With more than eight million subscribers and two billion video views, Rosanna Pansino makes her living by posting YouTube videos. She revealed to Money magazine that she gone as far as to invest her life savings into her YouTube channel. It’s certainly paid off with her pop culture-inspired recipe videos she posts every week attracting almost two billion views. Her Nerdy Nummies segments are tutorials on how to make nerd-themed baked goods like her Brave ice rolls or Power Ranger cookies.
In a time where there’s an emphasis on dieting and health, the team at Epic Meal Time choose to rebel and go against the grain, attracting attention from Vice and Thrillist. Harley Morenstein (The Sauce Boss) created the show for those of us who like the idea of trying a 5,800-calorie corn dog. The Canadian team has more than seven million channel subscribers who watch them prepare epic artery-clogging creations in an obnoxiously entertaining way.
Hosted by Brandi Milloy, POPSUGAR Food is an American channel full of recipes, tutorials, and kitchen tips and tricks videos. With more than one million subscribers, the channel draws in viewers with segments like Eat the Trend where Brandi makes popular treats and fads like the Starbucks unicorn frappuccino or the Cadbury Oreo egg.
Videos like DIY goth ice cream and prison recipe Coca-Cola salad has gained Emmymade in Japan more than 154 million views and almost 900,000 subscribers. The creator, who is only known as Emmy, is a Chinese-American mum who eats treats from around the world and posts taste test and recipe videos. One of her most viewed videos was her dollar store fried chicken steak recipe that has more than 126,000 views. Emmy’s channel was rated as the best food channel in 2017 by Paste magazine.
An unlikely YouTube star was born when the Country Foods channel first featured 106-year-old Mastanamma from Andhra Pradesh, India. Mastanamma was introduced to the YouTube world by her grandson and since then she’s captured more than 315,000 subscribers’ hearts with her traditional cooking techniques and beautiful personality. The channel shares cinematographic videos of Mastanamma making local delicacies from scratch.
Creators of HellthyJunkFood, JP Lambiase and Julia Yarinsky shouldn’t be taken too seriously because their meals aren’t all that good for you. The pair make epic jaw-dropping junk food such as a pizza stuffed inside a burger with two pizzas as its buns. Their imagination and entertaining videos has earned them more than one million subscribers and over 131 million views.
Content creator Trevor James combined his two passions of travel and food to develop The Food Ranger channel, which now has almost 80 million total video views. Originally from Canada, James travels across Asia where he tries local street food and shares his experiences on camera by posting weekly videos. Trevor not only talks about the food itself but gives viewers an insight into the area, culture and people.
Living by the motto ‘life is sweet’, Australian baker Elise Strachan channels that into her weekly videos by making extravagant desserts. From making movie-inspired cakes to a giant jelly donut, Elise has attracted almost 415 million views and been featured in Australian newspaper the Courier Mail. More than three million subscribers tune in to My Cupcake Addiction for DIY and design ideas, dessert recipes, travel videos, and top tips on becoming a kitchen master.
Making TV and movie dishes like Homer Simpson’s moon waffles into a reality has gained Binging With Babish almost 36 million video views. Creator Andrew Rea from the US featured in Paste magazine as YouTube's newest food obsession in March 2017. Andrew was also featured on The Daily Dot for his video creating a classic Seinfeld menu of muffin tops, cinnamon babka and, of course, Soup Nazi soup.
Whatever Yolanda Gampp can think of she makes it into a cake. The Canadian YouTuber created How to Cake It where she makes impressive cakes look like chips and dip, an avocado, sushi or animal emojis. Her Halloween zombie brain cake was even featured in the UK’s Independent newspaper. You name it, Yolanda has probably made a cake resembling it and shared the video of her doing it with more than three million subscribers. Her videos have a warning that ‘everything you see is real cake’ and ‘may contain cake'.
Food Wishes has almost two million subscribers who tune in for original easy-to-make recipes that will improve your culinary skills. Professionally-trained chef John Mitzewich hosts the channel but never appears in the videos. Instead the food is the star. The short videos are instructional-based and show every step of a recipe in an easy-to-follow manner.
Starting as a bit of fun by a group of old friends around a pub table, SORTEDfood has become one of the most well-known food YouTube channels in the UK. The channel has more than 1.7 million subscribers, been featured in the Wall Street Journal and the creators, including Barry Taylor (pictured), have starred in the Red Bull Kings of Content documentary. Their fame stems from the recipe videos that incorporate utter stupidity and general laughter around food.
Brothers Green Eats has more than 766,000 subscribers. Creators Josh and Mike Greenfield post videos that teach people how to cook without all of the fancy gadgets, pro kitchens and expensive ingredients. The American brothers encourage viewers to laugh with them, come cook with them, and see how wild, weird and crazy delicious they can get.
The Everyday Food with Sarah Carey channel posts hilariously entertaining and down-to-earth instructional videos daily. As editor and host, Sarah works for lifestyle queen Martha Stewart and shares exceedingly healthy recipes with more than 866,000 subscribers. Sarah is a mum to two hungry kids, so the question "What's for dinner?" is never far from her mind. Her videos are all about her favourite fast, fresh meals and the tricks she uses to make it all look so easy.
