The YouTube For Cooks
The culinary world’s answer to YouTube is a little site called Im Cooked. I discovered this site via an article on the Chicago Tribune’s site called “Dot.com Cooking.” It featured several cool cooking sites including this one. Launched last May by Joseph Leibovic “out of a passion for cooking and a desire to find new recipes,” Im Cooked’s motto is cook it, film it, share it.
Do you have a great meatloaf recipe? Cook it, film it, share it. How about a new recipe for onion soup? Cook it, film it, share it.
There’s the Tasty Goomba and his recipe for Lavaflow, a hamburger stuffed with 3 cheeses on rice with fried eggs on top. Hmmm. Or how about checkerboard cookies from Dyann Bakes. What I love about Dyann’s video is it’s very slick, very MTV. There are fast, snap zooms as she combines the ingredients, artsy black and white shots of her hands, and quick cuts to Dyann’s smiling face. And the cookies look really good.
Then there’s Spud Russett’s baked trout recipe. Spud’s kitchen is a little primitive, but the video has a nice homey feel as he keeps a running conversation going with his cameraman who’s afraid his battery’s going dead.
There’s even a celebrity or two at Im Cooked. Watch amateur video of actor Christopher Walken as he roasts a chicken on an Eiffel Tower-like contraption with pears, or a funny little video with Paul McCartney making mashed potatoes. Though I gotta tell you, Walken’s finished chicken looked like those dancing chickens in Peter Gabriel’s video of “Sledgehammer.” Personally, I don’t think I could eat one even if Christopher Walken made it.
The site is meant for everyday cooks, making everyday recipes, and using everyday ingredients. And even though I’m more likely to be struck by a bus than I am to cook, surfing through the videos was a lot of fun.