Babish Culinary Universe

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Babish Culinary Universe
Personal information
Born	Andrew Douglas Rea (1987-09-02) September 2, 1987 (age 34)[1] Mendon, New York
Nationality	American
Website	https://bingingwithbabish.com/
YouTube information
Also known as	Oliver Babish
Channel	Babish Culinary Universe
Genre	Cooking Educational Travel
Subscribers	9.17 million[2] (July 2021)
Total views	2.01 billion[2]
Associated acts	First We Feast, Bon Appétit, The Chef Show
Creator Awards 100,000 subscribers 1,000,000 subscribers 2017
Updated: October 3, 2020

Babish Culinary Universe (BCU; /ˈbæbɪʃ/ BAB-ish),^[3] formerly Binging with Babish, is a YouTube cooking channel created by American filmmaker Andrew Rea (alias Oliver Babish) that recreates recipes featured in film, television, and video games in the Binging with Babish series, as well as more traditional recipes in the Basics with Babish series. The first video in the series was uploaded on February 10, 2016.

History[]

The YouTube channel was created by Rea as Binging with Babish on August 21, 2006;^[4] his name was inspired by The West Wing character Oliver Babish.^[5] Three videos unrelated to Binging with Babish were uploaded to the account, two in 2007 and one in 2010. The first episode of Binging with Babish aired on February 10, 2016, which is about a Parks and Recreation burger cook-off.^[6]

Its first video to be widely circulated aired on November 14, 2016, making the "Moistmaker" sandwich from Friends. The channel's growth has been driven by fans promoting its videos on Reddit and other social media platforms. Rea created a Patreon account to earn an income, and after reaching a monthly $10,000 goal, quit his day job to work full-time on Binging with Babish,^[7] which is released weekly on Tuesdays.^[8] He spent $6,000 on a Sony digital camera, lights and editing software, and does the production, editing and narration for the videos. The cost of each episode, according to Rea, "varies wildly" because of the ever-changing variety of food and ingredients used.^[7]

Rea posts recipes for the dishes on his website^[9] and on October 3, 2017, he published a cookbook titled Eat What You Watch: A Cookbook for Movie Lovers, containing 40 recipes featured in film.^[10] He started the series Basics with Babish on October 12, 2017, teaching preparation of basic recipes, stocking up on and using essential tools and equipment for cooking, as well as a variety of cooking techniques.^[5]

On March 19, 2019, at the end of a video that involved recreating the iconic cake from the Portal series of video games, Rea premiered a trailer for his new show, Being with Babish, which premiered on March 22, 2019.^[11][12]

For April Fools' Day 2019, he released a video titled "Binging with Babish: Brock's Donuts from Pokémon",^[13] where he made rice ball-shaped doughnuts to make fun of 4Kids Entertainment changing rice balls in the original Pokémon anime into doughnuts. This was immediately followed by a video where he "corrected" his error by making proper onigiri.^[14]

On October 22, 2019, Rea published his second cookbook titled Binging with Babish: 100 Recipes Recreated from Your Favorite Movies and TV Shows, containing 100 pop-culture recipes from his series.^[15]

On September 24, 2020, Rea introduced a new series, Stump Sohla, hosted by Sohla El-Waylly, as well as the channel's name change to Babish Culinary Universe.^[16]

Shows[]

Binging with Babish[]

During each episode, Rea prepares step-by-step instructions on the preparation of film and television-related meals.^[7] When Binging with Babish premiered on February 10, 2016, it was filmed at the kitchen of Rea's New York City apartment. Beginning with the "Meat Tornado from Parks & Rec" in August 2020, the show moved to his home studio in Brooklyn, NY,^[17] with a voiceover added in post-production. When Binging with Babish premiered on February 10, 2016, Rea used the opening lines of the Frasier theme song; "Tossed Salads and Scrambled Eggs", performed by Kelsey Grammer, and was used during the first 20 episodes of season 1. Eventually, the Frasier theme was removed entirely due to copyright issues, and beginning with the 21st episode of season 1, Rea started monetizing the videos. The show began with a clip of the food item being recreated, followed by Rea entering the kitchen while welcoming the viewers. Each episode contains dry humor^[18] and is paced at a fast speed. After creating the dish as it originally appeared, some episodes include Rea's interpretation of the recipe.^[8]

