Editor’s Note: The coronavirus has hammered the hospitality industry, forcing restaurants and hotels to lay off millions of employees. These businesses are in desperate need of help. Consider ordering takeout, buying gift cards or pledging money to initiatives like the James Beard Foundation Food and Beverage Industry Relief Fund or Save Restaurants.
Spurred by the coronavirus, the rise of work from home culture has brought about a sea change across much of food Instagram: the flashy phone-over-plate posts of yesterday have been replaced by Instagram live shots of stewing tomatoes, searing steaks and knife skill tutorials. If you’re not culinarily adept, this can be disheartening. Lucky for you, some of the world’s best chefs are also stuck at home.
Chef Massimo Bottura, the mind behind three-Michelin-star Osteria Francescana and focus of an episode on Netflix’s Chef’s Table series, has gone from posting selfies with Brad Pitt and elegant shots of many-coursed meals to regular episodes of food prep, life feeds of cooking with his family and Q&As (he’s dubbed the series “Kitchen Quarantine”). For those looking to go a step further, Bottura also teaches a Masterclass in modern Italian cuisine.
A post shared by Massimo Bottura (@massimobottura) on
Chef Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin fame (another three-Michelin-star restaurant) has shifted from posting about yellowfin tuna and sea urchin tartar to sharing concise recipes for easy chicken soup, elevated grilled cheese sandwiches and cheese tortellini meat sauce
A post shared by Eric Ripert (@ericripert) on
Southern food evangelist and chef Sean Brock has advanced instructional online home cooking further, offering virtual cooking classes from his home kitchen at an hourly rate. One-hundred of the proceeds go to paying the wages of employees at his two Nashville restaurants, Audrey and the recently opened Joyland.
A post shared by Chef Sean Brock (@hseanbrock) on
Tom Colicchio has begun posting about using leftovers, baking sourdough and improvising on his son’s birthday cake. Top Chef host Padma Lakshmmi has a series of videos on cooking with children on her feed.
If Instagram fails you, you could always fall into Youtube’s Jacques Pépin rabbit hole. Regardless of your Instagram habits, one thing is clear: this is easily the best moment to teach yourself how to cook.
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