🎬 Video: I cooked the Recipe that made EVERY YouTuber FAMOUS! by Guga Foods
⏱️ Duration: 25:16
TL;DR 🍳
- Guga recreates 8 signature dishes from famous food YouTubers
- Winners: Uncle Roger’s fried rice, Malcolm Reed’s tomahawk, Andy’s biryani, Nick’s cheese wheel pasta
- Losers: Babish’s ratatouille (“kind of sad”), Bayashi’s meat sushi (“tastes like mowing a lawn”), Adam Ragusea’s unseasoned steak (“very bland”)
- Most elaborate: Andy’s chicken biryani (24-hour marinate, dough-sealed pot)
- Biggest surprise: Nick DiGiovanni’s Gouda wheel pasta actually worked
The Challenge
00:15 Guga’s cooking every recipe that made your favorite food YouTubers blow up. Eight dishes, eight different techniques, and a brutally honest taste test with his crew. Some of these are going to be amazing. Others, well, you’ll see.
Round 1: Uncle Roger’s Egg Fried Rice
🧾 Uncle Roger’s Egg Fried Rice — Ingredients
– Day-old rice
– Red chili peppers
– Shallots
– Eggs
– Green onions
– Minced garlic
– Soy sauce
– Sesame oil
– MSG (the king of flavor)[See full steps at 00:45]
00:45 Uncle Roger didn’t go viral because of Jamie Oliver, he went viral roasting a BBC host who drained her rice. But his egg fried rice technique is what keeps people coming back. The secret? Day-old rice, a screaming hot wok, and don’t be shy with the MSG.
Guga fries shallots and garlic first, adds scrambled eggs, tosses in the rice, then hits it with sesame oil, soy sauce, and a generous amount of MSG. The key is constant tossing to get that wok hei (breath of the wok).
The verdict: “This is delicious. Super fluffy rice. Wonderful flavor. A little bit of kick.” The crew loves how each grain stays separate, not sticky. Bold flavor, perfectly balanced spice. Uncle Roger would approve.
Round 2: Malcolm Reed’s Tomahawk Ribeye
🧾 Malcolm Reed’s Tomahawk Ribeye — Ingredients
– Thick-cut tomahawk ribeye
– Salt, pepper, garlic powder
– Butter
– Thyme
– Garlic cloves
– Rosemary[See full steps at 03:17]
03:17 Malcolm Reed’s tomahawk video has over 13 million views. People love his authentic Southern barbecue knowledge and personality. This recipe needs a thick boy, no thin steaks allowed.
Season simply with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Sear it hard on the grill (yes, grill marks included). Then move it to indirect heat in a pan loaded with butter, thyme, garlic, and rosemary. Baste every 5 to 10 minutes for 20 to 25 minutes until it hits your target temp.
The verdict: “Oh, Malcolm, we get along, bro. That is amazing, everybody. That is phenomenal.” The charcoal flavor shines through. The butter, thyme, and rosemary combo elevates it beyond Guga’s classic salt-pepper-garlic approach. One tester thought it was Wagyu because it’s so tender. Winner.
Round 3: Babish’s Ratatouille
🧾 Babish’s Ratatouille — Ingredients
– Tomatoes (scored and blanched)
– Red bell peppers (charred)
– White onions
– Garlic
– Thyme and parsley
– Chicken stock
– Olive oil
– Eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes (thinly sliced)
– Black pepper, rosemary, salt[See full steps at 06:34]
06:34 This 9-year-old video has 31 million views, and people love Babish’s voice as much as his cooking. The Ratatouille movie version is all about presentation.
Char red peppers with a flamethrower (or grill), peel them, blend with blanched tomatoes, onions, garlic, thyme, parsley, and chicken stock. Mandolin-slice eggplant, zucchini, squash, and tomatoes paper-thin. Layer them beautifully over the sauce, season with pepper, rosemary, olive oil, and salt. Bake at 300°F for 30 minutes under parchment paper. Use a ring mold for that Instagram-worthy presentation.
The verdict: “That’s my reaction to why is this popular? The sauce actually tastes nice, but it’s just kind of sad.” The crew is underwhelmed. “I want to bite into like a piece of steak with some rice, like something satisfying.” Guga jokes that all the vegans must have watched this one. Nobody craves it.
Round 4: Matty Matheson’s Cote de Boeuf
🧾 Matty Matheson’s Cote de Boeuf — Ingredients
– Bone-in ribeye (thick and marbled)
– Salt (heavy)
– Oil for frying
– Butter
– Garlic
– Thyme
– Mint, shallots, parsley, olives, lemon zest, scallions, celery (for salad)
– Salt, pepper, canola oil, olive oil, vinegar (dressing)[See full steps at 09:36]
09:36 Matty Matheson is full of life, and his Cote de Boeuf (bone-in ribeye) technique is different. Season heavily with salt, then fry the entire steak in oil to get a crunchy, crackly crust. Strain the oil, throw in butter, garlic, and thyme, baste it, then let it rest on a cooling rack until it comes to temp.
The salad is a bright mix of mint, shallots, parsley, olives, lemon zest, scallions, celery, dressed with oil and vinegar.
The verdict: “It’s a good steak. An amazing steak. Perfect crust.” The crew loves the steak but not the salad. “The salad, not so much.” The acidity is supposed to cut the fat, but nobody’s reaching for seconds of greens.
Round 5: Andy’s Chicken Biryani
🧾 Andy’s Chicken Biryani — Ingredients
– Onions (thinly sliced, fried until golden)
– Chicken thighs
– Greek yogurt
– Kashmir chili powder, garam masala, turmeric, cardamom, cumin, cloves, cinnamon, chili peppers
– Lemon juice, ginger paste, garlic paste
– Cilantro, mint
– Basmati rice
– Milk and saffron[See full steps at 13:23]
13:23 Andy’s “Hi babe” short-form videos blew up, and his chicken biryani is one of the most popular dishes on the planet. This one’s a project.
Fry thin-sliced onions until golden. Marinate chicken thighs in yogurt, a spice arsenal (Kashmir chili, garam masala, turmeric, cardamom, cumin, cloves, cinnamon), lemon juice, ginger, garlic, cilantro, mint, and those fried onions. Let it sit for 24 hours.
Soak basmati rice, then cook it with whole spices. Layer the marinated chicken in a pot, add rice, more chicken, crispy onions, herbs, more rice. Drizzle saffron-infused milk over the top. Seal the pot with dough (yes, dough) and cook on medium-low heat.
The verdict: “That was really good. It’s so flavorful, everybody.” The spices coat your mouth, the chicken is cooked perfectly. “It’s one of those dishes that you take one bite and it just stays there in your mouth. Extremely flavorful.” A little heavy, a little spicy, but absolutely delicious.
Round 6: Bayashi’s Meat Sushi
🧾 Bayashi’s Meat Sushi — Ingredients
– Beef (iron steak, tough cut)
– Garlic (grated)
– Salt and pepper
– Oil
– Soy sauce, wasabi, egg yolk (for sauce)
– Avocado and alfalfa sprouts[See full steps at 16:43]
16:43 Bayashi is Japan’s most famous food YouTuber, and his meat sushi video is one of the most viewed cooking videos on YouTube. The technique is wild: tenderize a tough piece of iron steak with a fork, rub with garlic, season with salt and pepper, sear it, then vacuum seal and cook it in a rice cooker.
Make a sauce with soy sauce, wasabi, salt, pepper, and an egg yolk. Slice the beef thin, roll it with avocado and alfalfa sprouts like sushi, drizzle the sauce over the top.
The verdict: “It’s really weird. Honestly, in a bad way.” One tester says it tastes grassy. Another says, “I feel like I would get the same flavor if I went out and I just started mowing your lawn with my teeth, bro.” The avocado and alfalfa combo with unsalted beef just doesn’t work. The sauce is good but not enough to save it.
Round 7: Adam Ragusea’s Unseasoned Steak
🧾 Adam Ragusea’s Unseasoned Steak — Ingredients
– Steak (no seasoning)
– Oil
– Garlic, butter, rosemary (for cutting board)
– Salt, pepper, lemon juice (for cutting board)
– Flaky salt (finish)[See full steps at 19:18]
19:18 Adam Ragusea’s “I don’t season my steak, I season my cutting board” video has over 20 million views. The concept: cook the steak plain in oil, flip as needed. Meanwhile, chop garlic, butter, and rosemary on your cutting board. Add salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Rest the hot steak on top, let it create a sauce. Slice it, mix everything together. The lemon acid cooks the steak further, which is why it loses its pinkness. Serve on a hot plate, finish with flaky salt.
The verdict: “I don’t like that. I do not like that. It’s very bland.” The crew agrees: there’s a little flavor on the surface, but the meat itself tastes unseasoned and unfinished. “It feels like a medium rare steak, but don’t look like medium rare.” Even Guga notes that Adam later said this is no longer his favorite method. Lesson learned.
Round 8: Nick DiGiovanni’s Cheese Wheel Pasta + Lamb Raviolo
🧾 Nick DiGiovanni’s Lamb Raviolo — Ingredients
– Egg yolk and flour (fresh pasta)
– Osso buco (cooked, shredded)
– Crème fraîche
– Mint (blanched, blended with olive oil for mint oil)🧾 Nick DiGiovanni’s Gouda Wheel Pasta — Ingredients
– Gouda cheese wheel (budget version, not $2,500 Parmigiano Reggiano)
– Pasta[See full steps at 21:20]
21:20 Nick DiGiovanni got his start on MasterChef with a lamb raviolo (singular, one giant ravioli) stuffed with osso buco and crème fraîche, finished with mint oil. Fresh pasta, perfectly executed, simple plating. That got him his apron.
But his most popular YouTube video features an entire Parmigiano Reggiano cheese wheel used as a pasta serving vessel. Guga can’t afford a $2,500 wheel, so he uses a $100 Gouda wheel instead. He puts it on a food warmer and… it melts. Whoops. He pivots and makes the actual cheese wheel pasta.
The verdict on raviolo: “It’s like fancy food. So good.” The lamb is delicious, the crème fraîche and mint oil combo works. But the crew wants more meat, less pasta. “It feels like a Michelin star dish. I wish it was a more denser raviolo.”
The verdict on Gouda wheel pasta: “That’s not bad. Super creamy. Strong Gouda flavor. I’ve never tried a pasta like that, but that cheese goes really, really well with the pasta.” The crew prefers this one 10 times over the raviolo. “The Gouda actually worked.”
The Final Rankings
Top tier: Uncle Roger’s fried rice, Malcolm Reed’s tomahawk, Andy’s chicken biryani, Nick’s Gouda wheel pasta. These are the recipes people actually crave.
Middle tier: Matty Matheson’s cote de boeuf (great steak, meh salad), Nick’s lamb raviolo (fancy but not enough meat).
Bottom tier: Babish’s ratatouille (“kind of sad”), Bayashi’s meat sushi (“tastes like mowing a lawn”), Adam Ragusea’s unseasoned steak (“very bland, unfinished”).
Guga’s takeaway? Some of these recipes earned their fame for good reason. Others went viral for the concept, not the taste. And sometimes the budget version (Gouda) beats the fancy original.
We try hard to get the details right, but nobody’s perfect. Spot something off? Let us know