Sam The Cooking Guy
Sam The Cooking Guy’s 5 Simple Ingredients For Tasty Youtube Content
I first discovered Sam The Cooking Guy’s youtube channel during the Pandemic Lockdowns of 2020. I know, I’m the first to admit that I was late to the party. But since retiring from professional cooking, I wasn’t keeping up that much with the internet cooking scene.
My first impression was OMG; there might be a replacement for Anthony Bourdain. At the same time, I think Sam lacked the wordsmithing of Bourdain. He certainly made up for it in personality and charisma.
In my neverending obsession with analyzing “How they did it,” we will look at who Sam is, how he has scaled his success from television and youtube, and what makes people love his channel.
Who is Sam The Cooking Guy
Sam the Cooking Guy is a regular guy who has found a way to make good food look easy. He is a TV and YouTube personality who shares his recipes and tips with you so you can cook great food for your friends and family.
His real name is Sam Zein, and he was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1959 and now resides in San Diego, CA.
TV
Sam’s career in television began after he left his position as an executive for a pharmaceutical company in San Diego.
His original intent was to create a travel/food show similar to Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations.” However, he had to quickly pivot to a local cooking show when the September 11th attack made travel nearly impossible.
Sam has earned 15 Emmy Awards for his work in television and continues to produce his weekly tv show.
You Tube
Sam’s first viral video on youtube was a clip from his appearance on the Today Show in which he scolded hosts Kathy Lee Gifford and Hota Kotb for not allowing him to talk.
The video has nearly 3 million views to date.
The Sam the Cooking Guy youtube channel was started in 2011 at the urging of Sam’s oldest son Max. Sam says, “I think he was just looking for a way to avoid Law School.”
Youtube proved to be the right choice for both Max and Sam.
In a youtube niche that most experts would consider over-saturated, he has managed to carve out a large slice of the viewership.
The channel has over 3.3 million subscribers and nearly 500 million views of its 1500-plus videos. Sam and Max continue to produce new content three times a week.
Cookbooks
Sam’s popularity and style has helped him produce five successful cookbooks.
- Just a Bunch of Recipes
- Awesome Recipes and Kitchen Shortcuts
- Just Grill This!
- Sam the Cooking Guy: Recipes with Intentional Leftovers
- Sam the Cooking Guy: Between the Buns: Burgers, Sandwiches, Tacos, Burritos, Hot Dogs & More
Restaurants
Leveraging his TV and youtube success, Sam opened his first restaurant in 2018, “Not Not Tacos,” in San Diego.
He has since opened two additional casual dining establishments in the Little Italy Food Hall in San Diego, named “Graze by Sam” and “Sam Burgers.”
Ingredients for Success
Now that you know how successful Sam the Cooking Guy has become let’s look at some fundamental principles that help propel his achievements.
Keep it simple
We all know the saying “Keep It Simple Stupid,” but Sam has used this as a guiding principle in his youtube content for over ten years.
“For too long now, TV chefs have tried to ‘impress’ with their food & style. But a ton of ingredients and steps wind up with people saying they can’t cook. And it’s not that they can’t cook — it’s that they don’t because they think it’s too hard. So isn’t it time someone made cooking easy?”
— Sam
Keeping it simple makes it more relatable and appeals to a greater audience. As a chef, I find it frustrating to watch today’s “TV Chefs” parade a neverending list of obscure ingredients and complicated techniques to their audiences, telling them they too can make this at home.
People are busy; they want simplicity.
Keep it short
When Sam and Max began to produce youtube content, the videos were around 45 minutes long, and they were not getting the number of views they thought they should.
So they cut them down to 20 to 30 minutes, and their subscribers went from around 30k in 2018 to 1,000,000 plus in 2019.
There is a ton of competition for your viewers’ time and attention, so breaking your content into little quick-to-consume chunks will produce more views.
Spend Time and Money on the production
After a decade of producing tv content, Sam knew the value of having professional quality production equipment. Cameras, microphones, and lighting can make a difference between a few hundred views and your latest video going viral.
But it doesn’t end there; background music and editing are just as vital as the content setup. And when you’re producing three videos a week, it can become quite time-consuming.
Then there is the title and thumbnail. Sam’s strategy for titles is simple, but the main keyword and a fantastic descriptor will entice people to click.
“The Best Burger I Ever Made” 5.7 million views.
“Cheesy Juicy Beefy Birra Tacos Wow” 3.8 million views.
“The Best Munchies 6 Quick And Easy Recipes” 6 million views.
These, paired with an incredible “money shot” of the finished product, make these videos almost irresistible to youtube searchers.
Mistakes can be good
Watch just a couple of episodes of Sam the Cooking Guy and quickly discover it doesn’t have to be perfect to be good. We are all imperfect creatures, and it’s refreshing to see that they don’t edit all their mistakes.
It’s more important to start and do than to be perfect.
Be yourself
The thing I like about Sam the most and the part that reminds me of Anthony Bourdain is that he is completely unapologetic for who he is. He fights with his son, curses when something goes wrong and why tear off a paper towel when you can wipe your face with the whole roll.
People may click on your video because of the title or the thumbnail you created, but they will come back or subscribe because of who you are, so just be yourself.
Whether you want to start your cooking channel or any other content channel, there is much to learn from Sam The Cooking Guy.
Leave a comment and tell me what you like most about Sam’s channel or what tips you learned by watching his channel.