After conquering the world of live-streamed video games, Twitch is obviously in need of a snack. The company is branching out with a new channel dedicated to cooking, launching today at 3PM ET. To celebrate, the channel will be streaming a four-day marathon of Julia Child's The French Chef — an iconic TV show that ran between 1963 and 1973, introducing America to the world of French cuisine. This is reminiscent of the launch of Twitch's Creative hub last year, which started with a marathon of Bob Ross's The Joy of Painting that at its peak attracted more than 183,000 concurrent viewers.
Twitch's live-streaming chefs are little-known, but enthusiastic
The Amazon-owned Twitch is hoping it can produce a Julia Child for the 21st century, but at the moment, cooking shows are an extremely small part of its output. In a press release for the new channel, the company highlighted streamers such as DomesticDan (who wears bowties and works while listening to electro swing), and CookingForNoobs (29-year-old Christine, whose set include balloons containing challenges and rewards, which she pops every time she gets 15 new followers). These shows aren't the most-watched on Twitch (both of these streamers have less than 10,000 followers), but that doesn't mean their presenters are any less enthusiastic.
An example of Child's cooking from The French Chef.
Picking The French Chef for its launch is notable as it represents the formula that Twitch would like its streamers to emulate. Child was a pioneer of the how-to cooking show, but also managed to be relaxed and engaging. "Julia Child was the precursor to Twitch’s social cooking movement, making The French Chef show a great reminder about how visionary she was," said Bill Moorier, head of Twitch's Creative section. "To put it in terms our community can relate to, Bob Ross is the Julia Child of painting." But let's hope Twitch's commenters manage to keep things civil while The French Chef is on — something they didn't always manage while watching Ross's show.