Claire Re-Recreates
May 1, 2024 1:06 PM Subscribe
Remember back in 2017-2020 when everyone was aglow with the warmth and camaraderie of the Bon Appetit Test Kitchen? And then, well, Milkshake Duck happened. But not all is lost....
One of the biggest highlights of the Test Kitchen era was watching pastry chef Claire Saffitz re-making mass market food items like Twinkies,SnoBalls, KitKats Pop Rocks and more over the course of several days of increasingly stressed out labor and craziness.. (First discussion here)
After the Test Kitchen, many of the chefs spun off to their own channels - Sohla(in multiple places, really.), Molly, Carla, Gaby, Rick (also in multiple places) and even eventually Brad (Although maybe watch out for his fermentation advice), but off them all, Claire as been the most successful with her Dessert Person channel.
And now, she's debuted a less stressed version of her recreations with her brand new series Claire Recreates starting with the classic Drumstick
One of the biggest highlights of the Test Kitchen era was watching pastry chef Claire Saffitz re-making mass market food items like Twinkies,SnoBalls, KitKats Pop Rocks and more over the course of several days of increasingly stressed out labor and craziness.. (First discussion here)
After the Test Kitchen, many of the chefs spun off to their own channels - Sohla(in multiple places, really.), Molly, Carla, Gaby, Rick (also in multiple places) and even eventually Brad (Although maybe watch out for his fermentation advice), but off them all, Claire as been the most successful with her Dessert Person channel.
And now, she's debuted a less stressed version of her recreations with her brand new series Claire Recreates starting with the classic Drumstick
I think the biggest thing that strikes me about Claire's recreating things (across history) is that she is very good at casually talking about her thought process and the engineering that she puts into her baking. I don't get that as much with straight recipes from her when she isn't thinking on her feet. I'm so happy to see her back to this style.
posted by phlyingpenguin at 1:53 PM on May 1 [8 favorites]
posted by phlyingpenguin at 1:53 PM on May 1 [8 favorites]
I've really enjoyed watching the ex-BA members go off and do their own things. Just the way BA management handled all of that turned me off any of BA's content (although I still like Epicurious stuff, but that feels less personality-driven).
I know Claire didn't exactly love doing the Gourmet Makes (from what I've read, anyway) so it was pretty delightful when this popped up. She seems to have found a way to do it in a way that's more her.
I'm not a huge baker so while I like Claire, most of her videos don't excite me (even though I enjoy watching them). Sohla I adore and I like Carla's weird energy.
I don't have any paid live TV service anymore so YouTube has filled the gap for me when it comes to vaguely missing Food Network.
posted by edencosmic at 1:53 PM on May 1 [3 favorites]
I know Claire didn't exactly love doing the Gourmet Makes (from what I've read, anyway) so it was pretty delightful when this popped up. She seems to have found a way to do it in a way that's more her.
I'm not a huge baker so while I like Claire, most of her videos don't excite me (even though I enjoy watching them). Sohla I adore and I like Carla's weird energy.
I don't have any paid live TV service anymore so YouTube has filled the gap for me when it comes to vaguely missing Food Network.
posted by edencosmic at 1:53 PM on May 1 [3 favorites]
this was a great video, unfortunately I now want to eat a drumstick.
posted by jonbro at 3:40 PM on May 1 [2 favorites]
posted by jonbro at 3:40 PM on May 1 [2 favorites]
I wish she would do more travel episodes. All the segments she filmed while she was in Austin for Vinny’s wedding were great. She is really the best explainer of almost anything I think I’ve witnessed. It’s a pleasure to hear.
posted by Conrad-Casserole at 4:10 PM on May 1 [1 favorite]
posted by Conrad-Casserole at 4:10 PM on May 1 [1 favorite]
Not exactly Claire Saffitz's recipe but I recently made Helen Rennie's carrot cake which she says is based on Claire's book (as well as some other inspiration). Well, mine didn't frost up as well as hers but it was still tasty. We also make one of her biscuit recipes (in which she recommends the "salad tong hands" method) with some regularity.
I wonder what led to her return to the "recreation" formula now, though.
