Sometime during the early days of the pandemic, celebrities all got the idea that we want to see them cook. In some cases, like Florence Pugh making marmalade on Instagram Live or Selena Gomez’s HBO Max show Selena + Chef, we actually do want to. (An additional shoutout to Kylie Jenner and Stormi Webster’s mommy-daughter baking videos.)
Then they are the celebrity cooking tutorials no one asked for, like Brooklyn Beckham’s short-lived web series, where he struggled to make a bagel sandwich, or that silly Paris Hilton show.
Next up offering their mediocre-to-average cooking skills is Hailey Bieber, in a new YouTube series called “What’s In My Kitchen?” The Rhode Skin founder describes her culinary venture as a “natural spin-off” to her first interview series, “Who’s In My Bathroom?” where she and her celebrity friends would often end up making meals anyway. Viewers have apparently had enough of this unsanitary nightmare and are “ready for [her] to stop eating in the bathroom,” according to the model. Thus, the cooking show was born.
“I’ve loved cooking and sharing meals with friends on my social channels for years,” Bieber said, in a statement announcing the series. “I can’t wait to bring this experience to the fans of our network with OBB and HexClad. Creating new formats and IP for my channel has been really empowering, as my team and I get to truly create everything from concept to screen. And I can’t wait for everybody to see what’s next.”
Before Bieber inevitably unleashes her own streaming service onto the world, we have the extremely low-key premiere of “What’s In My Kitchen?” And the first dish on the menu is surprisingly not glazed donuts, which would’ve been a perfect tie-in to her “glazed skin” aesthetic. Instead, we get a 10-minute tutorial on how to make air-fried “wings.” That’s right—just “wings,” as Bieber has yet to name her signature recipe. Although I’m sure TikTok will do it for her, like how they’ve coined her nails.
The recipe consists of a buttermilk marmalade with your staple seasonings—garlic powder, onion powder, garlic salt, etc.—as well as a flour coating with most of the same ingredients and Sriracha BBQ sauce. To be honest, it all looks pretty delicious. And by the way Bieber floats around her Nancy Meyers kitchen, it seems like she’s made this recipe more than once.
While the effortlessness of Bieber’s cooking is commendable, this video could use a little (a lot!) more frills. Instructions appear at the bottom of the screen in a basic, white font, as someone follows her around with a handheld camera. We occasionally get tilt shots of Beiber cooking from her “chef cam,” which is just her camcorder set on top of a fruit bowl. The entire recipe, once she’s done cooking, appears on-screen like a student-made PowerPoint. She ends the tutorial with the segment “The Perfect Bite,” which, as one would guess, is her biting into the chicken wing. Everyone behind the camera applauds and gives her a needless “yes, chef!”
Bieber’s commentary, as with most of her YouTube videos, is not exactly riveting, although her blandness and the sterile appearance of her home have a weirdly hypnotic effect. The most we learn about Bieber here is that she “doesn’t like touching raw meat.” When explaining how she checks on her wings while they’re cooking, she describes herself as “someone who’s always eyeing things.” Hm…. okay.
Suffice it to say, she could definitely use some of Alison Roman’s main-character energy and Bon Appetit’s chaotic, collaborative production. Also, maybe a more colorful kitchen that doesn’t look like an untouched display at Home Depot.
To be fair, this new series doesn’t seem like an exercise in normal-people activities. After this episode, I totally buy that Bieber does, in fact, prepare meals for herself and her famous hubby—not that this makes the multi-millionaire any more relatable. She’s also not annoyingly self-deprecating about her amatuer-level skills either, which is refreshing.
Overall, it seems like this project will develop into something more engaging over time, especially with some famous guests. We can only hope she invites back previous “Who’s In My Bathroom?” guest Gwyneth Paltrow, to teach us how to make her sad bone broth.
