Excellent Japanese Cooking Tutors on YouTube

A few years ago I developed an interest in cooking, and asked my older sister, a very good cook, to give me lessons. She agreed and has since taught me to make lots of delicious American and ethnic dishes. Now we often exchange recipes, and each summer we love to take trips together to the farmers market and share the fun of cooking foods that are fresh, organic and farm-to-table whenever possible. As much as I love Japanese food, though, I haven’t made any dishes at all (until recently). I always thought they would be too difficult, or I would make the food incorrectly and the taste would be awful.

Then last year I discovered several Japanese cooks who create English / Japanese videos and post them on YouTube. Two of them have become my favorite Japanese cooking tutors, and I am in good company. Each of them has thousands of YouTube subscribers. Their bilingual videos are watched by viewers all around the world. I would like to write about them today. I will call it a Valentine to my Japanese cooking heroes.

Also, just recently I discovered some very unfortunate news about one of them. Please read on – I’ll explain. My YouTube Japanese cooking tutors are both quirky, humorous and interesting. They don’t take themselves too seriously. I love how they use the video format to have fun reaching out to their audiences. The first has simply named her YT channel Cooking With Dog.

Great YouTube Japanese Cook #1: Cooking With Dog (CWD)

The CWD chef is a middle aged woman who lives in the suburbs of Tokyo. She always has her dog Francis, a gray fluffy poodle, sitting on the kitchen counter, watching her work. Francis also hosts each tutorial. He introduces the dish and narrates during the entire video…in English. (I’m thinking the voice over must be Chef’s husband…whoever it is, his English is heavily accented but still easy to understand.) Chef doesn’t seem to speak English. She usually makes a few comments in Japanese, always with a shy smile and pleasant demeanor. In the video description a full list of ingredients for the dish is provided, both in English and in Japanese. She creates tutorial videos about many types of dishes that are just a part of Japanese life and loved by most everyone, including:

Gyoza

Oyster Egg Drop Donburi

Tsukemen

Crepes

Ochazuke

Oden

Takoyaki

Omurice* (*A worldwide YT favorite! Since Jan. 2009, video viewed over 1.1 million times!)

Yakisoba

Sushi and California Rolls

Onigiri

Bento Box

Fried Shrimp

Custard Pudding (or Flan -- Superb!!!)

The tutorials are filmed and edited quite professionally. They are more like TV program segments than home made videos. The tutorials run between 4 and 10 minutes long. She has enabled the YT “Interactive Transcript” feature so if you click on the icon in the menu options, you can see all commentary in printed format. Copy and paste this to a document and you’ll have step by step instructions for future reference.

To find all of these video tutorials and many more click here.

It is not the end of the story about this chef. We learned this sad news on February 3^: “On January 15th, cookingwithdog's Chef sustained serious injuries while riding her bicycle in the suburbs of Tokyo. She was rushed to the ICU by helicopter. She is now in a stable condition.”

And this message is now posted on CWD’s channel:

“Thank you very much for your kind words and prayers from around the world. Chef was transferred from ICU to the general ward at the end of January, but her recovery will take many months and include a long rehabilitation period. I don't know the schedule at this point, but I will make sure that she will get well as soon as possible. Thank you again for being so thoughtful.”

Someone close to the CWD Chef (I guess her husband) just posted a new video tutorial two days ago on Feb 12. It was filmed before the accident and has been remastered. The video shows how to make Yakibuta Ramen (Roasted Pork Ramen). In just a couple of days the video views total so far over 63,000 with over 1,700 comments left in the Comments section. Most are to wish Chef a speedy recovery. (I wrote one too) Here is that video. Note: If you'd like to read the comments, click on the YouTube icon in the lower right corner. When the video appears in the YT channel screen, you can view the comments left by viewers immediately below.

Great YouTube Japanese Cook #2: runnyrunny999

Meet Taro, a 30-something Japanese guy with a boyish face and very good English speaking ability. He spent some time living in the USA and now lives in Japan with his family. He says he was inspired by CWD’s video tutorials and decided to make his own. He contacted her for some tips and has created tutorials that are similar in style and format to hers. They have become friends, he says; he feels grateful for her help. Here is one difference with his videos, though. Taro narrates his own videos in English, and provides Japanese subtitles. He also has a blog which is interesting because he writes posts in both English and Japanese. It’s great! In his blog, he describes his reasons for creating a YouTube channel:

“I started youtube June 2008. It's been fun trip because I can communicate with many different kinds of people from many different kinds of countries. Sometimes I can feel many people feel the same way as I do even though they are from different country : ) Now I make a cooking video mostly. 2008年6月にYoutubeを始めて以来、違う国の色々な人達との交流を楽しませてもらってます。国は違くても自分と同じ感じ方をする人々と出会う事 が時折あります。”

Taro has made many very good Japanese cooking videos, showing viewers how to make dishes like an Okosoma lunch, Tamagoyaki, Okonomiyaki, and Pork Miso Soup.

He also bakes! In his YT channel runnyrunny999, look for Taro's video tutorial on a two layer vanilla cake with strawberries on top. It's very cool! He is funny and light hearted in his approach to food and cooking. You will see his sense of humor come out in his videos, as in this one, for example:

Now for a touching story. When Taro heard about CWD Chef’s accident, he wanted to do something to reach out to her and help her, so he created a video asking for CWD’s subscriber-fans around the world to send video clips to him to cheer up and encourage CWD Chef. He edited the clips and made a video--a Video Get Well Card, kind of. Here it is:

This is the reply from someone speaking for CWD Chef, dated today, Feb. 14:

“Today, Chef watched this video and she was touched by the messages. Here is her short message to Runny-san. 「全部一気に見ました。世界中からcookingwithdog­のシェフさんと呼ばれ感激しています。ラニーさんの優しさが伝わ­っ てきました。ありがとう。」 "I've watched the whole video at once. I am impressed that I am referred to as Cooking with Dog's Chef from around the world. I've felt Runny-san's kindness. Thank you." I thank everyone who participated in this video, especially Runny-san who organized this project. I'm sorry it took so long to respond this video.”

The comments for this video post are also interesting. One of my favorites:

“It's just amazing to see how food can bring the world together.”

The tutorial videos described above are helpful for learning what Japanese foods and ingredients are called in English. I've also picked up some very useful kitchen techniques. I hope any readers who have an interest in Japanese cooking will check out the You Tube channels of these two impressive Japanese cooks. They take the fear factor out of Japanese cooking, and show you step by step how to make delicious, authentic Japanese dishes.

In conclusion, my thoughts are with CWD Chef and her family. I hope she feels better soon.