Brian's Cooking Show
Last summer while in quarantine I desperately needed an outlet to create. I had this wild idea to film myself cooking a variety of dishes, mostly Vegan, and put them on social media for my friends and family to see. I began filming on my Instagram and FB stories, eventually graduating to iMovie and now housing these creations on my Youtube page.
Rewatching the episodes prior to posting this I’m struck by the fact that I’m basically chronicling my experience in the early days of the pandemic (as well as my inability to get a hair cut!). There are moments where I am clearly emotionally drained, as many of you were and some of us still are, but I wanted to help make your lives and my own a little better. Perhaps that vulnerability is what made them so popular. Particularly on Facebook.
Unfortunately those first episodes from my stories are sadly lost. (Although my Scallops episode is still up on my FB page, and maybe one day I will figure out how to download that to YouTube.)
The “early episodes”
I think the first video I shot in its current format was Anne Burrell’s Goat Cheese Cheesecake. Followed by one of my favorite dishes to make, Vegan Cheesy Broccoli Soup, where I basically make vegan cheese from lemons, cashews and nutritional yeast. It’s wild!
Next I made Tabitha Brown’s amazing Pecan “meat” tacos and then one of my go to meals, Vegan Creamy Mushroom Soup.
My first sponsor!
It was when my friend John Melton commissioned me to make Pad Thai, a dish I had never made before, that my cooking show took an exciting turn. That episode seemed long at the time (11 minutes!) and had the extra added entertainment that you (and I!) didn’t know if it was going to be edible! It could have truly been a disaster. (Spoiler alert: It wasn’t)
Cooking WITHOUT alcohol
I think one of the best episodes is where I make Julia Child’s Boeuf Bourguignon, creating my own substitute for wine. I had made BB several times before giving up alcohol, and each experience was almost spiritual! Needless to say, I thought I would never have the opportunity to make it again. Revisiting Julie and Julia gave me the idea to come up with an alternative! Something that would come up again in the Palm Springs Episode with a beer substitute and again in my Christmas (in July) Kitchen.
Thanksgiving
But nothing prior comes close to what I did in the Thanksgiving episode. A two part labor of love with shopping trips, guest stars and a total run time of 41 minutes! I may not have been able to be with my parents in person this year, but they make an unforgettable appearance in Part 2!
What’s next?
I haven’t managed to make another episode since November, but I have some ideas and am waiting for the right opportunity. If you haven’t seen Brian’s Cooking Show yet, below are all the episodes, in order.
Goat Cheese Cheesecake
Vegan Cheesy Broccoli Soup
Tabitha Brown’s Pecan Tacos
Vegan Mushroom Soup
Pad Thai
Boeuf Bourguignon
Christmas Kitchen
Palm Springs desert edition
Vegan Sweet & Sour Chili
Thanksgiving