Food videos make everyone happy. Who doesn¡¯t want to watch a handsome Salt Bae stylishly sprinkling salt all over a dish or a Nigella Lawson melting some butter? If there¡¯s one thing common about people incessantly Instagramming or YouTubing their creations, it is the youth and lacquered delivery of the hosts. That¡¯s a stereotype that "grandma influencers" like Gujju Ben na Nasta and Aapli Aaji have set out to break.
I stumbled upon the Indian dadima cooking genre after watching a YouTube-recommended video of a grandma making besan ke laddu. It reminded me of the countless hours I spent sitting on my dadi¡¯s kitchen slab, watching her make halwa while she patiently answered all my questions.
These channels are all about sharing intricately developed recipes mastered by their owners. Their experiences are marinated in the culture they belong to. By adding a desi tadka to global cuisines, these grandmas have cut across borders with content from their cosy kitchens.
The rise of Indian grandma food influencers indicates that they¡¯ve always had the charisma, skills, and acumen to build a community. But maybe opportunity in a youth-obsessed world has been difficult to come by. Confined to the domestic sphere as they grow older, elderly women have scarcely had a chance to nurture their own careers. Now, several of them have gained a competitive advantage in a supremely cluttered category, and their calling cards are their disarming personalities.
This recognition for elderly women influencers gestures at a shift, no matter how small. In fact, these grandmas have proved that you no longer have to be a young one to really be a trendsetter. Here are a few grandma influencers you must follow.
Popularly known as "Baa" by her admirers, Urmila Jamnadas Asher started creating at the age of 77. She now has over 300,000 subscribers and 18 million views on her channel,?Gujju Ben na Nasta. This zesty grandma has always thought of cooking as a source of delight. She entered?MasterChef India¡¯s?Season 7, becoming one of the top 16 home cooks. Baa also gave her own?TEDx talk in 2022. About her many victories in her twilight years, she told me, "There¡¯s no big secret; it¡¯s all about going with the flow and not losing hope."?
Baa¡¯s simple saree and smile complement her chatty approach to cooking. Each of her recipe videos is shot with detail and precision; ingredients are always listed on the screen, and every step is duly explained by her, making cooking easy for even an amateur. Moreover, her YouTube videos always begin with playful behind-the-scenes bloopers, outtakes, or both, instantly hooking the viewer.
A foodie since childhood, Baa¡¯s journey has been riddled with challenges. She lost her daughter to an accident and her two sons to illnesses. But with the lemons that life gave her, she whipped up a whole bunch of recipes! During COVID lockdowns, she created her own YouTube channel with the help of her grandson, Harsh, whom she proudly calls her greatest ally.
"For me, it¡¯s all about spreading happiness," she said when asked about her favourite aspect of being an influencer. "When I¡¯m walking on the street, people often approach me, recognising me from my channel or MasterChef. They ask for a selfie and are always extremely kind, but what I relish most is when they tell me how they¡¯ve enjoyed my recipes."
While her favourite meal remains Puran Poli, Baa has also worked with international cuisines and flavours. On her channel, you can find recipes as diverse as?methi thepla?and?cheese chilli toast?to?tacos?and?white sauce pasta.
Suman Dhamane, dubbed the Aaji of Maharashtra, runs a YouTube channel (???? ???) that has over 1.6 million subscribers and 238 million views. In 2020, when she was 67, Dhamane started her channel, sharing detailed recipes, food-related skills, and elaborate cooking procedures. One of her most cherished videos, the?bitter gourd fry recipe, has over 8.5 million views. Her channel also features playlists for festive specialties. Whether it be Janmashtami delicacies, Diwali farsan recipes, Navaratri treats, or fasting meals, Aaji has covered everything.
Her homemade videos are in Marathi and rich with detail, with close-ups of each step in the recipe. While most of her cooking is done in the kitchen, Aaji likes to shake things up by sometimes cooking on a rustic chulha or sharing travel vlogs and BTS clips.
Aaji¡¯s cooking journey might have begun conventionally¡ªshe learned from her mother¡ªbut her YouTube expedition has been anything but. A scrumptious tale involving Pav Bhaji lies behind the creation of her channel. When her grandson Yash showed her a video recipe of the dish one day, she confidently told him that her style of preparing the bhaji was way better. Aaji was right, and the YouTube channel started soon after.
Her fans and subscribers celebrate her flavours, but when she started, talking to a camera wasn¡¯t easy. "Bowls would fall from my hands out of nervousness," she told me. "But I gradually got a hang of it, and my confidence improved immensely."
What she loves most about being such a successful YouTuber with more than a million subscribers is that she gets to inspire and motivate others through her journey, especially the women of India. Aaji¡¯s story proves that it's never too late to start achieving your dreams; all it takes is a bit of faith.
Another popular Indian grandma influencer is Amar Kaur, a Punjabi woman in her 70s, whose YouTube channel,?Veg Village Food, has over 5.75 million subscribers and 1.5 billion views. Also accompanied by her grandson, Hardeep, who helped her navigate social media success, Kaur recently turned her most cherished dream into reality by starting a restaurant.
Cooking in an earthen courtyard, Kaur rarely talks in her videos; you can hear her voice only when she identifies the ingredients as she pours them into huge utensils. Her style is more like a soothing ASMR than a constant chat with her viewers. Imparting knowledge is not the channel¡¯s only focus; Kaur also provides many viewers with a sense of comfort and nostalgia.
Heirloom recipes, which you could previously access only via your elders, now have a digital home thanks to the contributions of creators like Kaur. The channel has grown splendidly over the last 5 years, and her videos encompass varied delights in gigantic quantities¡ªfrom street food?to?pizzas?and?burgers,?sweets?and?desserts, and?Indian dishes from all corners of the country. The most-viewed video on the Veg Village Food channel is where the grandma-grandson duo prepares 1,000 samosas. It has over 145 million views. All of these massive quantities of food are meant for about 100 underprivileged children in her village¡ªa social service dimension to social media!