An enthuGuide to the coolest cooking channels on YouTube.
We’ve also created a playlist with some of our favourite episodes from each channel.
Village Cooking Channel
Village Cooking Channel’s lively videos and extravagant ways of cooking have all of us hooked. Former chef and grandfather to some of the other leading men of the channel, M. Periyathambi uses traditional vessels and cauldrons to cook food. The men of VCC do not hold back in their choice of dishes – from 1000-rose cookies, and strings and strings of soan papdi, to hefty 85 kg manta rays and chicken momos. We can also find recipes for a number of South Indian and non-vegetarian dishes.
After the food is cooked, VCC serves it to old-age homes and orphanages around their village.
Watch here.
Bong Eats
The food of Calcutta – its classic recipes and dishes found only in households – is documented on Bong Eats. Saptarshi and Insiya, co-creators of the YT channel, break down Bengali homestyle family recipes into simple steps, making them accessible and easy to make.
The duo simplify recipes, procure ingredients and cook, and also talk about the cultural and political significance of the food they make – from Calcutta-style fish chops to beler shorbot. They also have their own show as an extension of Bong Eats, Rannaghore Ke?, where they cook food with celebrities (Sayani Gupta, Krish Ashok, Rahul Madal, to name a few) while twattling about food and life.
Watch here.
Rainbow Plant Life
If you are looking for an Indian diasporic cooking channel that’s also plant-based, our editor Roshni recommends Rainbow Plant Life. Nisha Vora, lawyer-turned-blogger, runs this repertoire of tasteful vegan recipes. Meal prep, Indian dishes, a Greek feast, date-night meals, tips and tricks… all have made an appearance on her YT channel.
Most importantly, for easy access Nisha has broken down all of her recipes into various playlists. We highly recommend watching all 15 videos of My Family Tries My Food playlist. We’ve picked two of the most hilarious ones and added them to our playlist.
Watch here.
Papa Mummy Kitchen Specials
We came here for the food but stayed for the simplicity and the sweetness with which the recipes are made and explained. The couple calls themselves Papa and Mummy – the former an expert on critical nuclear reactant applications, and the latter with a Masters in Political Science. They share a passion for cooking, so they launched this innovative YT food channel where they experiment with ingredients and create new snacks, while parallelly demonstrating classic Indian dishes and sweets. PMK covers one-pot meals, fusion snacks, sweets, and juices, all while incorporating both traditional and modern ways of cooking.
Watch here.
The Tiny Foods
Ram and Valar live in a small village, Thanipadi, in Tamil Nadu. The couple runs two YT channels: The Traditional Life and The Tiny Foods. We are obsessed with the latter. Valar loves cooking and makes organic, homemade South Indian food from a range of organic produce harvested by Ram, a farmer. The Tiny Foods is a lovely collection of tiny food videos made by Valar. Inspired by a Japanese cooking show, she makes tiny South Indian food on tiny utensils, employing props and decorations to build a story around it. The couple drops a recipe every Saturday.
Watch here.
Crazy for Indian Food
Have you ever visited a farm (a proper one, on acres of land) and eaten a meal made from freshly harvested produce? I have, and it’s an experience to remember. Crazy for Indian Food dishes out the same experience. Shot in a small village in Jamnagar, Gujarat, CFIF promotes simple, rural living – while cooking nutritious meals from organic harvests. They talk about a range of subjects, from taking care of plants, to preparing meals from forest foods, Crazy for Indian Food revels in the simplicity of the bucolic life, and of traditional food. You will be amazed by their variety of produce, wild flora and fauna, and the plainness of it all.
Watch here.
AI Cooking – OK Tested
Lately, everyone’s fascinated by the work of AI in various industries around the world. ChatGPT is supposed to be our Man Friday, our new BFF. So what happens when your new friend spouts a recipe from a list of given ingredients? More than anything, it sounds extremely fun.
OK Tested, a popular Indian YT channel, has this hilarious episode ChatGPT vs. Human: Cook-off Challenge. We can only name some of the ingredients involved here: Nutella, lauki, coffee, butter. Crazy, right? We will leave the rest for you to watch.
Watch here.
And here is our playlist: