What We Are Watching

BY SARAH FINKLESTEIN ILLUSTRATION BY JOY CHEN

Idon’t know what it is that makes these videos so addicting to watch, but the record for most hours spent watching Tastemade’s Tiny Kitchen videos is probably held by me. Maybe it is the hyperrealism of a kitchen the size of a cutting board, or the way that they heat the oven using a simple tealight. Either way this series of tiny meals prepared in a tiny kitchen is some of the most binge-worthy content on the web. In the tiny kitchen, anything is possible: A tiny fridge houses the butter and milk, all you need are 5 mini chocolate chips to make fudgy brownies, and there’s even a tiny laptop to keep you busy while you wait for your tiny pasta to finish cooking or your tiny pizza to crisp up in the oven. I think it is the suspension of disbelief and the magic of it all that really pulls you in. At first, the show featured more simple recipes, testing out the capabilities of the miniature appliances by making dishes like quesadillas, french toast, and scrambled eggs with bacon. However, as the seasons have passed, Tastemade upped their game, advancing to “tiny brie in puff pastry with honey and walnuts” in Season 6 and a “tiny spring brunch” complete with hot cross buns in one of the most recent episodes. The best part of the recipes is the fact that they put the ingredients next to the video. The side-by-side of the real ingredients and their mini-versions reminds us that these are, in fact, bitesized dishes. The tiny-jumbo (oxymoron) birthday cake filled with rainbow nonpareils is made from ½ teaspoon of quail egg and half a tablespoon of milk, along with other ingredients. That wouldn’t even be enough milk to lighten a cup of coffee! A tiny article to sing my praises of tiny kitchen. I would write more, but I’m too busy watching Tastemade smoke a bite sized hunk of brisket outside of a tiny RV.

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