The show has featured many guest appearances from other YouTubers who cook alongside Rea, such as Cocktail Chemistry's Nick Fisher,^[19] Ashwin Ramdas from Ashwin Enjoys Nature,^[20] You Suck At Cooking,^[21] Brad Leone from Bon Appétit,^[22] and First We Feast's Sean Evans.^[23] Rea has also appeared as a guest star on Evans's series Hot Ones.^[24] Rea's 4 million subscribers video featured a special guest appearance by Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto, who assisted Rea in creating the Death Sandwich from Regular Show (achieved by adding fugu).^[25]

On some episodes, Rea hosted actors from the shows and films the recipes are sourced from. As part of production on their cooking series The Chef Show (on which Rea appears in multiple episodes), filmmaker/actor Jon Favreau and chef Roy Choi appeared in an episode to make chocolate lava cakes from Favreau's film Chef, one of Rea's favorite films which he has featured numerous times on the show. Favreau ended the episode by presenting Rea with the carving fork prop used in a prominent scene from the film.^[26] Favreau would later reappear in an episode where Rea recreated the blue macarons from a season 2 episode of The Mandalorian written by Favreau.^[27] Maisie Williams of Game of Thrones fame appeared in an episode where she and Rea attempted to recreate Direwolf Bread.^[28] Williams, a fan of Binging with Babish, arranged her guest appearance after messaging multiple YouTube food channels (including Bon Appétit) about appearing on one of their shows while she was in New York.^[29] During the COVID-19 pandemic, actor H. Jon Benjamin appeared over video call to make margaritas from Archer.^[30]

Basics with Babish[]

Basics with Babish focuses on basic recipes. The videos are numbered, typically include a sponsor spot, and have a theme song. The series is in a video cookbook format for beginners. Guests on the series have included Floyd Cardoz, Joshua Weissman, Roy Choi, Greg Titian from How To Drink, and Sohla El-Waylly (prior to her officially joining the channel).^[31]

Being with Babish[]

Being with Babish is a vlog-style series in which Rea documents his travels, giving back to fans, friends, and family.

Stump Sohla[]

Stump Sohla is the fourth regular show added to the Babish Culinary Universe and features Sohla El-Waylly. The series aired for 10 episodes^[32] airing on Saturdays and features Sohla making dishes in a randomly chosen format or theme.

Botched by Babish[]

Botched by Babish is the fifth regular show added to the Babish Culinary Universe. In this series, Rea corrects errors in recipes previously featured on Binging and Basics. The first episode premiered on May 18, 2021, and featured Canadian chef and internet personality Matty Matheson, correcting a recipe for poutine Rea had presented on Basics in September 2019.^[33]

Pruébalo[]

Pruébalo (Spanish for "Try It") is the sixth regular show added to the Babish Culinary Universe. It features Rick Martinez showcasing Mexican cuisine from various places across Mexico.

Anime with Alvin Zhou[]

Anime with Alvin Zhou is a direct spin-off of Binging with Babish hosted by Alvin Zhou from Tasty. In each episode, Zhou recreates dishes from Japanese anime, particularly dishes from Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, which Rea had previously featured on an episode of Binging. Anime with Alvin began with a backdoor pilot as the channel's annual April Fools' Day joke in 2021, where Alvin "broke into" Andrew's kitchen to prepare Gotcha Pork Roast from Food Wars.^[34] Alvin returned the following July with an official Anime with Alvin episode where he prepared Transforming Furikake Gohan from Food Wars.^[35]

The FundaKendalls[]

The FundaKendalls features kitchen manager Kendall Beach workshopping recipes from Rea's upcoming cookbook.

Episodes[]

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Main series[]

Spin-offs[]

Awards and nominations[]

See also[]

• List of YouTubers

References[]

General references[]

• Allen, Molly (October 5, 2021). "Andrew Rea Tells Us What It's Really Like Being On Hot Ones - Exclusive". Mashed.com. Retrieved November 4, 2021.
• "Watch YouTube's Binging With Babish Surprise An Aspiring Chef For His Surprise Second Act". Parade: Entertainment, Recipes, Health, Life, Holidays. September 16, 2021. Retrieved November 4, 2021.
• Krishna, Priya (October 5, 2021). "From 'The Sopranos' to 'Star Trek,' Pop-Culture Cookbooks Fuel Fandoms". The New York Times. Retrieved November 4, 2021.