I took a nostalgic trip back through my YouTube history recently and wanted to share the weird and wonderful cooking shows I found there. Cooking on YouTube isn't new and these days I think Babish has the market cornered, but I've always enjoyed the weird and the wonderful.
In the Beginning
I think the first cooking show I was introduced to was Regular Ordinary Swedish Meal Time or #ROSMT for short. That was all the way back in 2011 or so. Since then phrases like "It's good for you!", 'MR FOX!", and "Treat it gentle like moose meat and Swedish ladies" have all become part of my lexicon. ROSMT was made in response to Epic Meal Time, however I was never a fan, instead preferring the escalating antics of these fun Swedes. Fun fact, once when I was in the UK we found some Swedish ingredients and made one of the recipes, it was delicious.
A Camera, A Kitchen, and A Drink
My favourite early YouTube channels tended to be created out of boredom or a lot of booze. My Drunk Kitchen was a highlight to my viewing. Hannah Hart, so young and full of wine, entertained us with meals that never ended out as intended. Her omelette is still one of my favourite videos on the internet.
Hart of course lead me over to Grace Helbig and her Daily Grace vlog. On Thursdays she'd show you how to do something and sometimes that was 'cook'.
Rounding out the trio, was Mamrie Hart (no relation) who was often a collaborator of the other two. She started her 'You Deserve A Drink' series which was always fun. While not cooking I associate her videos with both Hannah and Grace.
Competitive Spoon Cutting
Yes you read that right. Around this time I became quite invested in the world of competitive spoon cutting. Sure it was just one guy, but his world building and skill with the spoon were unquestionable. This channel is still the only one where I would read the comments. Everyone was in on it. The biggest controversy was if the 'reverse hand grip' was a legal move!
Layton Abilities
I later moved on to the Jack & Dean sphere and was introduced to the wonders of Hazel Hayes, Dodie, and Daniel J Layton. Daniel's cooking videos are so wholesome and full of joy. They never set out to be 'funny' just friends cooking nice food. These days he's started back with cooking something then watching a film and talking about it. So nice.
Things Get Weird
Being on the internet, nothing stays normal forever. Eventually I came across mashups of things I liked. Metal music? Yes. Cooking? Yes. Metal songs about cooking? Hells yeah! Linzey Rae did a series of Metal Kitchen songs/cooking tutorials? Whatever. They were great.
Then we have the pure art aspect of You Suck At Cooking. These videos range from fun, fancy things, to epic arcs about AI, surrealism, and love.
So...?
There wasn't really much of a point to this post, except wanting to stroll down memory lane and share some fun and weirdness with the world. So...enjoy? I don't know. Here, have an ASMR dog eating video...