Barry Lewis (cook)

Barry Lewis (born 15 July 1982) is a British cook, author and founder of the YouTube channel, Barry Lewis (formerly "My Virgin Kitchen"), which, as of June 2023, has over 942,000 subscribers.

Barry Lewis
Personal information
Born
Barry Conrad Lewis

(1982-07-15) 15 July 1982
Bristol, England
Occupation(s)Cook, author, actor
SpouseRebecca Lewis (née Gardner) (2014–present)
Children2
WebsiteBarryLewis.net
YouTube information
Also known asMy Virgin Kitchen
Channel
Years active2010–present
Genre
  • Cooking
Subscribers942 thousand (Barry Lewis)
101 thousand (Barshens)[1]
Total views222 million (Barry Lewis)
18 million (Barshens)[1]
Associated acts
100,000 subscribers2015
Last updated: 1 January 2023

A self-taught cook, Lewis began filming recipe attempts online from his home in Weston Super Mare in 2010 after he saw Jamie Oliver on a television show. After being signed up by Oliver to appear on his YouTube channel,[2] Lewis attracted media coverage. His cookbook, Dinner's On, was published in May 2014 and a second, My Virgin Kitchen – Delicious Recipes You Can Make Every Day, in August 2017.

In January 2019, the My Virgin Kitchen YouTube channel was renamed to Barry Lewis.[3]

Career

Lewis set up My Virgin Kitchen as a way to inspire himself to learn to cook. He was working at the time as a quantity surveyor for Wates Group and would make recipe videos in the evenings in an attempt to gain confidence in the kitchen.

Each video consists of Lewis cooking a recipe for the first time to inspire others to do the same; hence the name 'virgin kitchen.' Over time his reluctance to cook slowly began to turn into a passion, and a broad range of cooking videos were uploaded including simple dinners, cooking with kids and stunts such as cooking using hair straighteners. In 2013, Lewis was discovered online by the man who originally inspired him, Jamie Oliver.[4] Lewis decided to take a sabbatical from his job to take his cooking passion further as a career.

Lewis also started making videos with fellow YouTube personality Stuart Ashen, with most videos being Ashen's food specials, which are either reviewing foods of certain themes, or looking at (and sometimes eating) out-of-date food. In February 2016, Ashen and Lewis created a joint channel called Barshens.

Lewis has written two cookbooks, and has appeared on television shows including Channel 5's The Gadget Show testing barbecues,[5] and ABC's Nightline,[6] as well as appearances at food festivals.

Lewis has appeared as an actor in 'Ashens and the Polybius Heist' as 'Chef Assistance',[7] marking his first appearance in a feature film as an actor.

Bibliography
  • Dinner's On, HarperCollins, 2014 ISBN 9780007544592
  • My Virgin Kitchen-Delicious Recipes You Can Make Every Day, HarperCollins, 2017

Personal life

Barry is married to Rebecca (Becky), referred to as Mrs. B in the videos. They have two daughters, Phoebe & Chloe and 2 pugs, Amy & Boston. Amy died on 29th of April, 2022.

References
  1. "About Barry Lewis". YouTube.
  2. Bruxelles, Simon. "Naked Chef Snaps Up Virgin Cook". 2013. The Times. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
  3. @MrBarryLewis (16 January 2019). "You'll notice the YouTube channel name changed to 'Barry Lewis' earlier" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  4. Sanders, Alison (February 2, 2013). "The man who's gone from a Cardiff building site to cooking with Jamie Oliver". WalesOnline.
  5. "Barry Lewis testing BBQ's on the Gadget Show". The Gadget Show, Channel 5. Archived from the original on 2014-02-27. Retrieved 2014-02-20.
  6. "MyVirginKitchen feature on ABC Nightline". ABC Nightline. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
  7. "Barry Lewis". IMDb.
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