz/Carla Lalli Music/Sohla El-Waylly/Gaby Melian - Refugees from the implosion of the BA Test Kitchen who have all managed to establish independent YT careers.

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