(piano music)
- Hey everybody.
I am joined by Alex, french guy.
(laughter)
You tried to put it.
- I was trying to put it, but it kept on (mumbles).
(laughter) Sorry about this.
Yeah, sorry, okay.
(opera music)
- Hey everybody.
I am joined by Alex French Guy Cooking
which kinda tells you what he does,
but tell my audience a little bit about your channel.
It's wonderful.
The cacio o pepe one is one of my personal favorites.
- So I make food videos.
I would say probably not obsessive
but inspirational food videos on my channel,
and I work on iconic foods.
For example, pizza.
I would go deep down into understanding pizza
or ramen or any dish that has a relationship with me.
- Yeah, and I love the curiosity aspect
because I've always, if you guys don't know,
I've always been a huge fan of how it's made
like when you watch things,
and I feel like you really get into
where it came from and how they did this
and then why this is happening
because cooking is, in a way, it's like chemistry.
- Yes absolutely.
- And it's so beautiful that it comes together
in a delicious meal.
- This is definitely my approach.
How it's made is my favorite format
in the sense that I would always include
a bit of DIY, a bit of science
just to understand the theory first
and then move on to the practice.
- Yeah.
- And then also it's all about the (mumbles)...
I tend to share the fails as well.
I love when it fails. - Well the fails are. So much.
I think it's great in the movies, so I include that.
- Exactly 'cause then it shows
even if things really mess up and suck
you can come out of it, rise above it,
and still end up with a delicious pizza.
Potentially.
(laughter)
So how did you get into cooking?
Are you a trained chef?
Or where did it start?
- So I'm not trained chef.
So I'm a self-taught cook.
I'm a self-taught cook
and a self-taught (mumbles) filmmaker.
So I got into cooking at a quite, I think,
unusual in a way probably.
So I'm really fond of food in the first place.
Oh you too?
That's always a good sign I think.
- Yeah.
When people are in love with food.
I discovered my love for food
when we were traveling the world with my parents as a kid,
and so we would always start discovering a culture
food first. - Yeah.
- Like we would go to the market first.
We would go to a grocery store first.
We would go to, I don't know, to a street food store first
just to understand how that culture
interacts with us, for example.
- Yeah.
- And so I was super in love with food.
Cooking came much later.
In fact, as I was moving in with my girlfriend,
and so as two very practical
and square people
we divided the house work in two.
- Yeah.
Two of my tasks were shopping and cooking.
- Does she not like to cook?
- (mumbles) but not just on the weekend,
the real cooking. - Oh yeah.
- What I call, and I'm not sure this is proper or not,
mom's cooking.
- Yeah, but just the basic dinners and lunches.
- Exactly. - Yeah.
- The duty. - Yeah.
The fact that we all need to be fed
every day. - Exactly.
- You take care of that.
- And that whatever happens outside, inside,
you still need to put something on the table.
- Yeah, that's really cool,
and it is interesting like the division
of the work within a family too.
'Cause Shawn and I do divide,
and he does most of the cooking
which I do think is a little nontraditional
in a way that it should be
because growing up my grandma always did all the cooking,
you know what I mean?
And most women, you guys can let me know,
but I think most of us grew up with a woman cooking.
Why is it that you chose? Is it because you enjoy food
and your wife is not a fan of cooking?
- It's probably luck.
(laughter)
- Exactly.
So I love food and my wife, she just doesn't like it.
She finds no joy in pitting vegetables.
- Oh, funny.
- For odd reasons I do.
- Yeah. - So that's why I got it.
To be honest and just between us.
Nothing public, of course.
(laughter) - Of course.
(laughter) - I think it's about (mumbles)
to just get shopping and cooking.
- Yeah.
- She thinks the contrary, and that's great.
- Well that's why it works.
- Exactly.
- It makes it easy. - Exactly right.
- So then when did the YouTube channel start?
If you've been cooking and loving food
since you were a child.
(laughter)
- I was running (mumbles) for the short story,
the short issue story.
I was running an agency in Paris,
where I'm still living to this day in France,
for seven years.
It was a small digital marketing agency.
- Oh wow.
- So I was taking care of online advertising,
committee management, strategies, digital strategies,
SEM, SEO, for clients,
and at some point I had to take care of YouTube channels,
and then I realize well...
So on YouTube I could be posting videos
which I have basically been editing my whole life
and then make a living from it.
I could be creating the stuff I want
in a topic that I love, food.
- Yeah.
- And be able to be free and just create things
and share them with the world.
That could be my job.
I was self-employed which was good,
and now I'm self-employed
and I make exactly what I love for a living.
- Yeah. - It's just so much better.
- It is, and I think there's a lot to be said about...
It's not just about making money.
It's about the fulfillment
- Yes. - Of something.
It doesn't have to necessarily be.
- I like this word.
- Fulfillment?
Yeah, and that's why I like the word fed
when it comes to food
because I feel like we can be fed in a lot of ways.
Not just through food.
We can be fed through relationships,
we could be fed through one-on-one time,
or we could be fed through time with animals,
time with children.
There's all ways we can be fed.
But that's really cool that you get to do what you love
and get paid for it.
That's always the nice bonus.
And reach people around the world.
- As you know, it's a challenge as well.
