Online Cooking Videos for Beginners

Cooking at home can help you save money and eat healthier. If you have dietary restrictions, cooking at home gives you the chance to modify favorite dishes to meet your needs. Cooking can also be fun! However, if you’ve never cooked at home before, the idea can be intimidating. You may not know where to start. A great place for beginners to learn how to cook is somewhere you may have not have considered—online!

The internet is full of free videos with professional chefs and experienced home cooks who will walk you step-by-step through delicious recipes. Videos can be more helpful than a written recipe, especially for beginners. You can see what the food should look like at each step. Seeing what a “pinch of salt” or a “handful of parsley” looks like takes out the guesswork. You can pause and re-watch how the chef chops the onion or slices the apple. Also, the chefs in the videos often provide extra tips while preparing the food such as how to pick out the best fresh veggies or easy substitutions if you don’t have an ingredient on hand.

Check out these video collections to get started.

• Cook for Your Life: Ann’s Digital Kitchen. Cook for Your Life teaches healthy cooking to people impacted by cancer. Ann’s videos are great for beginners and specifically for cancer patients and caregivers. Check them out here.
• Cancer Dietitian. Julie Lanford, MPH, RD, CSO, LDN aka “The Cancer Dietitian” shows you how to make nutritious recipes in her quick video tutorials. Check them out here.
• Although not specifically for cancer patients, Goodful’s cooking videos are great for beginners and focus on healthy recipes using whole, fresh foods. Check them out here.

If you are looking for a specific recipe, just try searching YouTube! There are millions of videos to choose from. No matter what food you crave, it’s likely there is a video (or a few) to guide you.

As someone new to the kitchen, it’s also good to familiarize yourself with food safety guidelines. If you are cooking for a patient with a compromised immune system, food safety is especially important. You can also visit our list of the essential kitchen tools every beginner needs. Good luck on your culinary adventure!

Do you have a favorite online chef? Let us know in the comments below!