YouTube Co-Founder Launches Questionable Streaming Service For Internet Chefs

YouTube Co-Founder Launches Questionable Streaming Service For Internet Chefs

Nom is the new pet project of YouTube co-founder Steve Chen. People are calling it the Twitch for internet chefs. The only problem? Filming a chef is a lot harder than filming a video game.

The vast majority of professional cooking shows use multiple camera setups. Nom supports multi-cam, though how it will be implemented has yet to be seen. Any multi-cam setup nevertheless necessitates a crew of people in your kitchen offering production assistance and the expenses (such as cameras, lighting and sound) that come with it. This essentially destroys the biggest part of what makes Twitch a thriving community: a low barrier to entry. Because the heavy visual lifting for most Twitch streamers is taken care of by whatever game they’re playing, it frees them up to put on a good show.

Those Nom chefs who don’t invest in expensive film equipment would probably be broadcasting vlogger-quality video, which is a massive problem when it comes to food. Given that smell and taste can’t translate through a screen, all we’re left with is how the food looks, and look is crucial not only for determining the appeal of a recipe but also following it accurately.

On that note, most recipes have a lot of downtime, and no one in the world wants to watch that. Rolling out fondant? Fifteen minutes of drudgery. Proofing dough? Have fun staring at a bowl for several hours. Is anyone going to inflict this level of boredom on their viewers? Apparently not yet, because a quick look at their site only revealed one available stream — which has since ended — and consisted entirely of one guy spending 10 minutes to make a cup of coffee.

[Venture Beat]


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