- Yes.
- But like every job on the planet
it's just a challenge as well.
- And how do you balance?
Because if you're cooking now for work
- Yes, yes. - Even though we love it
it's still work. - Yes.
- And then cooking at home.
Do you ever just feel like (groan),
I just don't want to?
I hate it.
- I'm afraid it happens from time to time.
- Yeah. - Yes.
'Cause I see cooking in a very real and...
Unpolished way.
When I cook in my videos.
For example, I did video on cacio e pepe.
So pasta with only cheese and pepper
and yet super (mumbles) dish.
Quite complicated from a technical point of view.
This is not something I would do on a week night.
This is too complicated. - It takes too much time.
- Yeah too much time.
I mean too much stress probably.
You have to concentrate when you wanna do.
I could do it in a more simple way probably.
Just good pasta, a bit of good grated cheese,
and then pepper,
but not that specific technique.
- The way you...
Yeah. - Exactly.
I think it's more about saying something to the one you love
but on the long term.
Not in the short term.
- Yeah.
- The way I see when that cooks, when that cooking.
That's a cooking (mumbles).
Usually they do it on the weekend.
They do big feasts on the weekend.
- Barbecues. - Barbecues.
Loads of dishes to wash afterwards.
- Yep.
- This is not how I see cooking.
I think this is not cooking for me.
Cooking is something that has to...
That has a stronger relationship
with the iteration process.
With the fact that it's repetitive.
Yes, that's what it's complicated about.
Making a dish is never complicated.
A recipe's just a list of instruction.
There is nothing complicated.
That is something I always tell my audience.
I'm self-taught when it comes to cooking.
Anybody can learn cooking if they want.
There's nothing complicated,
but then the problem lies in
what are you gonna cook tomorrow?
What are you gonna cook tonight?
What are you gonna cook...
'Cause you can't serve, I mean you could technically,
but it's probably not sustainable
to cook the same thing over and over and over again.
- Yeah, you probably get sick of it.
We've all done that. - Yeah exactly.
Exactly. - Like Shawn and I
will even say when are they gonna invent another vegetable?
I'm sick of these ones.
(laughter)
Yeah, and I think it sounds to me
like you show love through food to your family.
That's why you enjoy the fact you get to feed them.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Is that correct you think?
- Absolutely, I always see food.
I see at least five aspects in food.
I will say there is the biological aspect of food.
So we need to eat otherwise we might die.
I mean not we might, probably.
- Yes, we will.
Yes, most likely.
- Most likely, exactly.
There is the cultural aspect of food.
So you eat this or that type of food
because of where you live or...
- What's available to you?
- Yeah or more like where you come from
or what is the background in your family,
your culture, your (mumbles) genes,
the place you live, exactly.
And then there is the social aspect of food.
You eat also because you need to
share something with people.
Food and cooking (mumbles) create bounds between people.
When you sit at a table,
I think this is quite a global thing,
but still very important in France to this day.
You need to sit at a table with...
With other human beings.
- Yeah.
- To fully enjoy a meal.
I think this would be.
Then you've got the health aspect
like food has a tremendous impact on health.
- Yes.
- And the last one would be, I think the one you mentioned,
which is probably...
It's my favorite and it's also the one I think
which is the most important after the biological one
for practical reasons
is just love and affection.
- Yeah.
- When you feed somebody you just
tell that person officially that you care for them.
You can love them, you can like them, whatever,
but you care for them.
They're not just...
That person is not a stranger anymore.
- Yeah, you've taken time in preparing something.
I think in general we put effort into things
- Exactly. - That we create for others.
Especially when it comes to feeding them.
There's a lot about that...
that action, that...
The process, that is very loving.
Yeah.
- Food carries that...
That affection inside it.
Like if my kid were to just fall on the ground.
You know he's doing skateboarding without any protections
which is probably my fault
as his dad. (laughter)
And then he would just cry,
and then if I have some chocolate in my bag
I would just give him a piece of chocolate.
There is a meaning behind all this.
I'm feeding my kid with something sweet.
It's just an attention.
- Yeah.
A display of affection. - A kind gesture.
- Yeah, exactly.
So you've been on YouTube for how long now?
- Five years. - Five years.
I though it was around five years.
And what inspires you now?
'Cause your channel's definitely
changed shape over the years,
and the videos are more cinematic and tell more of a story.
So what are you most excited about now?
- Keep on going.
That is my main goal, and keep on challenging
probably not the format but the content.
The way people see cooking in general.
I've always been a fan of not following the...
The path that was written before me.
I like when things go differently.
I like when we experiment things.
I like when...
When you take a fresh look at things.
It's always, I think, interesting too.
And also it's always interesting to just
get my point of view in those (mumbles).
- Yeah, so in a way it's like staying curious.
- Exactly, stay curious.
Stay hungry, stay foolish.
- Yes, I like it.
Thank you so much.
- Thank you so much. - For being on.
It's so lovely to meet you.
- Okay. - Go check his channel out.
We did a video over there where we talk about
all sorts of fun things.
So go over there, I'll link all his socials
in the description, and I will see you next time.
Bye. - Bye.
- That was perfect.
- Cool. - I love it.
- You like it? - Yeah.
- Super. - Thank you.