The 5 Most Popular Cooking YouTube Channels

YouTube is quickly becoming the new Food Network. What first started as a website full of cute cat videos and funny home videos has transformed into a major home for food and cooking content — and not just for celebrity chefs.

Of course, professional chefs like Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver certainly have a following on YouTube, but so do a variety of self-taught cooks. From kitchen hacks to cooking technique how-tos, there’s a video for cooks of all levels.

We’ve rounded up the top five most popular cooking channels on YouTube — none of which require cable or a Netflix account to watch.

If you’re on Facebook, chances are you’ve already watched or scrolled past a video from Tasty, the BuzzFeed food-focused network that helped launch the popularity of food videos online. Tasty is by far the most popular YouTube channel, with nearly double the following as the next channel on our list.

On YouTube, Tasty’s videos tend to be a bit longer than the 60-second viral videos popular in Facebook feeds. They include basic tutorials such as penne four ways and three-ingredient dinners, taste tests comparing store-bought and homemade foods, and more advanced techniques like making deep-fried ice cream.

Jamie Oliver — a British celebrity chef known for his healthy takes on English cuisine, and author of many cookbooks — launched his YouTube cooking show called Food Tube in 2013. The channel offers expert tutorials on cooking a range of dishes, such as tray-baked salmon, a perfect pot roast, and vegetable curry — all shot in a friendly, approachable manner.

One of his most recent recipe videos was for a roast chicken similar to the one Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were eating when they got engaged.

Laura Vitale, who grew up in Italy and now lives in New Jersey, is the cook behind this popular YouTube channel. She’s best known for her Italian-American dishes, and loves to share her grandmother’s favorite recipes. Since starting her YouTube channel in 2010, Laura has published a cookbook and is now the host of the Simply Laura show on the Cooking Channel, but that hasn’t kept her from posting new episodes on her YouTube channel. Expect recipes for dishes such as prosciutto Parmesan twists, pasta with shrimp and arugula pesto, and Nutella Popsicles.

Andrew Rea combined his love of film and his love of cooking when he started his YouTube channel, Binging with Babish. On his channel he focuses on adapting foods and dishes from pop culture. He shoots the videos from his kitchen in Harlem, where he has masterfully recreated recipes from popular television shows and movies, like the Krabby Patty from Spongebob, Cubano sandwiches from the movie Chef, and Tomate du Saltambique from The West Wing.

The New York Times has called Emily Kim “YouTube’s Korean Julia Child” — and for good reason. On her channel, Maangchi, Emily provides viewers with step-by-step instructions for how to make kimchi, fermented soybean paste, and black bean sauce. She joined YouTube in 2007, when she began posting cooking videos for fun, and has since turned her hobby into a full-time business. Beyond basic how-tos, some of her most popular videos include recipes for Korean fried chicken and bibimbap.