Both the student budget, and general convenience, mean the likelihood is that the internet will be your first point of call when learning how to cook, rather than dropping money on recipe books. There are countless YouTube channels dedicated to cooking, with many of the videos too long, too convoluted, more concerned with promoting sponsored kitchen gadgets than relaying useful information, and filled with annoying 2008-esque internet humour. However, we have saved you the trouble of trawling through these with our favourite cooking channel picks outlined below.
1. Internet Shaquille
This channel contains gems such as a heavily opinionated guide to BLTs, tricks to make your hummus taste like restaurant hummus, and a guaranteed method to make your roast potatoes crispy, all mercifully free from gimmicky self-promotion, or overuse of the dreaded word ‘hacks.’ Most of these videos are under three minutes long, and Internet Shaquille also has content on how to wash dishes without hating every minute of it, and how to stop eating half your money. This channel caters to the novice, but also boasts plenty of more adventurous recipes, with tutorials for date night specials, and innovative creations such as gnocchi flavoured ice-cream. Internet Shaquille is unpretentious, practical and entertaining.
2. You Suck At Cooking
The anonymous creator of this channel is known for inventive video editing, offbeat humour, and simple and tasty recipes. Among the easy to follow tutorials are how to make guacamole, spicy peanut soup, chilli, nachos and cocktails; the channel also produces oddities like stop motion films with anthropomorphic eggs as characters. You Suck at Cooking is also a great resource for instructions on how to master basics such as knife skills.
3. Basics with Babish
Andrew Rea, the mind behind the Babish empire, is most famous for Binging with Babish, a project dedicated to recreating food from TV and film, such as the maple syrup and marshmallow doused spaghetti from Elf, edible blue meth candy from Breaking Bad, and Spongebob’s own Krabby Patty. However, Basics With Babish has a wealth of recipes you’re more likely to create at home. A self taught chef, Rea’s channel is a little more commercialised and personality driven than the above two. His content is slightly more polished, and contains extensive how-tos on mastering basics and ambitious recipes alike.
4. Joshua Weissman
Weissman’s channel is a one stop shop for cooking on a budget. His videos are typically around 12 minutes, and feature guides on how to recreate fast food favourites at home, and how to make enjoyable meals from leftovers. The ingredients in most videos are costed, catering perfectly to the student budget. Weissman also has extensive content on both fermentation, and the lockdown favourite, sourdough.
