I’m someone who’s been jobless for years (since I got married), and being at home can be really dull. That’s when I started using YouTube a lot, a hell lot in fact. I’m a loyalist by nature, so whichever video I liked, I didn’t mind going back to it time and again. Secondly, I and my husband are not much into travelling. Weekend getaways are fine, but we’re really lazy when it comes to long/international trips for many reasons, which is why when I see a YouTuber talking about their local food, it gives me a peek into their lives and that widens your horizon automatically. Lastly, I’m not into food fads, so knowing local people from foreign lands doing their local dishes is an eye-opening experience. I’m a vegetarian, so all the videos that I have seen are of the same category. There’s a lot of filtering that needs to be done, but I can manage. Here’s my list of a few of the channels/individuals that I follow on YouTube. 

1. Bong Eats

I was hooked to this channel from the first video itself. It was mind-blowing to see Bengali food being represented to perfection. From the measurements to memories—Saptarshi Chakraborty and Insiya Poonawala have done their job so well, it’s unbelievable. Whenever I miss home, I go to this channel and get lost into their music and their simple yet heart-warming way of featuring recipes. 

2. Food Wishes 

You hardly find chefs these days who are successful and yet levelheaded. Chef John of Food Wishes is a master when it comes to food tutorials. There are so many recipes that are in my list from this channel that I want to try in my kitchen! He’s the coolest chef I know! Chef John can do desserts, savouries, breads and so much more—with utmost ease. Plus, the humour of this American chef is the best part about him.

3. Pickup Limes

This Canadian nutritionist who currently lives in Netherlands is the one you’d like to follow for healthy and good-looking dishes. Her recipes score high on nutrition and overall appeal. My favourite is the one in which Sadia talks about Vietnamese Pho and why she loves it (the background score was so melodious I must have kept it on repeat for 20 times during my travels). If you’re into vegan food, you won’t be disappointed too. She always shares PDF version of her recipes and has her own ebook that can come in handy. She also does videos on minimalism and personal life talks that helps us viewers connect better. Did I say she has a gorgeous smile?

4. Maangchi

I’m not into non-vegetarian food so why do I follow this Korean food blogger? Her love for her native food is incredible. You get a good insight of all things Kimchi and more—plus her passion for sharing her food stories got me all happy whenever i watched her. I do have to skip many videos as I don’t eat non-vegetarian food, but I filter it up and keep going. There are so many cute moments—from the way she washes everything including her chopping board to the way she tastes everything that she makes in the end of the videos—that will make you fall for Emily Kim aka Maangchi who resides in the US but is totally Korean by heart. She has her own cookbooks as well, FYI.  

5. Pasta Grannies

Before I die, I want to learn how to make pasta for my husband and my family and relish it to the hilt. Now, I keep imagining myself strolling in the streets of Italy, looking out for the many versions of pasta, knowing their history and meeting a bunch of foodies too. But thanks to this godsend channel, I can see adorable grannies doing pasta. It’s such a tough task to make pasta from scratch but looking at their videos, I guess one day I might make myself some and go to sleep like a child. No wonder I keep thinking before getting carried away buying pasta packets at the gourmet aisles. 

6. Sukkari Life
Raoum is into yoga, zero-waste life/minimalism, vegan food and travel, which is why millennials should follow her. She is based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and this again gives me a glimpse of how’s life in that part of the world. Raoum keeps doing her routine videos and I love those. She doesn’t have a studio kind of a thing going on for her, so I find her videos raw and artistic for some reason. I like the way she has her tea, preps her day’s food, the way she keeps bringing her siblings in her videos to make it real, and does heart-to-heart chats about different lifestyle topics before the camera. 

7. Li Ziqi

She’s a young food blogger from the interiors of China but watch her videos and you’d know what her place is like. When I saw her for the first time, I couldn’t believe such a beauty of life exists. She makes food from scratch and does creative things where she’s making her own stuff. It’s like a fairy tale on play whenever I watch her. Imagine a girl climbing trees, picking fruits and flowers in her cane basket, drying them probably too, then cooking the same in food containers of varied sizes and storing them so well. Each activity offers a crisp sound—peeling veggies, plucking plants, tempering them and so forth. 

8. The Bread Kitchen

As a freelance writer, I spend a lot of time sulking. I remember being in Gurgaon (have spent almost five years in that Delhi NCR area), and exploring passionate foodies around the globe through YouTube. I and my husband had our version of tragedies and there was a time, anything that made me smile meant the world to me. Titli Nihaan brought me one big smile, and every time I saw her bake bread, I was happy. She’s like Julia Child. A passion for food is enough for others to fall in love with you. Who cares for the frills. Titli offers many bread varieties to her followers; her simple approach to things comes through. What a winner I tell you!