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Last Updated on August 22, 2023
From amateur home chefs to professional culinary creators, cooking videos have taken the internet by storm. Platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok are now overflowing with appetizing content showing recipes being made from start to finish. Food and drink videos generate over 300 million views every single day.
But why have instructional cooking videos become so incredibly popular in recent years? These clips clearly satisfy viewers’ cravings for more than just new recipes. We explore the creative formats, sensory experiences, and human connections driving the phenomenal popularity of online cooking videos. Read on to uncover what makes cooking videos so binge-worthy.
Step-By-Step Tutorials Teach Coveted Kitchen Skills
One major appeal of cooking videos is their ability to teach viewers techniques and recipes from basic to advanced levels. For generations used to learning hands-on skills from family in the kitchen, that knowledge transfer has moved online for most.
Straightforward video tutorials build cooking confidence and skills for audiences. From knife techniques to fancy plating, each step is demonstrated with clarity. Measuring ingredients, timing steps just so, and perfecting cooking methods is displayed for viewers to follow.
These virtual cooking lessons bring expertise right to the home kitchen. Learning subtly nuanced skills like seasoning to taste or kneading dough consistency is easier to grasp through well-edited videos. Viewers can then re-watch segments to master skills. With many catering to beginners, videos make coveted cooking know-how accessible.
Mesmerizing Behind-the-Scenes Views
Ever wonder what professional restaurant kitchens are really like? Cooking videos now give food fans insider peeks into the world of chefs through behind-the-scenes footage.
Seeing high-energy professional environments in action captivates audiences. Clips can range from compilation views of bustling kitchens to following individual chefs preparing impressive dishes. The fast pace, pressure, tools and teamwork involved gives viewers newfound appreciation for running world-class kitchens.
Home cooks also love seeing inside chefs’ personal kitchens for inspiration on layout, essential gear, and real workflows. Videos offer aspirations for upgrading their own cooking spaces by spying on the pros. Behind-the-scenes cooking videos let audiences feel intrinsically connected to creators.
Ingredients as the Star of the Show
Let’s face it, ingredients are the real rock stars of cuisine. Videos focused just on showcasing gorgeous seasonal produce, perfectly marbled steak, and artisanal ingredients attract millions of views.
ASMR-style videos take time glorifying each component through ultra close-up shots and amplified audio. Watching caramel ooze, cheese stretch, and knives slice never gets old. Mouth-watering camera work and editing ratchet up cravings. Audiences can nearly taste each ingredient’s flavor and texture through visuals alone.
Ingredients-based videos also appeal by simplifying recipes. Focusing on quality components inspires viewers to seek out the best local, fresh seasonal ingredients themselves. Beautifully filmed videos devoted just to ingredients make cooking more accessible and enticing.
Soothing Sounds of Food Preparation
The sounds of cooking also enhance video appeal, especially for the ASMR-loving crowd. Audio of simmering, sizzling, chopping, and baking provides comforting, familiar background noise.
Crisp sounds of cutting, drizzling, and searing tap into viewers’ senses. Pouring, mixing, and kneading all become audible art forms through amplified microphones. Videos allow audiences to notice pleasing nuances like whisking egg whites or sesame oil hitting a hot pan.
These sensory auditory experiences explain cooking videos’ popularity as ambient entertainment. The methodic noises bring calm and relaxation for those seeking ASMR-induced tingles. Satisfying food sounds also subconsciously awaken appetites and associate cooking with pleasure.
Vicarious Enjoyment Through Eating Videos
Watching people passionately eat delicious-looking food on camera provides viewers with visceral vicarious pleasure. Videos showcasing recipes being enthusiastically enjoyed deliver the joy of eating without the calories.
Food vloggers who indulge in cheese pulls, lip smacks, moans of delight, and other expressions of gustatory bliss allow audiences to live through them. Descriptions of complex flavors and textures let viewers experience taste sensations they crave.
Beyond pure indulgence, these videos build connections between creators and audiences. Viewers feel invested in the recipe outcome and want to see the food they just watched being made eliciting happiness through eating. Eating videos sate appetites visually and emotionally.
Come for the Food, Stay for the Personality
Many favorite cooking channels succeed by showcasing big personalities against delicious backdrops. Audiences come for recipes, but stay for the engaging host.
Videos spotlighting creators’ lives beyond cooking, inside jokes, unique quirks, and interactions give viewers a sense of relationship. Their kitchen feels like a place you want to hang out in. Watching lively hosts also makes cooking seem less intimidating and more fun.
Seeing passion for food radiate through every recipe video is equally magnetic. The most popular voices exude genuine excitement to teach viewers new dishes and techniques. Their joy and expertise keeps audiences hitting play again and again.
Immersing in Food and Culture Worldwide
For many viewers, cooking videos open doors to experience cultures and cuisines from around the globe. Authentic videos transport home cooks to Vietnam, Brazil, Morocco and beyond through food.
Watching recipes from a country’s native creators teaches more than just dishes – it spotlights regional ingredients, cooking tools, techniques, traditions, and personal stories. Viewers broaden cultural understanding and context around food.
Seeing genuine local home cooking also inspires audiences to expand their recipe repertoires. Intriguing new spices, produce, meats, and condiments showcase untapped flavors to incorporate. Cooking channels focused on cultural recipes turn viewers into culinary tourists and more adventurous cooks.
Binge-Worthy Entertainment Anytime, Anywhere
One of cooking video’s biggest advantages? Accessibility and convenience unmatched by other food media. Video platforms keep expanding mobile capabilities, letting audiences watch on smartphones anywhere, any time.
Whether enjoying a quick video on the commute home or binging episodes while cooking a meal, viewers control the experience. Short video formats cater to modern attention spans. Playlists make curating cooking content for any mood or meal easy. Portability means cooking videos engage viewers wherever hunger for recipes strikes.
So, What’s Cooking?
Cooking videos have clearly moved far beyond just demonstrating recipes to become immobilizing entertainment. Creatively crafted videos allow audiences to develop kitchen skills, travel the world, ASMR out, and connect with charismatic chefs through their screens.
This medium delivers cooking inspiration not found through cookbooks or TV alone. As video platforms expand immersive technologies like 360-degree views, livestreams, and interactive shopping, cooking videos will continue dominating our devices and serving up irresistible experiences.
So, pull up a chair, grab your screen of choice, and let the tastiest videos on the web satisfy your cooking cravings today!
