Hi friends,
If you had told me 6 months ago that I would
Be cooking food on a regular basis
Actually enjoy eating that food
I would have been like.
Snacks?
you mean like eating snacks?
Because I don’t particularly consider myself
a cook.
Look i find grocery stores very stressful
and overwhelming, I wanna get in and out as
soon as possible, and like i’ve always worked
in nonprofits so i try to be conscious of
my grocery bill so i used to look at a recipe
online, and be like, well i have these three
ingredients but not the other six whatever.
So when I cook, it is not good.
Besides, why make food when you can make youtube
videos and eat snacks.
we’re making quinoa by the way because your
girl went to trader joe’s yesterday.
I go there of course for the dried mangoes
and the sesame cashews and now quinoa apparently
because that’s personal growth.
So let me tell you how it all changed
People sometimes ask me what my favorite youtube
channel is.
And they expect that maybe it’s one of my
friends, or someone i look up to and am trying
to emulate,
But It’s bon appetit magazine’s youtube
channel
not spon
It all started with this video that kept popping
up in my recommended videos.
It was called something like “pastry chef
attempts to make gourmet gushers”
And i kept not clicking in because i was like
i don’t like Tasty videos and you can’t
make me watch this Tasty video.
But when i was in elementary school, on occasion
my parents would buy gushers to pack in my
lunchbox and if i could get my hands on a
few and sneak them out of the pantry without
noticing i would eat them all in one day because
i really loved gushers
And the gushers, they were calling to me,
so i answered them.
So i watched this pastry chef struggle through
13 minutes for me, i think like, a week and
a half for her, this pointless errand of trying
to make the little hexagons the right texture
and attach them together and try and make
this shitty thing we have better even though
it takes way longer and you only get about
4 gushers out of it but goddamnit, she’s
doing it anyway
And i watched it and i was like, what a perfect
metaphor for life in america in 2018.
That escalated into me watching someone make
fresh pasta shapes for 27 minutes.
I watched a guy make...salt.
I got really emotionally invested in the crusting
on the steaks of strangers even though i’m
a vegetarian.
And then, i started cooking food.
Oh you know how in cooking shows they have
like the little bowls of chopped up vegetables
and spices and everything?
You’re supposed to do that in real life
to.
It’s called “mise”-ing which is short
for something french, but it basically translates
to chop up your onions ahead of time so you
don’t forget and have to stop in the middle
of cooking to do it and burn your food.
Although usually onions go in first.
It’s a rough translation.
I didn’t mean to start cooking.
It was supposed to just be for entertainment
but like i bought flaky kosher salt cause
they said to but flaky kosher salt.
I bought a tube of tomato paste because they
said i should have a tube of tomato paste.
I may only own one cooking spoon, okay but
i have a microplane now.
But influencers gonna influence.
And then suddenly i had all these cool internet
aunts telling me why i need a different kind
of salt and why i should like, have fresh
herbs and shit and the answer is flavors.
Like i can follow a recipe now and it ends
up tasting pretty good, because it’s literally
just following directions.
But i also know enough now about like, why
you cook things a certain way or combine certain
ingredients that I am relatively successful
at just making it up with what i have around.
So i had chickpeas and kale and curry powder
at home so I bought quinoa and yogurt and
cauliflower, and now i’m basically like
sweetgreen, if at sweetgreen you had to buy
all the food, and cook all the food.
I’m not gonna chew and make sounds in front
of you.
That’s weird.
Look i still eat my fair share of snack meals
and I order takeout at least once a week but
i think it’s kind of cool that i started
watching this thing just to dial out and be
entertained.
but all their cool hip video content kinda
ended up forcing me to take better care of
myself and learn a new skill.
In the comments tell me about something you’ve
learned to do that you used to suck at.
If you liked this video you can subscribe
and maybe share it with someone who you think
would like it.
I will see you soon.
Bye
[clap]
[singing] had to check on my cauliflower,
had to check on my caulllllliflower”
