A Canadian man has garnered thousands of followers on YouTube as he learns to cook from great cooks such as Julia Child, Anthony Bourdain and Gordon Ramsay.
Jamie Tracey, also known as the Anti-Chef, started a cooking channel about six years ago on YouTube, despite having zero skills in the kitchen.
“Well imagine the last guy on earth who should have a cooking show starting a cooking show, I couldn’t cook,” he told Rick Zamperin on Good Morning Hamilton on 900 CHML.
The Guelph native who now resides in New York said he was working in the film industry and living in Toronto when the idea was sprung upon him by his now-wife.
“I wanted to make more of my low-budget films with a couple of friends, and I was running out of ideas,” he said.
“My wife kind of hinted, ‘You know, you’re not very good in the kitchen. You kind of suck. Why don’t you film yourself cooking?’”
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His wife told him she found his struggles to be humorous and thought others would as well.
“I just gotta give her the credit for that one, but for me that was just the perfect excuse to continue to make ‘quote, unquote’ films on a weekly basis and it just kind of picked up from there,” Tracey said.
Thus the Anti-Chef YouTube channel was born and Tracy was soon attempting to cook green pancakes with lime butter.
“I just picked a random recipe from a cookbook in the kitchen and I just said, ‘I’m going to make this’,” Tracey sad. “I opened the page and it was called Green Pancakes with Lime Butter. And, you know, it kind of seemed simple enough, but it was a, is a, journey.
“There is lots of ups and downs with some of the most simplest tasks, like wilting spinach or discovering what white pepper was. I didn’t think it was a thing.”
He said that was the beginning of the journey which has seen him attempt to make recipes from Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking and Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry Cookbook.
The channel has grown to more than 370,000 subscribers while Tracey also has more than 25,000 Instagram followers as well but success did not come instantaneously.
“So, I’m living in New York now. And it was around the time I moved here, when it just kind of just started picking up steam, and it hasn’t really stopped,” Tracy said. “It’s been a six-year journey where it was just myself and my mom watching. And then it’s slowly picked up steam where there’s a pretty solid fan base. Now it’s really fun.”
Tracey said that all of his struggles have taught him a new appreciation for cooking.
“Since I’ve started this show, I’ve fallen in love with learning about food from different cultures, learning how to cook,” he said. “Falling in love with the process and into something that I had no idea I would have any interest in. And now I’m obsessed.”
The Anti-Chef said that he appreciates the technique that is involved with cooking French food.
“Once you nail down a couple of those techniques, you’re off cooking up some pretty fantastic food,” he said.
For those who share similar kitchen skills in the kitchen, the Guelph native suggested to try making French Onion soup.
“It’s very few ingredients but really big flavours,” he shared. “I think this is good for anyone out there that if you don’t have a lot of skill in the kitchen. This is something that you can make.”
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