Making YouTube videos costs as much as someone wants it to cost. All anyone needs is an smartphone, and maybe a computer if they don't want editing to be annoying.

Doug DeMuro is a great example of this. It's him, wearing whatever he was going to wear that day, looking however he looks, in whatever lighting the weather gives him, with a tripod for a main camera, and an iPhone for interior shots. He hasn't really scaled up production value as he's gotten popular, and I think people appreciate the authenticity.

Even if she had ambitions for high production values, starting simple and scaling up when the channel can financially support it, seems to make much more sense. My guess is she was used to the production and budget of Bon Appétit, where she used to make videos, and was looking to fast track to a similar setup where she just had to care about the cooking.