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Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

nytimes.com

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Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#11

Post by chongli »

r0b1n wrote: post #7
robomartin wrote: post #2

Didn't read the article. That said, on the general topic hinted at by the title: Yes, they do. I followed Gordon Ramsay's many videos for a couple of years. I went from being able to a repertoire of eggs, rice and barbecue to cooking as close to world-class meals as I can imagine. This, to the point that we stopped going to expensive restaurants because, in most cases, the food is inferior to what I am able to cook a…

I'm a fan of the various Jacques Pépin videos on youtube because they give a lot of advice on technique. There is an hour long one I cannot find right now that basically has almost everything you'll ever need in a video. And I like (also on youtube) Italia Squisita, because they nicely show what variations you can do, showing italian classics and their michelin-star version of it side by side. Edit: found the video:…

Jacques Pépin is an absolute treasure. Such a famous chef yet never a jerk to anyone.

Another favourite of mine is J. Kenji Lopez-Alt [1], or Kenji as everyone calls him . Really nice and non-pretentious guy. Tons of great advice for beginners. His cookbook even goes into details like how to stock and organize your fridge!

I think one of his most endearing qualities is that he doesn’t hide his mistakes. He leaves them in the video and talks about them and how to recover. Far too often we see TV shows about people making mistakes in the kitchen and getting reamed out by the celebrity chef or having a meltdown of their own.

Mistakes are inevitable in the kitchen, especially when you’re just starting out. Feeling really bad about it is a pretty surefire way to lose interest in learning to cook.

[1] https://youtube.com/@JKenjiLopezAlt?si=Ubk8CUrtb8jkL8h1

Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#13

Post by 9991 »

robomartin wrote: post #2

Didn't read the article. That said, on the general topic hinted at by the title: Yes, they do. I followed Gordon Ramsay's many videos for a couple of years. I went from being able to a repertoire of eggs, rice and barbecue to cooking as close to world-class meals as I can imagine. This, to the point that we stopped going to expensive restaurants because, in most cases, the food is inferior to what I am able to cook a…

> Didn't read the article.

From the Hacker News Guidelines:

> Please don't comment on whether someone read an article.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Next time you don't read an article, please keep it to yourself.

Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#14

Post by globular-toast »

Can't seem to read the article. Some JS crap is freezing the page and can't scroll down (Firefox).

I've learnt lots from both books and videos. Being a "good cook" requires a few things:

* Skill in common techniques,

* Knowledge of ingredients,

* Good tools,

* Repertoire.

Videos are great for learning techniques. I've got books that do an admirable job of teaching how to knead or whisk etc., but nothing beats seeing someone do it. Some techniques are impossible to replicate without the right tools, though. You won't be able to replicate the chopping techniques you see with a cheap, blunt knife, for example. Videos often fail to mention this.

Books are the best for knowledge about ingredients. Videos could do it, but I've never seen one and it's probably not good for TV or the Youtube algorithm. You just need to know a few key things about ingredients like how to buy them, how to prepare them (which bit to peel, which tools to use etc.), how ingredients interact with each other (for example, a video will show you cooking the onions before putting in acidic ingredients like tomatoes, but will it tell you why?) Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking is a must-have.

Repertoire comes with time and I think you can get that from either books or videos. The best cooks don't really follow recipes after a while. A brief skim is often enough to assimilate a new recipe and it can then be carried out using existing knowledge and skills. For such a cook, a video can be a very inefficient way of learning a new recipe.

I think of repertoire as like a giant Makefile in my head, I wrote about it in a bit of a silly article on my blog: https://georgek.github.io/blog/posts/cooking-with-make/

Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#19

Post by leipert »

glogla wrote: post #6

I think especially the videos that show the process, like J. Kenji's, are pretty good (don't expect to be as fast as him when making things, though). But you still have to try it and practice, not just watch. The part of cooking I'm struggling with right now, and would love some guides and content on, is how to prepare a menu and plan groceries. It's a lot of work, but I'm sure there are ways to make it easier.

Do you mean menu as in a weekly schedule or for a single function where you invite guests?

Weekly menus have been easy for the family, if you plan in a few stews or rice/quinoa/bulgur/cuscus based dishes which are more forgiving with certain ratios of vegetables and stuff. So plan a few nice meals which need exact ratios, and with stuff you overbought/leftovers you can do these other dishes.

Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#20

Post by deprecative »

chongli wrote: post #11
r0b1n wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a fan of the various Jacques Pépin videos on youtube because they give a lot of advice on technique. There is an hour long one I cannot find right now that basically has almost everything you'll ever need in a video. And I like (also on youtube) Italia Squisita, because they nicely show what variations you can do, showing italian classics and their michelin-star version of it side by side. Edit: found the video:…

Jacques Pépin is an absolute treasure. Such a famous chef yet never a jerk to anyone. Another favourite of mine is J. Kenji Lopez-Alt [1], or Kenji as everyone calls him . Really nice and non-pretentious guy. Tons of great advice for beginners. His cookbook even goes into details like how to stock and organize your fridge! I think one of his most endearing qualities is that he doesn’t hide his mistakes. He leaves the…

Kenji is great until you have misophonia and his mouth sounds get you and you have issues with how unclean everything he does is. But his videos are a goldmine for great skills, recipes, everything. It is very good if you have a little basic hygiene and food safety skills and do not pick up bad habits from him. The knife manufacturer he uses has been very, very good as well. I have a few of their knives and it's been wonderful.
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