The Best Cooking Shows On YouTube

There's a YouTube tutorial for everything, from cutting your own hair to shaving your cat, so it only makes sense that we'd turn to our screens for cooking guidance. The many food-related YouTube channels out there can provide you with practical advice, sure, but also inspiration and pure entertainment.

From the staggering caloric offerings of Epic Meal Time to the micro-documentaries in 1 Minute Meal to the sweet treats featured on PopSugar Food, here are the food channel characters you should be watching.

Nerdy Nummies
The immensely likable Rosanna Pansino, baker and self-proclaimed nerd, is a huge hit on YouTube, with more than 4.5 million subscribers. If you watch her tutorials, you know why: She shows you how to transform bake sale staples into pop culture tributes, with everything from Super Mario cake pops to Angry Birds cupcakes. It's a fun show to watch even if you don't want to attempt any of the decorating techniques, but it's also a great channel to have up your sleeve the next time you're called upon to provide birthday party snacks. 

F***, That's Delicious
This slightly NSFW show on Vice's food site, Munchies, stars food-obsessed rapper Action Bronson. Each episode he goes on the hunt for all things delicious, talking to chefs and trying out famous spots on his travels. As a host, he's an intoxicatingly watchable cross between Andrew Zimmern and that affable stoner dude you knew in college who was always talking about where to get the best sandwich.

Everyday Food
The energetic, warm and knowledgeable Sarah Carey, who comes Martha Stewart approved, hosts this show that's great for when you actually want to cook something, instead of just gawp at on-screen achievements. She knows what she's doing, and she's not the untouchable domestic goddess type: She'll occasionally stumble or make substitutions, the kind of thing home cooks do all the time.

PopSugar Food
Ever want to make a Fruit Roll-Up at home? How about frozen burritos, a Nutella burger or gummy bear ice pops? PopSugar Food's got you covered with its YouTube videos explaining how to create food items that might feel most at home being sold at a state fair. Even if you're not interested in trying to make your own, say, movie theater popcorn cake, the videos are bright and fun, and might inspire you to mix up your usual culinary routine.

1 Minute Meal
1 Minute Meal (actually on Vimeo, but come on!) is a smartly produced series of micro-documentaries, little bite-size features. This one's a fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpse at the many culinary landmarks of NYC's five boroughs, from a doughnut shop in Brooklyn to a hand-pulled noodle maker in Chinatown.

Epic Meal Time
This hyper-macho YouTube food staple seems like the logical end point of the Guy Fieri/Man v. Food-style celebration of all things deep-fried, supersize and covered in bacon. The premise is in the title: The meals, the music and the caloric intake of each of the videos are huge and sweeping, epic not just in the colloquial way but also in the sense that it would probably feed most of the characters in a Homeric epic. The videos feature a counter in the corner that tallies up the estimated calories, which are frequently in the "two full weeks of nutrition for a grown man" range. Just check out the video of making an 84 cheeseburger cheeseburger.

Regular Ordinary Swedish Meal Time
For those who like the dramatic flair of Epic Meal Time but would prefer it in a made-up blend of Swedish and English, Regular Ordinary Swedish Meal Time is here for you. It's a blend of cooking, punching ingredients for no reason and a lot of needless screaming. It's also very, very funny.

Cooking with Dog
What cooking show wouldn't be better if you added an adorable puppy to the mix? That's the premise of Cooking with Dog, which features cute and fluffy poodle Francis overlooking the kitchen labor of her owner, a "mysterious Japanese chef." This one was in our last roundup, too, and for good reason: At 8 years old, it's a YouTube staple, and a perfect mixture of actually useful information and instruction on Japanese cooking and, well, a dog doing funny things.