As a college student, your meals might be a little lackluster from time to time. Maybe all you can manage is scrambled eggs or pasta with jarred sauce. On the flip side, maybe you’re a culinary maven – a meal-planning queen who makes all your friends drool with delicious, Insta-worthy food. Whether you fall on either end of the spectrum or somewhere in the middle, there’s one thing you have in common with everyone else.
You should be watching Bon Appétit’s videos on YouTube.
Unless you’ve been recipe-obsessed for a while, you might be unfamiliar with Bon Appétit. It’s magazine focused on food and dining. They also have an entertaining YouTube channel.
It’s hard to find a Bon Appétit video that isn’t fun to watch, but here’s a quick rundown of its best series so that you can find one you like. There’s something for everyone.
“It’s Alive with Brad”
Everyone on the Bon Appétit team has a lovable personality, but Brad Leone takes the cake. He is BA’s goofy, adventurous test kitchen manager.
In his video series, “It’s Alive with Brad,” he spends each episode exploring and making a different fermented food – hence “It’s Alive.” Several of the items he makes are very complex and watching him go from the very beginning to the finished product is an in-depth, fascinating journey.
The concept of eating something that’s “alive” might weird you out at first, but Brad’s made things like kombucha, sourdough bread and ricotta cheese – things you’ve probably had before without thinking twice about it.
Brad’s big personality and expertise bring humor and knowledge to this series, which is currently in its third season.
“Gourmet Makes”
Think about your favorite childhood snack. Whatever it is, there’s a chance that Claire Saffitz, BA’s former Senior Food Editor, has tried to make it from scratch.
Claire is a pastry chef who takes store-bought snacks like Cheetos and Oreos and attempts to make a gourmet version of them with varying degrees of success. She tries to not just recreate whatever she’s making but improve on it as well. Like in the Lucky Charms episode of the series, she tried to make the cereal (obviously the worst part of Lucky Charms) taste better.
The first episode featured Twinkies, and the most recent is focused on Twizzlers.
Claire’s lovable determination will have you rooting for her throughout every moment of this short, eight-episode series. Try not to get super attached, though. Claire recently left BA, and the future of “Gourmet Makes” without her is uncertain.
However, Bon Appétit has some material that was recorded before Claire’s departure, so you can still enjoy it in her absence – just not forever.
“Back-to-Back Chef”
This is one of the most amusing BA series by far. A professional chef (usually BA’s Food Director, Carla Music) challenges a guest (usually a celebrity) to make a dish with them using only verbal instructions. The two cook back to back while the professional chef tells the guest what to do. They don’t get to see each other’s dishes until the end.
It definitely creates some funny moments because you as the viewer know how well (or how poorly) the guest is doing, but the professional chef doesn’t.
There have been some cool celebrities on the series, and the food they make looks delicious. You can watch Alessia Cara make lobster pasta and Natalie Portman make vegan carpaccio.
There aren’t as many episodes of this series as some others, but it seems to be quickly becoming popular, so there will likely be a lot more, even better episodes in the future.
“Kids Try”
There are many versions of this concept on YouTube, but the BA videos are some of the best. If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, the videos are exactly what they sound like – watching kids try different foods, usually with humorous reactions.
Part of the reason why the BA “Kids Try” series is so good is their unique concepts. Some videos include “Kids Try Famous Foods from Cartoons” and “Kids Try 100 Years of Cookies with Cookie Monster.”
The kids in the videos are usually sweet, even if they don’t like the food they’re trying, and their reactions to some of the more interesting foods are hilarious.
Other than the series mentioned here, there are lots of great Bon Appétit videos on YouTube. You can watch BA chefs make recipes from the test kitchen, or, if you’re a kitchen newbie, consider checking out their “Basics” videos that show you how to master the simplest of culinary steps.
No matter which video you watch, just make sure you don’t watch it while you’re hungry, or you’re stomach will be growling in no time!