'Babish' expands as pandemic boosts YouTube cooking shows

NEW YORK (AP) — Mac and cheese, 18th-century style. A seven-course meal using only ingredients from a convenience store. A meal that is literally on fire.

Four episodes into her new YouTube show, “Stump Sohla,” part of the expanding “Babish Culinary Universe" channel, Sohla El-Waylly has yet to be stumped by a food challenge.

El-Waylly became a familiar face on YouTube as a standout on Bon Appetit's test kitchen channel. But during the nationwide racial reckoning following the police killing of George Floyd, she was among members of the test kitchen who accused the channel's owner, Conde Nast, of discriminatory compensation and other practices. A Conde Nast representative said race wasn’t a factor in setting pay.

El-Waylly departed Bon Appetit in August after failed negotiations.

Her new show is her own, pushing her to deploy her talent, charm and encyclopedic culinary chops to solve challenges.

“My creativity comes from being put in difficult situations,” El-Waylly said during a break in shooting an upcoming episode.

The series riffs on a game show, with a spinning wheel that determines which challenge El-Waylly will take on.

In the second episode, in which she relies only on items purchased at a bodega to create a tasting menu, El-Waylly pours hot water over potato chips to rinse off the fat and make a mashed potato-esque puree. She expects it to “be gross.” But as she tastes it, a look of sheer satisfaction comes over her face.

Leaving Bon Appetit for an independent YouTube channel could be considered risky, but the payoffs were noticeable almost immediately. The three months it took to create the whole “Stump Sohla” series was about how long it would take to produce one Bon Appetit video, El-Waylly said, given the hurdles of working at a...