Babish Culinary Universe

Babish Culinary Universe (BCU; /ˈbæbɪʃ/ BAB-ish),[2] formerly Binging with Babish, is a YouTube cooking channel created by American cook and filmmaker Andrew Rea (alias Babish) that recreates recipes featured in film, television, and video games in the Binging with Babish series, as well as more traditional recipes in the Basics with Babish series. The first video in the series was uploaded on February 10, 2016.

Babish Culinary Universe
Websitehttps://bingingwithbabish.com/
YouTube information
Channel
Genres
Subscribers10.1 million[1]
Total views2.61 billion[1]
Associated actsFirst We Feast, Bon Appétit, The Chef Show
100,000 subscribers
1,000,000 subscribers2017
10,000,000 subscribers2023
Last updated: September 2023

History

The YouTube channel was created by Rea as Binging with Babish on August 21, 2006;[3] his name was inspired by The West Wing character Oliver Babish.[4] Three videos unrelated to Binging with Babish were uploaded to the account, two in 2007 and one in 2010. The first episode of Binging with Babish aired on February 10, 2016, which is about a Parks and Recreation burger cook-off.[3]

Its first video to be widely circulated aired on November 14, 2016, making the "Moistmaker" sandwich from Friends.[5] The channel's growth has been driven by fans promoting its videos on Reddit and other social media platforms. Rea created a Patreon account to earn an income, and after reaching a monthly $10,000 goal, quit his day job to work full-time on Binging with Babish,[6] which is released weekly on Tuesdays.[7] He spent $6,000 on a Sony digital camera, lights and editing software, and does the production, editing and narration for the videos. The cost of each episode, according to Rea, "varies wildly" because of the ever-changing variety of food and ingredients used.[6]

Rea posts recipes for the dishes on his website[8] and on October 3, 2017, he published a cookbook titled Eat What You Watch: A Cookbook for Movie Lovers, containing 40 recipes featured in film.[9] He started the series Basics with Babish on October 12, 2017, teaching preparation of basic recipes, stocking up on and using essential tools and equipment for cooking, as well as a variety of cooking techniques.[4] On October 22, 2019, Rea published his second cookbook titled Binging with Babish: 100 Recipes Recreated from Your Favorite Movies and TV Shows, containing 100 pop-culture recipes from his series.[10]

Shows

Binging with Babish

During each episode, Rea prepares step-by-step instructions on the preparation of film and television-related meals.[6] When Binging with Babish premiered on February 10, 2016, it was filmed at the kitchen of Rea's New York City apartment. Beginning with the "Meat Tornado from Parks & Rec" in August 2020, the show moved to his home studio in Brooklyn, NY,[11] with a voiceover added in post-production. Each episode contains dry humor[12] and is paced at a fast speed. After creating the dish as it originally appeared, some episodes include Rea's interpretation of the recipe.[7]

Others

The first of Rea's side-shows was Basics with Babish; as many of the movie-accurate food dishes required expensive equipment and ingredients to make them accurate, this series is instead focused on making various dishes as simple as possible, often with multiple variations. This series is also notable for featuring guest star chefs from different cultures and ethnic groups when tackling dishes from those regions, most notably the late chef Floyd Cardoz for several Indian-centric episodes.

Another show, Botched by Babish, focuses on Rea correcting food dishes that received backlash for in the past due to his methodology, such as the pumpkin pasties from Harry Potter (as British fans pointed out how since they're pasties, they're implied to be savoury and not sweet), or the episode on poutine (due to Rea lacking access to cheese curds - an integral ingredient to the authentic version of the dish.) The series is more comedy-driven, with much of the humour derived from the dichotomy between Rea's normal personality and his more off-kilter side, as well as the interactions between him and his crew.

A third show, What's in the Fridge is an impromptu show that occurs when Rea and his crew are either out of video ideas or they have too many leftovers in the show's fridge that are close to expiration. Rea then does his best to come up with a dish that incorporates as many ingredients as he can.

The final Rea-centric series on the channel is Being with Babish, which focuses on Rea giving back to the community and his fans, as well as other miscellaneous subjects such as his weight loss journey.

