Sorry, cable TV. We have a new obsession when it comes to cooking shows. Yes, it’s called YouTube, and we are not ashamed to admit it. We all know it’s possible to get wildly distracted on the internet, but we’re doing research on YouTube! It’s educational. Read on for the top 10 channels you are likely to catch us watching on YouTube.

Bon Appétit

Whether they are trying to recreate a Poptart, experimenting with fermentation, cooking with celebrities or arguing about technique, the staff at Bon Appétit magazine has come out from behind the masthead. We all have a favorite host and love the casual interaction between personalities in the test kitchen, as in this video where they debate the merits of restaurant scenes in film.  This YouTube has to be the most compelling example of print media embracing the digital age.  

Chef Steps

This channel is from the folks that brought Joule sous vide to the world. Lots of fun, and good instructions for cooking interesting things, like this beef Wellington. Definitely for those serious about cooking, or just enamored of watching others cook.

First We Feast

Closing in on 8 million subscribers, the First We Feast channel has offered a variety of food-related shows since 2014. Perhaps best known is Hot Ones, in which a celebrity from any walk of life attempts to eat a range of progressively hotter sauces while carrying on a conversation. You can tell a lot about a person by how they handle spicy food (there may be profanity). Another popular series is Food Skills which covers a variety of techniques in short-form videos. Mesmerizing and easy to binge on, the topics range from How Peking Duck is Made to Buche de Noel is the Ultimate Christmas Dessert.

Townsends

Who would have thought that 1.1 million people would be watching a man recreate 18th-century recipes on YouTube? From colonial apple pie to ash cakes (!?) there’s always something interesting happening in the Townsends kitchen. Not all the content is about food, but there are plenty of food subjects – like this one about ketchup. If you want to recreate any of these recipes, you might find the necessary equipment at Jas. Townsend and Son, which supplies quality reproduction of such things to the museum and living history community.

Just A Dash with Matty Matheson

Just three months in Chef Matty has 456,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel. Yes, he’s covered in tattoos, prone to high-pitched singing/yelling, surrealistic musings and cursing. But this odd duck is disarmingly charming, quite amusing and heartfelt. The show is real and relatable – there are messes and interruptions and the realization that the pot they chose is not big enough. Kind of like cooking at home.

Mark Wiens

5.4 million subscribers can’t be wrong! This is a fun channel if you like exploring food around the world. From India to Italy, Mark is on a mission to eat everywhere. We were taken with this Romanian meat fest – particularly the mangalica pig that was the center of the festivities. “This is meat paradise,” says Mark. Where else will you see this kind of thing? Maybe at a D’Artagnan party!

Serious Eats

Our friends at Serious Eats crank out helpful content at their website, and also on YouTube. We love reading their posts and also enjoy their to-the-point instructional videos, whether teaching a cooking technique or discussing kitchen tools.

Epicurious

This YouTube channel is packed with great videos, but we can’t stop watching the Basic Skills Challenge series. How could so many people be unable to open a bottle of wine?! From how to filet a fish to guessing expensive vs. cheap products – and the amazing series of kids reacting to food – there’s always something fun to watch.

Food52

The soothing and aesthetically pleasing videos run the gamut from baking to weeknight cooking, and there’s a series cooking for kids, and plenty of guest stars. This recent video with Apollonia Poilâne, of the famous French bakery, made us crave sourdough bread. And our friend Jaques Pepin is still teaching La Technique well into his 80s … you can get his Maman’s recipe for cheese soufflé!

Binging with Babish

This immensely popular YouTube show stars Andrew Rea (or his torso) as he recreates foods from film and TV – even animated ones. The channel has expanded to Being with Babish, where Andrew finds ways to give back to his fans. Look for a few D’Artagnan meats in his basket when he shops at the butcher in the episode below.

What are your favorites? With the wide variety of options on YouTube, audiences are so fragmented and focused on niche subjects, you are likely watching completely different things. Tell us in the comments so we can subscribe!