Five Cooking YouTube Channels to Inspire Your Next Meal

Kevin Tatar displays breakfasts from around the globe on his YouTube channel, KWOOWK | Photo Credit: Kevin Tatar via YouTube

KWOOWK

On KWOOWK, Kevin Tatar focuses on short videos explaining simple and affordable recipes often specifically designed for students. Tatar has also released multiple extended series of videos exploring breakfast around the world (the channel’s most beloved staple), national dishes, and world Christmas meals, each of which he  scores out of ten. The recipes are accessible, straightforward and adaptable. I find myself adopting various techniques and suggestions into other dishes.

Recommended: 7 Days of Breakfast Around The World

NYT Cooking 

The New York Times runs a subscription service, NYT Cooking, which provides access to countless recipes to peruse online. Many of those same recipes appear on their YouTube channel, where the chefs who have developed each recipe enter the studio to demonstrate their process, provide tips and visual guidance, and explain the recipe’s backstory. I made Nigerian yam and plantain curry, which was super tasty. It was nice to have the video to follow along as I cooked.

Along with their usual recipe content, they also produce series such as Mystery Menu, where chefs Sohla and Ham collaborate to produce a meal in one hour, featuring an unusual mystery ingredient such as pickles or lime Jell-O. Every holiday season they also release an astounding gingerbread house competition video.

Recommended: Yewande Komolafe makes Nigerian Yam & Plantain Curry

Yam and plantain curry, an adaptation of the West African dish ‘asaro’ | Photo Credit: David Malosh/The New York Times

Claire Saffitz x Dessert Person

Saffitz is an expert baker who previously worked at the food magazine Bon Appétit before moving to NYT. She has released two cookbooks, and in each video she breaks down a recipe from one of her books. Saffitz is a meticulous recipe developer who tries to make baking as clear and painless as possible. Each video is replete with tips for every eventuality, removing a lot of guesswork from the cooking process. This is especially helpful in baking, where small modifications can often drastically change the result. As someone who is often anxious while baking, knowing a bit more about the various ways a recipe can go wrong and how to avoid them is helpful.

Recommended: Chocolate Chip Cookies (just incredible)

Photo Credit: Chef Vivien via YouTube

Chef Vivien

I recently discovered this excellent channel, deserving of many more subscribers, which breaks down previously unapproachable or obscure French dishes. Vivien Lebecq “started cooking in a restaurant’s kitchen at the age of 16,” according to his YouTube bio. He went to culinary school in the Armagnac region in southwestern France, and since then, he has worked “in various restaurants and cooking schools in France, Spain, Russia and Ukraine,” including the Michelin-star restaurant À la belle Gasconne. From his home in Provence, he debunks myths and explains iconic French dishes, often made with ingredients picked fresh from his garden. The ratatouille I made according to his method was delicious.

Recommended: Traditional ratatouille recipe

Photo Credit: Ievgen Klopotenko

Ievgen Klopotenko

Last but not least, the ineffably charming Ukrainian chef Ievgen Klopotenko runs an eponymous channel where he cooks authentic Ukrainian cuisine as well as other miscellaneous food items. It’s hard to adequately describe the charisma of this man, despite all his videos being in Ukrainian, which I unfortunately cannot speak. (He does have three English-language videos on a separate channel, which are also worth checking out.) Regardless, the recipes he shares are delicious. Klopotenko created a documentary in 2020 called Borshch: The Secret Ingredient in which he explored Ukraine and its many varieties of borshch. “I will share my culinary life hacks and show you how to make food more exciting and diverse,” he promises in his channel description. “Together we will cook dishes that can surprise the whole world,” he says. “Shall we cook together?”

Recommended: Lenten borshch from Polissya