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.

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.

You Suck at Cooking It’s surrealist storylines with cooking!

Speaking as someone that started with little experience, I love Adam Ragusea and Pro Home Cooks. Both explain things you never thought to ask about cooking and concepts that you can apply across lots of different dishes. I’ve learned things that I still continue to think about long after watching whenever I’m making up some food :)

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.

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 think the channel “You Suck at Cooking” is a great channel. It’s funny, has a nice wide variety, and he usually tries to keep the recipies practical enough that people can do them at home.

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.

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

Internet Shaquille is something that hasn’t been mentioned yet that I think really resonates with what you’re looking for. All of his videos are short, focused, and aimed at helping regular people in the kitchen (with the exception of his April Fools videos, which satirize clickbait videos). There is some humor, but the information density of his videos reflects his ethos of not wanting to waste your time. To this end, sponsor reads appear at the end of the video (if they’re sponsored at all), so you can completely skip them.

Here are a few great channels from my Youtube subscriptions!

Tasting History with Max Miller hits a perfect cross-section of my interest in cooking and my interest in history. Max goes through a historical recipe each episode and pauses part of the way through to explain the history of the dish.

Minute Food has lots of short (sometimes under a minute!) videos about the science behind cooking.

Chinese Cooking Demystified is a husband-and-wife duo living in China that goes over traditional Chinese recipes, I especially like how in the voice-over they frequently list substitutions for ingredients that may be difficult to find outside of China.

Atomic Shrimp does far more than just cooking, but the cooking videos on his channel always give a neat insight into the everyday meals an older British IT Specialist makes.

J. Kenji López-Alt is fantastic. Professional chef who shows a lot of the how and why in his videos. How to do something in the recipe, and why it’s done. Professional chef with a bunch of other paid resources if you end up liking his style

Can’t believe noone said Binging with Babish yet. Has a great series called Basics with Babish which is exactly what it sounds like.

Nat’s What I Reckon if you want a sweary Australian delivering recipes with a good amount of comedy!

Brian Langerstrom has a wide variety of recipes and I feel like he tests them enough only to put out the best:

https://youtube.com/@BrianLagerstrom

Also love Smoking and Grilling with AB. He says himself he’s trying to “demystify” cooking. Delicious recipes that build on flavors, I’ve made a few and they come just as he tells you:

https://youtube.com/@SmokinandGrillinwithAB

Lastly, but not my least favorite, Ethan Chlebowski. When he gets real technical about the best ingredients it’s very informative:

https://youtube.com/@EthanChlebowski