YouTube has become a big part of our internet culture, mainly when it comes to learning things like playing an instrument, brushing up our literary skills, getting started on a new language and, most importantly, cooking. It’s a gateway to learn cooking skills from people who have mastered the field and putting them into your Saturday brunch. However, Nepali cooks have yet to make a big impact in the cooking scene on YouTube. Till then, we can learn to cook other dishes from cooks all around the world, be it spaghetti, pies, butter chicken or brownies. Here are five cooking channels that can help you refine your cooking skills and also, turn you into the Gordon Ramsay of your friend circle.

Binging With Babish
Binging with Babish is, hands down, one of the coolest shows on YouTube. It’s hosted by Andrew Rea who recreates food from TV serials and films that we all know and love. Moreover, he gives them his own unique twist to make it more refined or, sometimes, a little easier. His immaculately clean kitchen and sophisticated way of cooking are enough to make a viewer binge on his videos, but when it’s accompanied by an intelligent ‘deadpan’ humor, it comes as no surprise that his is one of the most famous cooking shows on YouTube with more than three million subscribers. Rea who worked as a filmmaker and graphic designer was a culinary enthusiast and an occasional cook. But after his channel boomed in 2016, he quit his job to work as a full-time cook. Rea has recreated the famous ‘moist maker’ from ‘Friends’, the ‘schezwan sauce’ from ‘Rick and Morty’ and the ‘shawarma’ from ‘The Avengers’, to name a few. Along with this, he also has a separate show called ‘Basics with Babish’ where he teaches you how to make basic dishes and drinks alike.

Tasty
Tasty videos took the internet by storm when it first introduced the ‘vertical camera’ way of filming that shows only the hands of the cook and the food that’s being cooked. This took away the need for a host to give unnecessary detail and anecdotes about the cooking and helped focus on the given dish entirely. ‘Tasty’ was originally made by Buzzfeed for Facebook where it has more than 90 million followers. It’s also widely popular on YouTube with around 12 million followers. If you go to its website, you can also find videos on content labeled as ‘Indian’ which is largely similar to our own food like lassi, parathas and even roasted corn called street-style butta. And, of course, you can cook various chicken items like butter chicken, chicken korma, chicken tikkas etc. which are sure to make great Friday dinner ideas for friends and family.
 

Bon Appétit
Bon Appétit is a channel full of talented chefs from several countries who proudly showcase the food they grew up eating. All the chefs or as they like to say ‘food editors’ have their own desks on the ‘test kitchen’ where they prepare as well as experiment with popular foods from all around the world. From pav bhaji to fettuccini, you can learn to make almost everything here. The process is slow and very intimate making viewers feel like they themselves are there in the kitchen with the cooks. The channel has famous installments like “It’s alive with Brad” where the host Brad with his eccentric personality takes viewers through complex dishes and “Gourmet Makes” where a pastry chef attempts to recreate commercial food like Kitkat or Snickers at home. All in all, it’s a fun channel to binge on even if you are not planning to cook anything but if you are, it’s definitely one of the most sophisticated yet practical cooking channels to learn from.

Peaceful Cuisine
This channel is for the home cooks as well as ASMR enthusiasts. Host Ryoya Takashima makes serene videos of preparing as well as cooking various dishes, giving proper focus to the music produced by the process, be it chopping vegetables on a wooden board or
rubbing butter on a pan. The sounds become an important part of the cooking experience and it can even be considered meditative. Takashima gives a detailed process of every food he prepares and also leaves instructions and ingredients on his website. He has prepared Japanese delicacies like Kuromame (simmered black beans), Teriyaki Bowl, Boiled dumplings etc. Other than that, he also has simple recipes for food like tacos, cookies, porridges, and puddings. Another fact to note is that he cooks vegan food and has thus already gained a cult following of sorts in the vegan community. With almost two million subscribers, Peaceful Cuisine is one of the most loved cooking channels on YouTube.

Kunal Kapur
This channel is run by chef Kunal Kapur who is one of the most popular celebrity chefs in India. Along with running his own restaurant ‘Leela Kempinski’ in Gurgaon, he has been a judge on the Masterchef series in India. In his YouTube channel, Kapur puts his own twist into Indian delicacies, often providing certain hacks or special ways to make a dish even more delicious. Most of the ingredients he uses are readily available in the Nepali market, so one can prepare dishes like aloo paratha, fried rice, kebab, curries etc. in his/her own kitchen. Kapur also gives insights into the basics like pickling vegetables, making different purees, caramelizing sugar etc. While his tips prove to be very helpful for those who have recently taken up cooking, experts at it can also learn some pretty neat hacks.

 
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