In 2018, viewers spent 2.4 billion minutes watching Bon Appétit videos on YouTube. They tuned in for Claire Saffitz, a pastry chef with a taste for the absurd, who painstakingly recreates Twizzlers, Twinkies, Oreos, and Pringles in the BA test kitchen. They watched celebrities like Natalie Portman and Elizabeth Olsen try to keep up with professional cooks. They learned how to actually use their Instant Pots with Carla Lalli Music, and looked on as drag queens like Miz Cracker and Shangela navigated the test kitchen in heels, hair, and full regalia.
On Feb. 21, the magazine, owned by Condé Nast, will launch a free streaming channel with all those videos, plus three new shows starring test-kitchen cooks, and the entire back catalog of Jamie Oliver’s BBC series The Naked Chef. It will be a standalone channel on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Android TV.
“I like that it feels more curated and cohesive in a way that a magazine does, that we’re able to present to you all our content together, and the design and the tone and the visuals all lead to one another and all feel like part of a whole,” Adam Rapoport, editor-in-chief, said in a phone interview. BA won’t disappear from YouTube, though the three new shows will be exclusive to the streaming channel.
Rapoport says that BA, and test-kitchen hosts like Saffitz, Lalli Music, and Brad Leone, stand out as approachable and accessible in a sea of slickly produced food programming and reality competitions. “I don’t want to watch a million-dollar food show, to be honest,” he said.
The new programming includes a travel-and-cooking show starring Leone called It’s Alive: Goin’ Places, a baking show hosted by Saffitz, which will launch in March and start out with a deep dive into cakes, and an ensemble show entitled Making Perfect.
“All the test-kitchen editors are teaming up like the Avengers to tackle the ultimate recipe,” said Rapoport. “We’re kind of giving you everything you already want, but we’re giving it to you in a new way that you didn’t know you could get.”
The launch of a dedicated streaming channel is supported by two trends, says Adam Winer, a senior vice president at Condé Nast Entertainment. People are watching longer videos online, and they’re watching on televisions more. “The living room screen is one of our fastest-growing screens,” he said in a phone interview. “We’re already seeing our videos become consumed like television… it’s a lean-back type of viewing.”
Winer said that the low-key, personal feel of BA videos fills an empty space in the reality-heavy, highly produced food programming landscape. “We’re not enjoying someone being defeated,” he said. “We’re really sort of reveling in someone who’s really good.”