Peas on the Plate

This might be a bit of an exaggeration: I’m not dead, but my taste, smell, and appetite have all been absolutely demolished by COVID, which I just got for the first time. Trust me when I tell you I have some amazing recipes lined up to make for you all, but not being able to taste them is kind of a big problem, not least because when I make food, I like to eat it.

So in lieu of a recipe but in the interest of regularly updating you with The Content™, I thought I’d provide you with some of the YouTube channels and cooking shows that inspire and entertain me. These are creators with advice and recipes that I’ve found useful over time and have motivated me to branch out a bit and try new things. I hope you find them entertaining and/or useful!

My Favorite Cooking YouTube Channels

• Binging With Babish – come for the recipes he makes from your favorite TV shows. movies, and video games. Stay for the Basics series, which actually aren’t basics at all but are still incredibly entertaining.

• You Suck at Cooking – I haven’t tried any of his recipes yet, but this content speaks to me. The narrator has remained anonymous and every video contains something hilariously weird and/or some existential thoughts comparable to the ones I have when I make dinner.

• B. Dylan Hollis – I’ve mentioned this guy before. He is one of my favorite creators of all time, easily. He makes recipes from vintage cookbooks, no matter how unhinged. His content tends to be more short form (better on TikTok), but they’re posted on YouTube as well and honestly, I am An Old so I find TikTok exhausting. His manic energy isn’t for everyone, but sometimes it’s what an aspic-based seafood dish deserves. Here’s a supercut of him making cookies:

• Epicurious: I love their videos. The one below made me want to leave my life behind to become a cheesemonger.

My Favorite Cooking Shows

These are more for entertainment. Can confirm: these are EXCELLENT COVID viewing.

• Great British Bake Off (Netflix): I mean, obviously. This is one of the most soothing shows to ever exist and gave me a primal loathing of shows where chefs get all cocky and stupid with each other.
• Baking Impossible (Netflix): It only got one season on Netflix but this is the brain child of one of my all-time favorite Bake Off contestants, Andrew Smyth, who is an aerospace engineer and a baker. This show combines teams of contestants that can do both and the results are entertaining, stressful, and super creative.

• The Bear (Hulu): The hype over this dude who looks like Gene Wilder and his not-very-merry band of misfits is completely justified and anyone who’s ever worked in food service in any capacity has witnessed (and/or joined) most of these arguments firsthand. Some of it can be pretty triggering (in a “oh god, I forgot to give that table their ranch dressing!” dream 10 years after you’ve stopped working in a restaurant kind of way) but the character development over the two seasons is really beautiful.

• Crime Scene Kitchen (Hulu): Do you like mysteries? Do you like baking? Do you like Joel McHale? Crime Scene Kitchen is a super fun mix of all of those, where bakers have to go into a kitchen and figure out what sometimes-obscure baked good was made there and make their own interpretation of what they think was made in there. Warning: you’ll become emotionally attached to some of these contestants.

I hope you decide to dive into some of these! What’s your favorite thing to watch when you’re sick? Aside from The Price Is Right, which is a national sick-day pastime, of course.