Something kind of fannish
Jun. 24th, 2018 12:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icepixieYouTube cooking shows is not the first thing that comes to mind when I think about how to spend my time, and yet over the last week or so I've been devouring much of the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen back catalogue. Not even because I want to make the food--although some of it does look good, and actually somewhat manageable for a normal home cook--but because all of the people presenting are just so...so friendly! As in, I want to be friends with all of them. They seem to be genuinely having fun and enjoying what they do and want to teach viewers how to enjoy it too.
It's hard to choose a favorite, because they all have different but equally nice styles, but I will say the first one I came across was Claire Saffitz's "Pastry Chef Attempts" series where she reverse-engineers junk food like Skittles, Twinkies, KitKats, Gushers, and Cheetos. She spends much of the time being long-suffering and despairing, but tends to prevail in the end. (She is the Eeyore of the group, at least in these particular videos if not her regular recipe ones. I feel like we would get along well.) She's a woman after my own heart, with the whole having gone to grad school in food history before going to culinary school, and is obviously super smart; it's just fun to watch her mind working.
Carla is chatty and mom-ish and doesn't care that she makes mistakes on camera. Andy is sort of the cooking equivalent of Bob Ross, very quiet and gentle. The undisputed star, though, is Brad, with his "It's Alive!" series about fermented foods that takes detours into how-it's-made for things like knives and salt. He is one of those people who would likely drive me to homicide if I had to work with him, but I will watch him be loud and nutty and cook food and have no filter on the interwebs all day. The editing is also the perfect counterpoint, with sarcastic thought bubbles and animations and...I can't even describe it, just watch. One of my favorites is "Brad and Claire Make Sourdough Bread," but really any of them will show you the glory of this series.
...Speaking of Brad and Claire. In the alternate universe where he's not married with kids, I ship it like FedEx. Fic, anyone?
Did not think something like this would pull me back into feeling kind of fannish after a long absence, but there you have it.
It's hard to choose a favorite, because they all have different but equally nice styles, but I will say the first one I came across was Claire Saffitz's "Pastry Chef Attempts" series where she reverse-engineers junk food like Skittles, Twinkies, KitKats, Gushers, and Cheetos. She spends much of the time being long-suffering and despairing, but tends to prevail in the end. (She is the Eeyore of the group, at least in these particular videos if not her regular recipe ones. I feel like we would get along well.) She's a woman after my own heart, with the whole having gone to grad school in food history before going to culinary school, and is obviously super smart; it's just fun to watch her mind working.
Carla is chatty and mom-ish and doesn't care that she makes mistakes on camera. Andy is sort of the cooking equivalent of Bob Ross, very quiet and gentle. The undisputed star, though, is Brad, with his "It's Alive!" series about fermented foods that takes detours into how-it's-made for things like knives and salt. He is one of those people who would likely drive me to homicide if I had to work with him, but I will watch him be loud and nutty and cook food and have no filter on the interwebs all day. The editing is also the perfect counterpoint, with sarcastic thought bubbles and animations and...I can't even describe it, just watch. One of my favorites is "Brad and Claire Make Sourdough Bread," but really any of them will show you the glory of this series.
...Speaking of Brad and Claire. In the alternate universe where he's not married with kids, I ship it like FedEx. Fic, anyone?
Did not think something like this would pull me back into feeling kind of fannish after a long absence, but there you have it.