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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?

#21

Post by teh_klev »

9991 wrote: post #13
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.

I think you got the wrong end of the stick with that guideline. It's intended for folks who accuse others of not having read the article, not for self admission that one didn't read the article. Also the article is behind a paywall and even with all my own usual tricks I can't get at it to read in any sensible way (even archive.is).

In this case the article's topic is fairly obvious that you could legitimately comment here.

Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#22

Post by matwood »

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've watched a lot of Gordon Ramsay videos and agree with you. His style is so efficient and not overly complicated, but he does everything perfect. Something else that he's led me to think about is to move more quickly. Making a great meal does not take very long once you have some base skills.

Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#23

Post by r0b1n »

BookhouseGames wrote: post #15
myshpa wrote: post #12

Cooking makes us better cooks. Edit: I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.

Agreed. Practice at something makes us better at the thing.

Disagreed. Practice is just one component in a cycle that makes us better:

We watch something, think of something, read something.

Then we try it out in practice.

Then we observe or have someone else observe the practice and result.

Then we take suggestions and improvements into account from that observation.

Then we start over at one of the points above.

If you only just repeat the "practice" step you'll get set in your ways, get used to doing the same mistakes all over, etc.

Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#24

Post by myshpa »

scotty79 wrote: post #17
myshpa wrote: post #12

Cooking makes us better cooks. Edit: I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.

Disagree. I'm crap no matter how much I cook and I even cook some things worse than I used to.

What helped me when learning to cook vegan was focusing on the basics.

I studied a few recipes (such as Indian curry) and identified the fundamental ingredients (onions, garlic, ginger, tomatoes, spices, and protein), creating a list of non-basic spices and other potential ingredients.

I mastered the process of this basic recipe: browning the onions with cumin and bay leaf, no salt, adding garlic and the remaining spices, introducing tomatoes with salt, then adding vegetable stock and protein, and cooking until finished.

From there, I began experimenting with additional spices, ingredients, vegetables (almost anything works), and proteins (beans, lentils, peas, etc.)

Always stick to the basics. Many recipes out there are needlessly complex. After all, you can make almost anything taste delicious with just onions, fat, salt, and pepper.

I'd recommend the book 'Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat' – I've only skimmed it, but it seems to ring true.

Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#25

Post by mabbo »

The absolute pinnacle of cooking video chefs today has to be J. Kenji Lopez-Alt[0], in large part because of his use of first person view.

He straps a go-pro to this head and you see what he sees while he cooks. There's no cuts or retakes (unless he's waiting for something to cook or gets interrupted by his kids). There's no swaps. And it's all real- he's cooking dinner for his family.

And it doesn't always go perfectly. (See the excellent video titled "Doesn't matter, still pizza").

I'm a better cook for what I've learned watching him cook.

[0] - https://m.youtube.com/@JKenjiLopezAlt

Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#26

Post by twelve40 »

jpmoral wrote: post #3

I don't know about "better" but I do know that without the Internet I wouldn't have tried at all. Edit: after posting this I realised that video doesn't necessarily mean online but those don't have the same reach.

I agree... people like to complain how Google is overrun with recipe spam, but I actually tried a bunch of stuff from whatever Google pointed me to,liked it, and now do a bunch of cooking I wouldn't have done otherwise.

Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?

#30

Post by annexrichmond »

mabbo wrote: post #25

The absolute pinnacle of cooking video chefs today has to be J. Kenji Lopez-Alt[0], in large part because of his use of first person view. He straps a go-pro to this head and you see what he sees while he cooks. There's no cuts or retakes (unless he's waiting for something to cook or gets interrupted by his kids). There's no swaps. And it's all real- he's cooking dinner for his family. And it doesn't always go perfec…

It may have been Chef John who really popularized this first person angle
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