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I cook. Or at least I try to. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't, but I always try my best. Doing my best, to me, means doing lots of research and trial runs. In one of these research deep dives I discovered the Bon Appétit YouTube channel.
This was a few years ago, even though it feels like yesterday, and it didn't have as many subscribers and as much of a cult following as it does now. It was fresh and fun because at the time, most trending food media was doing the top down, two hands with no body style of filming – like Buzzfeed's Tasty.
So when I saw Bon Appétit's style of a chef speaking directly to you – but not such a scripted way like Food Network TV – I was intrigued and eventually hooked.
I was hooked because the personality of the hosts of the different sections really came through and I ended up loving them all in different ways. The one that I fell for first was Brad Leone with his show, It's Alive…
The premise is basically a big, burly outdoorsy chef trying out fermentation processes. He's very honest about what works and what doesn't. He lets you know where he made mistakes and warns you to avoid them in a way that I found endearing more than mansplaining.
There's another host who I love dearly named Claire Saffitz, her show is called Gourmet Makes. She is one of the smartest people making food content I've ever seen, and she uses those smarts to sort of reverse engineer some very famous snacks. And if you know anything about me, you know that I love snacks.
The bad boy of the group is the incredibly good-looking Andy Baraghani.
He's passionate about food and mixing in his heritage with his knowledge of fine dining. He also wrote this candid and moving piece about coming to terms with his sexuality and more through food.
These are just the examples of people that got me hooked when I first started watching.
There's also Carla, Sohla, Chris, Alex and a whole lot more people there that I watch religiously but I don't want to keep you here all day. Anyway, so you get the point, I love the channel and the people behind it.
I follow the hosts, the editors, the video editors. Everyone. I watched every week for new uploads featuring episodes of my favourite shows, I tried the recipes. Everything. That was until lockdown happened.
At first my entire routine was thrown off. So I didn't do what I usually do, which was come home and watch the episodes because I was already home. And then after a week or two I realised something was missing.
And then it hit me: I miss my friends at Bon Appétit. I clicked on and I found out that they too, are working from home. But that hasn't stopped them from doing what they always do which is bringing joy into my life.
So now I have a new routine. I sit in my work seat for my shift and then at the end of the day I move to another seat to relax and watch Bon Appétit!
Some of the new episodes were filmed before lockdown, when Alex Delany could still go to restaurants and some others are filmed in the hosts' homes with their children harassing them.
And it makes me smile. Which is all I really need in this weird and sad time. One small morsel of joy. I might not have the mental energy to try the recipes that much these days, but I still love watching them do it all. And maybe you will too.
