Cooking videos were one small savior of 2020 - The Verge |
- Cooking videos were one small savior of 2020 - The Verge
- ALLEGANY MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2020: What's Cooking -- When life gives you lemons.... - Cumberland Times-News
- A Cookie And Linguine: 2 'America's Test Kitchen' Dishes For Your Holiday Table - NPR
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Cooking videos were one small savior of 2020 - The Verge Posted: 20 Dec 2020 08:00 AM PST  Early one morning, a week after the pandemic started, chef and food writer J. Kenji López-Alt strapped a GoPro to his head and filmed himself making breakfast. In the video, you can see López-Alt rummaging through his fridge, slicing and frying bacon, and peeling a bit of egg off a pan to give to his excited dog. There's no recipe beneath the video, no voice-over instructions detailing what we're seeing — it's just a guy in a kitchen making breakfast. Videos like these became both much-needed entertainment and valuable educational resources early in the pandemic, as a world of people realized they would be stuck at home indefinitely with their own (not necessarily stunning) cooking, and a little extra time to put into it. Food and drink streams surged in popularity on Twitch, doubling in hours watched year over year in August, according to StreamElements and Arsenal.gg. On YouTube, "cook with me" videos more than doubled in popularity starting in March and maintained that growth through October, YouTube told the Associated Press. "It gives [viewers] confidence to do stuff in the kitchen," said López-Alt, author of The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science. His own videos lack the polish and perfect cuts of a professional show and include the slip-ups he makes along the way. "It gives them permission to make mistakes." Cooking shows have been around for a century, but new formats online have revitalized the genre in recent years. On YouTube in particular, you can find step-by-step instructional lessons, personal "cook with me" vlogs, and stomach-churning food challenges like stuffing McDonald's burgers and nuggets into an oversized burrito. On Twitch, chefs and home cooks broadcast themselves live from their kitchen as they prepare meals. And on TikTok, you can watch videos teaching you how to make a new dish in under a minute. Many hosts noticed a pickup in views and engagement as the pandemic went on. "It definitely has been skyrocket high with the views on things you can do at home," Zahria Harvey, whose YouTube channel XO. ZAHRIAAA is known for "cook with me" videos, told The Verge. Harvey says one viewer wrote in about making an affordable date night meal featured on her channel for an anniversary dinner because she couldn't go out to dinner. "It was like wow, these videos are actually helping a lot of people during this time," Harvey said. The influx of new viewers has also meant more live interaction for hosts on Twitch. "I find that the community is way more vocal and involved past March this year," L.A., a photographer and former sushi chef who runs the channel The Hunger Service, told The Verge. L.A.'s streams typically run for three to four hours and show him preparing and cooking a meal, talking through his process as he's working. As he cooks, viewers ask questions about the process, like how sharp a knife needs to be or how to turn a recipe vegan. For López-Alt, who's known for his Serious Eats column, his channel became a fun outlet for both him and his viewers. The format he locked into — strapping a GoPro to his head — is what made video finally click for him, and it helped him reach viewers who weren't familiar with his writing. "The food I cook on my channel is stuff I was generally making for lunch and for dinner," López-Alt said. "I could do it consistently, people seemed to like it, [and] I enjoyed making it." Viewers told him the videos were a bright spot and were helping them learn how to cook. Some creators have found that the surge in interest in their channels extends beyond cooking. Remi Cruz, a popular YouTuber who frequently features cooking on her two channels, said that people have been more interested in basically anything you can do at home. For "vlogmas," she's been using cooking to fill the gap where she'd normally vlog about outdoor activities and holiday shopping. "I've just been implementing some sort of cooking-related thing every day, and people genuinely love it," Cruz told The Verge. Viewers won't always end up cooking what they see, but these videos can still make their time in the kitchen a bit more fun — or at least, distract them while they think about the great meals they'll eventually go back out to a restaurant and order. "People are looking for some sort of comfort," L.A. said. "Comfort food is a thing, and watching these shows can offer that comfort. You may not be making it at the time, but maybe you will."  |
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Posted: 20 Dec 2020 12:00 PM PST  What's Cooking
When life gives you lemon…
& the art of reclaiming your happiness
By WILLIAM HAND Culinary Contributor, Allegany Magazine The strangest thing happened to me in 2020. I was sitting on my couch, watching a show on Netflix – you know the one – about the wealthy people forced to go live in a small town motel. It was early summer. My dog was at my feet and my cat was in my lap. And I felt a weird twitch in my face. It was almost like a spasm, like my face had tightened below my nose and above my chin. And for a moment I was a little freaked out and then I figured out what it was – it was a smile. I realized then that I had been unhappy for quite some time. I mean, think about that – I had not genuinely smiled in so long that when I did, it caught me off guard and I thought I was suffering from a sudden medical condition. Earlier in 2020 and before the pandemic, my kitchen at home was remodeled (thanks, Jared, Eric and Dylan). A wall between the kitchen and dining room was removed and the floor plan rearranged that made the space feel a lot more open. I remember standing in that newly remodeled kitchen and something felt