Why Andrew Rea Doesn't Rehearse Before He Cooks On Camera - Exclusive
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Andrew Rea, creator of "Binging with Babish," is a busy guy. With a YouTube empire, cookware line, and multiple books already under his belt, he just released a brand-new cookbook, but this one doesn't celebrate his many successes. Instead, Rea has taken the opposite approach with this book, focusing on all of his mistakes — something he's quick to admit he's made a lot of. In an exclusive interview with Mashed, he told us that "there's not a recipe in that book that I haven't messed up at one point or another, especially the first time making it."
However, it's this unique approach and admission that qualifies Rea to teach beginners everything they need to know so they can not make the same mistakes he did — or at least if they do, they can know where they went wrong. In the new book, he offers in-depth explanations of just about everything that could possibly go sideways with each recipe. This whole business of being comfortable with mistakes in the kitchen — and encouraging others to be the same — is part of the reason why Rea doesn't rehearse before he cooks on-camera for his YouTube series. He's learning from his own mistakes so others can then learn from them, too.
Reclaiming your mistakes
Andrew Rea told us, "I specifically don't rehearse dishes before I do them on camera so that I can catch my screw-ups. I like to show them as learning experiences, and it's therapeutic for me, as someone who's beaten up on themselves for making mistakes their entire life. It's nice to reclaim [those mistakes] as learning experiences, and it's where the sum total of my cooking knowledge has come from. I haven't gone to culinary school. I haven't trained in any formal capacity. It's all been trial and error my entire life."
This approach even made it into the new cookbook's full title, "Basics with Babish: Recipes for Screwing Up, Trying Again, and Hitting It Out of the Park" — and despite what one might think given the mistake-friendly focus, the 100-plus recipes are for more than just the kitchen clueless. Rea clarified that the book is not only for beginners but also anyone who wants to step up their game in the kitchen, including those who might want to try a normally intimidating recipe but with a less intimidating guide to help along the way. From bread to pasta to eggs benedict, Rea has made the mistakes — often on camera, no less — so you don't have to.
"Basics with Babish" by Andrew Rea is out now wherever books are sold.