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 4:59 PM on May 1 [1 favorite]
I wonder what led to her return to the "recreation" formula now, though.
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 4:59 PM on May 1 [1 favorite]
but of[] them all, Claire [h]as been the most successful with her Dessert Person channel
Not that she hasn't been successful, but I'm curious what you're basing this on. Most videos on a single channel?
For a while there you couldn't throw a stick without hitting a video of Sohla in umpteen different places, and she is still going strong with NYT and History Channel, and probably others.
posted by tubedogg at 9:45 PM on May 1 [2 favorites]
Not that she hasn't been successful, but I'm curious what you're basing this on. Most videos on a single channel?
For a while there you couldn't throw a stick without hitting a video of Sohla in umpteen different places, and she is still going strong with NYT and History Channel, and probably others.
posted by tubedogg at 9:45 PM on May 1 [2 favorites]
I just based it on a combination of number of views, other channels that she works with regularly (like the NYT) number of subscribers and two published cookbooks that both were NYT Best Sellers.
None of that is to short shrift Sohla who is talented as all get out (I've really enjoyed her History Channel series) and she released a NYT best seller as well (and had her first child)
As to Antecedent's question: I can only assume that now that the channel is branching from it's original mission of promoting Dessert Person, they figured why not bring back a lower key version of what really worked for building her audience in the past? (There were times that I felt like Gourmet Makes was distressing because of the over the top stress they were putting her through)
posted by drewbage1847 at 9:59 PM on May 1 [1 favorite]
None of that is to short shrift Sohla who is talented as all get out (I've really enjoyed her History Channel series) and she released a NYT best seller as well (and had her first child)
As to Antecedent's question: I can only assume that now that the channel is branching from it's original mission of promoting Dessert Person, they figured why not bring back a lower key version of what really worked for building her audience in the past? (There were times that I felt like Gourmet Makes was distressing because of the over the top stress they were putting her through)
posted by drewbage1847 at 9:59 PM on May 1 [1 favorite]
Has she ever explained why the previous series was so stressful? She seems a lot more relaxed here and that's great.
posted by zompist at 12:19 AM on May 2
posted by zompist at 12:19 AM on May 2
Probably stressful because she worked for total assholes back then?
posted by tiny frying pan at 5:10 AM on May 2 [2 favorites]
posted by tiny frying pan at 5:10 AM on May 2 [2 favorites]
I’ve never heard of these people, thanks for posting this. I love Stella Park so this will be a great way to expand on my dessert schooling.
posted by waving at 8:13 AM on May 2
posted by waving at 8:13 AM on May 2
As tiny frying pan points out - you can feel the hand of the producers in the Gourmet Makes series as they manipulate the situation to amp Claire's stress levels. Plus being in a test kitchen with other shoots and activities and then the level of "must be exact" that they stuck to the thing.
Aso the meanness of some of the challenges, like Pop Rocks. There's no way to make those at home without a pressure chamber setup.
posted by drewbage1847 at 9:15 AM on May 2
Aso the meanness of some of the challenges, like Pop Rocks. There's no way to make those at home without a pressure chamber setup.
posted by drewbage1847 at 9:15 AM on May 2
Having a bumper crop of recipe developers putting out their own videos and cookbooks has been a boon for us all.
posted by Eikonaut at 12:24 PM on May 2 [2 favorites]
posted by Eikonaut at 12:24 PM on May 2 [2 favorites]
Aw, yay. It's really nice now that when she's having her "what did I get myself into?" moments, it feels manageable. I don't mind a bit of stress - she's being ambitious so problems are expected, and she's so expressive and has such good skills at thinking through roadblocks that it's fun to watch her work. But the pressure in the Bon Appetit videos could get out of hand. This pace is nicer.
posted by EvaDestruction at 5:35 PM on May 2
posted by EvaDestruction at 5:35 PM on May 2
I love Claire so much, but the photography in these makes them unwatchable to me.
posted by ob1quixote at 7:54 PM on May 2
posted by ob1quixote at 7:54 PM on May 2
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posted by hippybear at 1:47 PM on May 1 [2 favorites]