Originally published at: 71-year old grandma Doña Angela outpaces famous chefs on YouTube | Boing Boing
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I’m glad the graphic included Joshua Weissman and Babish, because Ramsey, while he may be one of the most famous celebrity chefs in the world, is not exactly top dog in the world of YouTube cooking videos. I will definitely check out this channel, though. I love Mexican food, but have only recently started trying to learn to cook Mexican cuisine myself, because I live in New Jersey and good Mexican and TexMex is really hard to find here.
ETA: Also, coincidentally, I did just discover a really good Mexican restaurant near me and the owner is originally from Michoacán, just like Doña Angela.
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No Chef John on that list?
But good for Dona Angela!
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Joshua Weissman makes some great videos, but quite a lot of what he does is well beyond my skill set, so other than being entertained I don’t learn a great deal.
I would have liked see Adam Ragusea or Ethan Chlebowski on the list, both do a lot more cooking that can work as every day food.
That is one of the things that makes Doña Ángela great, it’s mostly normal meals that she would make regularly, not something made super fancy.
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I checked Adam Ragusea’s last several videos, and they’re in the 100k to 300k range. I would guess Ethan is in that same neighborhood but I didn’t check. Some of Joshua’s videos are good for all skill levels, like his bread making videos, but he certainly also does some more advanced stuff. I have definitely upped my skill level by watching him and trying some things out.
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It might also be worth pointing out–though it’s not the point of the article–that self-professed “food antagonist” @joe_rosenthal on IG (Joe Rosenthal (@joe_rosenthal) • Instagram photos and videos) has some reasonable criticism in his stories of Babish and Weissman for the ways that they appropriate recipes and and repurpose them from PoC creators. In the case of Weissman, he has regularly asserted that he makes food from other cultures better than the members of those cultures themselves. In that context, we would all be well served to redistribute the views on that chart from these white men to people like Doña Angela.
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We watch her shows all the time! I love them. In a way it’s comforting to see shows with less production value, it’s like hanging out in the kitchen with her. And she’s never not doing something while she talks, that’s one of my peeves about most of the more amateur/low-production value “how to” you tube videos.
It’s been fun watching her kitchen get spruced up a bit with a fresh coat of paint since she started, but otherwise stay basically the same.
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She had Abuelita brand chocolate! I have it in the kitchen too.
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El Deliciousness always wins the day.
I still enjoy Babish, tho. His channel was also where I first saw Sohla and I’ve been enjoying Anime and Video Games with Alvin… and I like the Soy Boys show. And Rick Martinez had a show on there for a bit, too.
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I’ve watched just about every Joshua Weissman video, and I can’t recall him ever seriously saying he could make something better than the original culture that produced that food. He does have a ____ but Better series, but most of those are KFC but Better, Chipotle but Better, etc. But I will check out the criticisms you mentioned. Perhaps I missed something.
It’s a pretty popular brand here in Mexico, but now it’s owned by Nestle. Crackets (Mexican version of Ritz) is one of my favorite “funny sounding to USian ears” brands, though.
I have a celebration of a new baby girl to go to on Sunday, and I am looking forward to some great carne asada. My friends have this great big pan they put over a burner outside where they cook the meat and veggies while we sit around and drink.
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I like these granny channels!
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What an utterly charming old lady - this kind of stuff is really one of the absolute best sides of Youtube and similar sites. Love the completely unpretentious form of it all, including the recipe. If some “”“serious”“” (read: high production value, typically white and Western) Youtube cooking personality posted a mole recipe containing a packet of Ritz crackers, a fried bread roll and a fried tortilla just soaked into the liquid alongside the chiles, the comments section would probably have a field day. But this is how regular people cook - with recipes figured out throughout the years or decades, often containing whatever has been available. And I bet it’s damn delicious.
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It is! We made that molé recipe. Sensational. Highly recommend.
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Headline had me picturing a grandma that cooks faster than all the famous chefs, then had me like “but wait is it a race?”
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I had the same impression. At first I thought It was a kind of TV show that put a bunch of famous chefs against sweety old ladies.
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Hey, abuelitas can be crafty and dangerous… /s
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Chanclazo!
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I doubt I’d be able to source even one of those chiles, so unfortunately it’s not a recipe I’d be able to follow. Still, one can dream!
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