In addition to these series, there are other series posted on the channel that are run by different chefs, cooking content-creators, behind-the-scenes staff and Rea's personal friends. These projects include:

  • Stump Sohla, featuring Sohla El-Waylly, which featured Sohla making dishes in a randomly chosen format or theme.[13]
  • Pruébalo, hosted by chef Rick Martinez, follows him exploring Mexico and its authentic, regional cuisine.
  • Alvin Zhou, a senior manager for Buzzfeed's food channel, Tasty, hosts Anime with Alvin Zhou and Arcade with Alvin Zhou -which are focused on food from anime and video games respectively.
  • The FundaKendalls and Kendall Combines are hosted by Kendall Beach, Rea's Kitchen Producer. The former follows a similar format to Basics with Babish albeit with a focus on technique, and the latter challenges Kendall in creating dishes that combine two ingredients that normally don't pair well together, such as kimchi and cottage cheese.
  • Street Foods with Senpai is hosted by food youtuber KenSenpai, where he attempts to recreate absurd, yet viral, street food.
  • Soy Boys, hosted by Rea's frequent cameraman and editor Brad Cash, focuses on vegan dishes that are designed to help his friend, Chris Creasy, lose weight.
  • Football Fusion is hosted by Sawyer, Rea's close friend that is inexperienced with cooking, who creates dishes that are fusions between two dishes from regions with prominent NFL teams, such as Skyline Chilli Cakes, based on Cincinnati's skyline chilli and Baltimore's crab cakes.

Episodes


Main series
SeasonEpisodesOriginally aired
First airedLast aired
182February 12, 2016May 15, 2018
265May 22, 2018January 21, 2020
378January 28, 2020Present

Spin-offs
Series Start Date End Date
Name Seasons Episodes
Basics with Babish 2 100 October 12, 2017 Present
Being with Babish 1 9 March 22, 2019
Stump Sohla 1 11 September 24, 2020 January 9, 2021
Botched By Babish 1 3 May 18, 2021 Present
Anime with Alvin Zhou 1 31 April 1, 2021 Present
Arcade with Alvin Zhou 1 7 August 23, 2022 Present
Street Food with Senpai Kai 1 7 February 2, 2023 Present
Football Fusion with Sawyer 1 5 September 4, 2022 Present
Pruébalo ft. Rick Martinez 1 7 July 10, 2021 Present
Kendall Combines 1 3 August 16, 2022 Present
Soy Boys 1 6 March 24, 2022 Present
The FundaKendalls 1 3 November 11, 2021 Present

Awards and nominations
Year Title Award Result
2017 7th Streamy Awards Food Nominated
Breakout Creator Nominated
2018 10th Shorty Awards Best in Food Nominated
2019 9th Streamy Awards Food Won
2020 10th Streamy Awards[14] Show of the Year Nominated
Food Nominated
2021 11th Streamy Awards Show of the Year Nominated
Food Nominated

See also

References
  1. "About Babish Culinary Universe". YouTube.
  2. "The Book Tour | Being with Babish". YouTube. Retrieved September 15, 2020.
  3. Rea, Andrew. Babish Culinary Universe (video). New York, New York: YouTube.
  4. Fuhrmeister, Chris (May 5, 2017). "'Binging With Babish' Turns Dishes From TV Shows Into Real Food". Eater.com. Retrieved December 1, 2017.
  5. McGurk, Stuart (May 1, 2022). "Andrew Rea: the YouTube chef cooking up a storm". the Guardian. Retrieved August 20, 2022.
  6. Downes, Larry (August 4, 2017). "One recipe at a time, YouTube's 'Binging With Babish' is disrupting the content industry". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 1, 2017.
  7. Shaffer, Claire (June 21, 2017). ""Binging with Babish" Faithfully Recreates TV and Film Recipes for an Online Audience". Newsweek. Retrieved December 1, 2017.
  8. Bonem, Mark (August 16, 2017). "How the Star of Binging with Babish Went from YouTube Star to Cookbook Author". Food & Wine. Retrieved December 1, 2017.
  9. Gutelle, Sam (October 3, 2017). "Binging With Babish's 'Eat What You Watch' Becomes Amazon's Second Best-Selling Cookbook On Its Release Day". Tubefilter. Retrieved December 1, 2017.
  10. "Cookbook makes it easy to dine like Buddy the elf or 'Seinfeld's' Elaine". Chicago Sun-Times. Associated Press. October 29, 2019. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
  11. "About: Binging With Babish". Binging With Babish. Retrieved September 10, 2020.
  12. Feldman, Jamie (November 15, 2016). "This Is The Most Beautiful Thanksgiving Sandwich Video You've Ever Seen". HuffPost. Retrieved December 1, 2017.
  13. "Sohla El-Waylly from 'Bon Appétit' Finally Has Her Very Own Cooking Show". September 24, 2020.
  14. Del Rosario, Alexandra (December 13, 2020). "The 2020 YouTube Streamy Awards Winners List: Charli D'Amelio, Will Smith & Sarah Cooper Among Honorees". Deadline. Retrieved January 25, 2021.

General references
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