In my last post about “something wonderful,” I wrote about the comfort you can find cooking your way through Diane Mott Davidson’s culinary mysteries.
But you can also find comfort just watching someone else cook. My favorite cook to watch? Jun Yoshizuki.
Jun’s Kitchen is far more than a collection of cooking videos. First and foremost, most of the videos include at least one cat. Jun and his wife, Rachel, own three, but most of the time you will only see Kohaku, or Haku for short.
Many of the videos begin with a bike ride to the grocery store, often through beautiful landscapes. Haku comes along in a carrier.
The videos are short — the longest video, which isn’t about cooking, is a little over 17 minutes, and most of the videos hover closer to the five-minute mark. They are artfully shot, and Jun’s cooking skills are amazing. Most of what he does I would never attempt: a two-day ramen project (condensed into a six-and-a-half-minute video), a sakura tree made of tempura. But the videos are less instructional than they are about watching Jun cook. His knife skills alone are impressive, and when you see the finished product, you always wish you could be there, trying the food with him.
Jun and Rachel have three other YouTube channels, but Jun’s Kitchen is the channel to go to for comfort. The next time you feel like you can’t take any more news or Zoom meetings, stop, take a deep breath, and watch Jun cook.
There. Don’t you feel better?