Are cooking videos making us better cooks?
61–70 of 215 posts
Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?
#62The 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…
I found his written work (which is how he built his following) _much_ more useful, but part of that's just about how I process information. Certainly it's valuable to be able to see how certain things are done, and it's hard for cooks to describe techniques sometimes.
His articles on SousVide cooking on SeriousEats have been very helpful to me. His writing style is accessible to beginners such as myself. And the results always beat restaurant foods in taste for similar meals.
Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?
#63Is there any cooking content that takes into account cleaning up after? In my limited viewing experience the focus often seems to be prep and the cooking, ignoring the reality of the inevitable clean up. Is there anyone focusing on recipes and how to cook that minimises / reuses cookware and through to a reset clean kitchen? When I cook I enjoy getting into a flow where I’m ordering the prep or modifying the recipe s…
There are a fair number of "one pan" (pot/bowl/etc) recipes out there for this specific purpose, definitely try that search term :) though I haven't seen much of anything that includes cleanup explicitly. Only rare exceptions.
And yeah, number of dishes matters to me too, much of the time. Most of the stuff I make can be done with one, rarely two, and that's about where I draw the line.
Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?
#64It's making me a better cook.
Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?
#65The 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…
His kids book "Every night is pizza night" is also great. I've read several "get your kid to try new foods" books to my child, but that one actually got her excited to try red beans and tagine and dumplings and green pozole soup, and now those are all foods she will happily ask for!
Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?
#66Most cookbooks tend to be like the meme about drawing an owl [0]. Mostly because the people making the instructions make assumptions about Stuff One Should Just Know and skip those bits in the instructions. On video you can actually see the consistency of things as they are cooked and maybe even hear what the process sounds like (frying spices in oil has a distinct sound if the oil is at the correct temperature). You…
A lot what separates good and bad cooking is tacit understanding that can't be explained in words. You need to practice to detect the nuances in flavor. It's really basic and doesn't make good edutaninment content. I'd say 90% of being a competent chef is just down to knowing how to balance the basic flavor components; and to figure out how these things change during the cooking process. With practice and experimenta…
Yeah agree with this
Reading "Salt, fat acid heat" demonstrates this really well. Maybe almost to well, it takes away some of the mystery I guess between cuisines. Everything is the same, just different aromatics/spices added
That book changed how I approach cooking, I always wondered how people just make recipes, and now I can mostly do it
Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?
#67What I often miss is "the basics". After reading a recipe or following a video, I perhaps know how to make exactly that dish. But that's like a bootcamp programmer learning a single framework. I want to learn the concepts, how to apply them, how and when to break the rules, how to modify it and experiment with what I got. When I follow a recipe, and the result isn't pristine, how do I fix it? Should I add more salt?…
The basics never end. There is no strict vertical.
When you stir-fry vegetables, salt the oil before adding the aromatics. That's basic. How many years was it until I figured that out? How many pro chefs have never figured that out? What's pro?
What about mincing your meat with one cleaver and one chef's knife? Not two cleavers. Not two chefs knives? That's basic. For a certain type of mince. How many people figure that out? It's basic once you know it. I'd bet that isn't taught in a masterclass.
There's no end to basics. There's a great chance your tomatoes don't come from the same vine as mine. Make it your own.
The reverse side is food engineering. When you're controlling for consistent results to ensure every loaf of bread of today's batches of 100,000 loaves are identical to yesterday, or last year. That's another ball game, and perfecting today's 100,000 loaves doesn't transfer much to making a pesto.
Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?
#68[dead]
Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?
#69I think some Jacques Pepin videos, especially old ones, helped me to the next level, more than anything else. I have a 70s print of La Methods and, while I was fairly advanced before getting it, it is pretty thorough on methods for cooking.
The thing I love about his later stuff especially is that it is practically freestyle. Ming Tsai has a bit of that too.
Re: Are cooking videos making us better cooks?
#70Is there any cooking content that takes into account cleaning up after? In my limited viewing experience the focus often seems to be prep and the cooking, ignoring the reality of the inevitable clean up. Is there anyone focusing on recipes and how to cook that minimises / reuses cookware and through to a reset clean kitchen? When I cook I enjoy getting into a flow where I’m ordering the prep or modifying the recipe s…
We all have our own journey. But one of the biggest improvements in enjoying to cook was to learn not to clean up after. It was a revelation to me and the big enabler which moved cooking from a chore to something I appreciate.
Do not clean up after - clean during!
Maybe annoying at first but it quickly turn into a habit
There is plenty of time (as a home cook!) during prep to clean the knives, bowls boards etc. What will seem like a huge mountain if left to linger will be a breeze when you learn to keep your station clean. And you never see this very simple fact of life in most videos.
I really used to optimize how few bowls etc. I would use as I hated the dishes afterwards. But quickly cleaning a bowl after use only take seconds and I no longer dread reaching for another if it ease my process.
This usually only leaves a pan and maybe a pot to clean when done eating. Not too bad even though I do them by hand as I am particular with what goes into the dishwasher
That. And doing mis en place rather than running head first into it. Absolute key lessons for me.
Sparks joy ;-)
EDIT: And if you stack things in the sink we cannot be friends. Sorry. Stack them elsewhere and keep them low.