Alex does mostly simple recipes, but he’s interesting because he doesn’t just try once but keeps remaking the recipe until he gets it perfect and explains the whole process and all the details.

ANTI-CHEF does very fancy recipes from a beginner’s perspective. He shows off a lot of techniques that a more professional chef might gloss over as obvious.

I’m a huge fan of Adam Ragusea. He takes a science, history, and home-cook approach to everything which makes uniquely tasty yet simple recipes. He optimizes for the fewest dishes and simpler techniques that aren’t impossible for a home cook to do.

Kenji Lopez-Alt

https://www.youtube.com/@JKenjiLopezAlt/videos

The GoPro format is great, you can see what he does with his hands and you see all of the cooking, with practically zero cuts in the video. All the while he explains why he’s doing the things you see.

I found myself the same many years ago and need something entertaining but look delicious. Some can be intimidating but i e replicated several of my four regular channels around this subject.

Binging with Babish https://youtube.com/@babishculinaryuniverse

Matty Matheson https://youtube.com/@mattymatheson

Brian Lagerstrom https://youtube.com/@BrianLagerstrom

Ethan Chlbowski https://youtube.com/@EthanChlebowski

Honorable mention if you want to try your hand at any desserts/sweets for Claire Saffitz https://youtube.com/@CSaffitz

You Suck At Cooking has a lot of meals in a fun format, Adam Ragusea? I think that’s how you spell it, is pretty good too, longer videos and less on the meals themselves and more learning about food in general.

Foodwishes is the OG YouTube cooking show: https://foodwishes.blogspot.com/ has over a decade of content. Recipes vary in complexity but always does a good job of breaking down the steps & explaining the what and why.

America’s Test Kitchen and Bon Appetit both have channels with a lot of content, but are geared towards getting you to subscribe to their paid content.

There’s also a ton of old TV content available. E.g. Good Eats has a number of episodes posted (or maybe just parts of episodes, but enough to learn).

Kenji Lopez Alt is also a major content creator. He has several first person view videos with commentary while he cooks. This is a good format to see the cooking skills in action and help learn / improve techniques.

Beyond these big ones, there are many good channels with focus on specific culinary styles.

Food Wishes is the GOAT.

Alton Brown/Good Eats

Adam Ragusea

I don’t necessarily use them for specific recipes but they are detailed and explain why they like doing things a certain way. I think that is the biggest thing when you are learning to cook and not just follow recipes.

I’d also put Ann Reardon/How to Cook That in a similar spot but more geared toward baking.

I just so happen to have a good friend that has been working on his own cooking show for years. It’s definitely a passion project of his and I’d love it for him to get more exposure. Caveman Cooking is the name and it’s definitely worth checking out!

https://youtu.be/3N2Oa8BhfFw

If you want to get into baking John Kirkwood videos are really good. https://www.youtube.com/@JohnKirkwoodProFoodHomemade

His Sandwich bread made easy at home is one of my favorits https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWpSbYV96_c

I have also followed a few videos from Natashas Kitchen that have turned out well. https://www.youtube.com/@Natashaskitchen/videos

And on a more funny note multi-millionare twitch streamer Asmongold demonstrates how to cook a $2 stake https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hETgbsF5yY8

I learned a lot from watching the original Japanese Iron Chef. You’re not learning recipes of any sort. What I learned were techniques and that it’s okay to experiment and be creative in the kitchen. For day to day meals, it works pretty well when trying to come up with meal ideas based on what’s on sale at the grocery store. If I want to try making something specific, that’s when I search for recipes.

https://youtu.be/vMshCdGwK1g I really like this guys methods and Ideas on cooking. Nothing really fancy but he makes some “fancy” dishes with simple techniques. His dishes seem to focus on fresh ingredients.

Also, my favorite advice for cooking - Control everything, but especially control your heat.

You suck at cooking is a great option, he also has a recipe book. Binging with banish is another good one. For entertainment purposes Epic Meal Time is an oldie but goodie not sure how their new stuff is but years ago they were the shit!

Nats what I reckon

Dylan Hollis

You’ll learn some weird history, some things to do and LOTS of things NOT to do.

And you will laugh your goddamn ass off.

https://www.youtube.com/c/bdylanhollis