Bon Appétit Test Kitchen
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About
The Bon Appétit Test Kitchen refers to a series of web-based cooking shows on the YouTube channel for Bon Appétit magazine. These shows, all of which take place in the Bon Appétit test kitchen, where the magazine's employees try out and perfect recipes for publication, feature a number of recurring hosts that appear in each other's videos.
History
On November 14th, 2012, the Bon Appétit YouTube channel uploaded its first video "Suzanne Goin's Thanksgiving Sides." The post recieved more than 15,000 views in seven years (shown below).
On March 10th, 2015, The New York Times[1] published an article entitled "Bon Appétit Moves to a New Home and Into the Kitchen You’ve Always Wanted." The article profiles the then-new test kitchen, which would be the setting for future videos.
The following month, on April 20th, 2015, Claire Saffitz, who would later host one of the channel's most popular shows "Gourmet Makes" made her first appearance. The video received more than 3.5 million views in four years (shown below, left).
On October 21st, 2016, the channel premiered the one of the first in a new line of shows "It's Alive" hosted by Brad Leone. Within three years, the video received more than 2 million views (shown below, right).
On July 18th, 2017, the channeled premiered "Gourmet Makes," a cooking show in which Saffitz attempts to create gourmet pre-packaged snack foods.[2] On June 5th, the show premiered the episode "Pastry Chef Attempts To Make Gourmet Skittles," which received more than 11 million views in one year (shown below).
Reception
On November 26th, 2018, BuzzFeed [3] published an article entitled "Bon Appétit’s Test Kitchen Chefs Are The Only YouTube Stars I Care About." The article praises the chemistry of the hosts. Reporter Louis Peitzman writes, "The Bon Appétit videos, which highlight the charming idiosyncrasies of their chefs and the convivial relationship between them, are the perfect antidote to the kinds of cooking videos that dominate my Facebook feed now: the largely impersonal, overhead, highly edited how-to clip."
Fandom
The Bon Appétit YouTube channel has more than 4.1 million subscribers and 630 million views as of July 2019.
On November 27th, 2018, BuzzFeed[4] published a quiz "Which Bon Appétit Test Kitchen Chef are you?"
The series has inspired a series of meme accounts, including @meme_appetit and @outofcontextBA, which have helped to expand the channel's fandom (examples below). On July 13th, 2019, Mashable [5] published an article about the fandom surrounding the shows and the meme's it has inspired.
Search Interest
External References
[1] New York Times – Bon Appétit Moves to a New Home and Into the Kitchen You’ve Always Wanted
[2] YouTube – Pastry Chef Attempts To Make a Gourmet Twinkie
[3] BuzzFeed – Bon Appétit’s Test Kitchen Chefs Are The Only YouTube Stars I Care About
[4] BuzzFeed – Which Bon Appétit Test Kitchen Chef Are You?
[5] Mashable – Pastry chef Claire Saffitz attempts to explain what it's like to be the internet's crush