incomplete. And for a chef to stand in a new kitchen and feel unfulfilled – well, let's just say that's not a good thing. And then I knew what that incomplete thing was – it was me. And so during the COVID inspired lockdown, I started doing some real soul searching. Who was I, where was I, and where did I want life to next take me? And why did standing in a new kitchen make me feel unsettled? After an enriching career in education for 15 years – with the classrooms closed – I knew this was the time of change. And then I returned to my first and true love – cooking. I've always considered myself more of a laborer. "Just tell me what to do and I will do it." And so to get back into a restaurant kitchen as "just the chef" who is preparing meals to make hungry people happy was something I really had a desire to do. I simply wanted to go "home" – and for me, I am at home when I'm working in a restaurant's kitchen. And once I made that move, I felt like the old Bill again – one I had somehow lost years earlier. And that's when I felt that smile. Out of that experience, I was also approached about publishing my own cookbook – a collection of 20 years' worth of columns and stories written for this magazine and other publications and so I decided to accept that offer and that book will be out very soon and I am looking forward to seeing many of you out on a (social distanced) book tour I am supposed to start in early 2021. 2020 certainly was the year it promised to be. It brought much into focus and made everything a lot clearer. It was also the year that we all had to find ways to turn lemons into lemonade – or in this case – lemon cheesecake cookies! Happy 2021. Bring it on.  |
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A Cookie And Linguine: 2 'America's Test Kitchen' Dishes For Your Holiday Table - NPR Posted: 21 Dec 2020 02:02 AM PST The holidays will be different this year. Why not follow that theme with your dinner menu? Save the more conventional fare for when family and friend can safely gather again. Instead, this year, Morning Edition host David Greene and Jack Bishop from PBS' America's Test Kitchen cook – virtually – two dishes that might not seem traditional for everyone. For dinner, a decadent linguine dish called Linguine allo Scoglio. It has an ocean of seafood clams, mussels, shrimp, squid and anchovies all swimming in a divine sauce. And for dessert, chewy hazelnut–browned butter sugar cookies. For Bishop, these actually are dishes of his childhood Christmases. "I have an Italian American heritage, and so these cookies say Christmas to me and Christmas Eve dinners with the Feast of the Seven Fishes," Bishop says. Play to the audio button to hear Bishop and Greene's remote cooking session. Below, find recipes for the cookies and the pasta.  Carl Tremblay
 Carl Tremblay Linguine allo ScoglioServes 6 Directions
 1. Heat ¼ cup oil in Dutch oven over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add garlic and pepper flakes and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add clams, cover, and cook, shaking pan occasionally, for 4 minutes. Add mussels, cover, and continue to cook, shaking pan occasionally, until clams and mussels have opened, 3 to 4 minutes longer. Transfer clams and mussels to bowl, discarding any that haven't opened, and cover to keep warm; leave any broth in pot. 2. Add whole tomatoes, clam juice, wine, ½ cup parsley, tomato paste, anchovies, thyme, and ½ teaspoon salt to pot and bring to simmer over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until tomatoes have started to break down and sauce is reduced by one-third, about 10 minutes. 3. Meanwhile, bring 4 quarts water to boil in large pot. Add pasta and 1 tablespoon salt and cook, stirring often, until pasta is flexible but not fully cooked, about 7 minutes. Reserve ½ cup cooking water, then drain pasta. 4. Add pasta to sauce in Dutch oven and cook over medium heat, stirring gently, for 2 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low, stir in shrimp, cover, and cook for 4 minutes. Stir in squid, lemon zest, halved tomatoes, and remaining ½ cup parsley; cover and continue to cook until shrimp and squid are just cooked through, about 2 minutes longer. Gently stir in clams and mussels. Remove pot from heat, cover, and let stand until clams and mussels are warmed through, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste and adjust consistency with reserved cooking water as needed. Transfer to large serving bowl, drizzle with remaining 2 tablespoons oil, and serve, passing lemon wedges separately.  Steve Klise
 Steve Klise Chewy Hazelnut–Browned Butter Sugar CookiesMakes 24 cookies Ingredients
Directions 1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in bowl. 2. Place 1½ cups sugar, cream cheese, and hazelnuts in large bowl. Melt butter in 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat, then continue to cook, swirling skillet constantly, until butter is dark golden brown and has nutty aroma, 1 to 3 minutes. Immediately whisk browned butter into sugar and cream cheese (some lumps of cream cheese will remain). Whisk in oil until incorporated. Whisk in egg and milk until smooth. Using rubber spatula, fold in flour mixture until soft, homogeneous dough forms. 3. Spread remaining ⅓ cup sugar in shallow dish. Working with 2 tablespoons dough at a time, roll into balls, then roll in sugar to coat; space dough balls 2 inches apart on prepared sheets. Using bottom of greased dry measuring cup, press each ball until 3 inches in diameter. Using sugar left in dish, sprinkle 2 teaspoons sugar over each sheet of cookies; discard extra sugar. (Raw cookies can be frozen for up to 1 month.) 4. Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until edges are set and beginning to brown, 11 to 13 minutes (17 to 22 minutes if baking from frozen), rotating sheet halfway through baking. Let cookies cool on sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack. Let cookies cool completely before serving. Barry Gordemer and Dalia Mortada produced and edited the audio story. Heidi Glenn adapted it for the Web.  |
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