Possibly one of the oddest food channels on YouTube is Cooking with Dog where a Japanese woman, known only as Chef, cooks in her kitchen with her pet Francis. In 2016 her more than 1.3 million subscribers were left mourning the loss of Francis. But Chef continued making videos and now has a picture of Francis and replica toy in his place. Featured in The New Yorker, the videos of Chef making traditional Japanese dishes are narrated by a man in English whose voice is meant to be that of Francis.
Feeling Peckish is a compilation of videos showcasing movie-inspired recipes. Canadian Julie Nolke hosts the videos and refuses to be a starving artist as she introduces herself as an actress, professional goofball and your food spirit animal. What sets Julie’s channel, with almost 33,000 subscribers, apart from other movie-inspired recipe channels are the unique and hilariously odd skits she incorporates into her cooking.
Parents having to feed their fussy kids is an age-old problem and so Ciara Attwell decided to find a solution and share it with the YouTube world. She created My Fussy Eater to help other parents find quick and simple recipes to make that even the pickiest of eaters would eat. My Fussy Eater has almost 800,000 views for videos where Ciara shares her recipes for hiding vegetables in meals so kids will eat them.
Laura in the Kitchen is a channel where host Laura Vitale highlights Italian recipes. It’s an interactive show where viewers are encouraged to make requests with plenty of videos stemmed from ideas sent in by Laura’s almost three million subscribers. Laura is a bubbly personality and mum who makes traditional home-cooked meals that will leave your mouth watering.
Hailing from the UK, Eats Amazing is a channel where healthy food is made fun for children. The videos typically don’t have a host but are created by Grace Hall, a mother, who shares her ideas and inspiration for making fun, creative, and healthy children’s food with a particular focus on Japanese bento-style lunches. One to check out if your kids’ lunches need pepping up.
Cloning your favourite fast food at home is Nicko’s Kitchen’s specialty. Created by Rob Nixon, his videos show viewers how to make everything from a McDonald’s Big Mac, Twinkies and KFC fried chicken to Krispy Kreme donuts at home. He also shares videos of his family and does food-based challenges made famous on YouTube. Rob’s kitchen motto he shares with more than one million subscribers is ‘affordable and easy and oh so tasty’.
Hannah Hart didn’t start MyHarto as a food channel but her show My Drunk Kitchen has become one of the most watched food-based entertainment shows on the internet. Hannah effectively gets drunk while cooking trending recipes in a hilariously entertaining and relatable way. With almost 300 million video views, it’s clearly struck a chord with many.
Each week Australian food scientist Ann Reardon makes ridiculously unhealthy desserts and posts videos of her incredible creations on YouTube. Some of her unreal edible artwork includes a hamburger cake, magic chocolate lava cake, giant Kit-Kat and chocolate Eiffel Tower. Ann gives detailed step-by-step instructions in her videos so even the most incompetent cooks can have a go at making her delicious treats.
This channel has many different hosts from YouTube who help post daily videos of their favourite food and travel stories. Tastemade also has a unique segment called Tiny Kitchen which show someone creating meals in miniature form, from tiny beef wellington (pictured), to tiny no bake Oreo cheesecake – it’s very impressive. It also combines cooking tutorials with interesting and fun travel and cooking shows in a way that the professionals could take a lesson from.
Al’s Kitchen was created by Englishman Al, who showcases cooking methods and recipes used in British Indian restaurants. With a love of all things spicy, Al believes food should be fun and enjoyable to cook and eat which he brings into his videos that have been viewed more than 1.5 million times.
BBQ Pit Boys is an outdoor cooking show created by a group of rugged macho American men with thick Southern accents. Just like Food Wishes, the Pit Boys don’t show their faces for the most part and prefer to narrate their old-school cooking instructions. Their videos are centred around cooking over a grill, fire, or some kind of barbecue set-up, which has drawn in almost 153 million video views.
For those of us who aren’t culinary genuises, The Simple Cooking Channel is the perfect channel because host Jason Pinderonly only ever uses 10 ingredients or less, making his recipes easy to follow. The professional chef from Australia only launched his channel in 2016 and already has more than 1.3 million subscribers. Some of his specialties include peanut butter and jelly dessert pizza, sushi popcorn and two-ingredient recipes.
Daymon Patterson calls himself Daym Drops on YouTube but he’s been dubbed the Food Titan by the more-than 766,000 subscribers of his channel. Daymon was a retail store manager until his review of a new burger from US chain Five Guys became a huge viral hit. Now his goal is to entertain while giving true and honest reviews of fast food. He makes no secret of the fact that he gets paid to do a number of food reviews but maintains it doesn’t sway his review in any way.
If you’re not a meat eater, Sarah’s Vegan Kitchen, created by Sarah Sullivan from the US, is the place to go for meat-free meals. Sarah transforms carnivore meals into vegan dishes that all foodies would find hard to resist. From a vegan Rueben sandwich, vegan smoked salmon and cream cheese to chick’n pot pie – there are countless videos with almost 2.5 million views that will get your mouth watering.
Two young sisters baking in the kitchen and having fun doing it is what Charli’s Crafty Kitchen, which has over 766,000 subscribers, is all about. Charli and her sister Ashlee are pint-sized bakers who create recipes based around Disney characters and know their way around a kitchen better than most adults do. The recipes they share are mostly sweet treats like their Lego cookies and DIY candy crown but they also do challenges and create healthy snacks all kids would love.