For so many of us, grandparents represent warmth, love, and a link to our past. They are a special part of our lives and those of us who have been fortunate enough to know our grandparents understand how special they truly are.
One of the best things about going to grandma and grandpa’s was the endless amounts of good food you ate while you were there. This story is about one particular grandpa whose penchant for cooking good, wholesome food led him towards a calling he never could have anticipated.
Art of the Chef
We all know that cooking is an art and thanks to social media and outlets such as Youtube, the culinary arts are only gaining further ground. Just as everyday people post pictures of their completed meals, mocha lattes, or restaurant entrees, so too have budding chefs found a positive outlet for their skills over the Internet.
Famous Grandpa
The man of this story goes by the name Grandpa Kitchen and his Youtube cooking show has caught the Internet’s collective attention spectacularly. Though he only started making videos a few years ago, the Indian native has captured the hearts and stomachs of netizens across the globe simply by nature of his cooking prowess.
Followers a’ Plenty
Grandpa Kitchen, which is the name of the man’s Youtube channel, already has close to 500,000 subscribers. Then, of course, there are the 50,000 people following his Facebook page. There are reasons for all this positivity and readership. Much of that has to do with Grandpa Kitchen’s other aim, aside from cooking that is.
Big Portions
The dishes that Grandpa Kitchen cooks up are by no means ordinary helpings. In line with the stereotype of grandparents over-feeding their grandchildren, he makes extraordinarily large amounts of food, which is probably why he became so famous in the first place.
Cooking Show
While it’s true that Grandpa Kitchen’s Youtube channel is essentially a cooking show, the 12-15 minute-long episodes are so much more than that. The great quantities of food he ultimately creates are impressive to look at, but are also put to very good use. Huge servings are only a small part of what makes what this man does so special.
Feed the Needy
It is what Grandpa Kitchen does with the food he cooks that makes his huge pans of mouth-watering food so unique. When Grandpa is done preparing huge yummy portions of pizza, chicken wings, chocolate cakes, mutton biryani, and fried fish curry, he takes the food to orphanage and feeds the children who live there.
Family Business
Grandpa Kitchen doesn’t do it alone either. In many videos, he is assisted by his two helpful grandsons. Thanks to the viral success of his culinary enterprise, Grandpa Kitchen has been able to not only provide for his family and the orphans he feeds but to give more than food as well.
Helping Everyone
Since he became popular, Grandpa Kitchen has been able to do a lot more than cook for the orphans. He has also been able to provide them with clothes, school payments and books. He’s held birthday and Christmas parties for them with generous gifts and beautiful decorations. When he’s not helping orphans, he cooks for homeless and disabled adults as well.
Not What They’re Used To
The YouTube star doesn’t just make things that the kids are used to either. He has gone out of his way to learn how to cook and prepare dishes that aren’t really available to poor children. There’s one video in particular where he is tasked with making a giant chicken-cheese pizza for 100 children. Their reaction to the pizza is enough to tug at the heartstrings.
No Pizza?
During the course of the video, one volunteer from the channel asked the group of children if they love pizza. They all replied with a resounding “yes!” Nevertheless, when they were asked if any of them had ever eaten a pizza, they sort of clammed up. None of the 100 orphans had ever really eaten a pizza before in their life.
Loved It
Yet even though they’d never eaten a pizza, they were still more excited than one could have ever expected to get a chance to taste it. By the time Grandpa Kitchen was done cooking the deliciously massive monstrosity, all of the children had scarfed it up in minutes; savoring the tasty treat for the first time in their young lives.
The Usual Fare
Many of Grandpa Kitchen’s videos show him making traditional Indian dishes or Indian takes on cuisine from other countries. People seem to love watching these videos and seeing how the traditional dishes are made. One video of the chef cooking a large goat leg for the orphan children has been watched more than two million times.
Fried Success
Then there are his “simplified” dishes, which involve things like spiced fried chicken wings or french fries. Grandpa Kitchen’s french fries video has garnered more than four million views since its original upload. Although, since everyone loves french fries, it’s not that hard to believe it’s been watched so many times.
Unique Methods
Then there are other recipes, like his goat Biryani curry, which illustrate different cooking methods. In this one, he sears the goat meat, spices it, then puts rice and stock over it, sealing the giant pot with a sort of dough so it can steam like a pressure cooker over the fire. He does something similar with a giant fish curry, only in this case, he braises it over the fire.
Dessert Please
Using pounds of peanut butter cups, chocolates, cookies, milk, almonds, and even almond milk (for the Vegan viewers), Grandpa Kitchen creates creamy confections bigger than “the Kitchen Sink” at your local ice cream parlor. His enormous almond-and-Oreo milkshakes delighted orphans and viewers alike.
Cakes and Cookies
Since most of his customers are children, Grandpa Kitchen has made quite a few desserts. He’s made cakes, cookies, and all sorts of other baked goods, and most of them directly over a roaring campfire. It’s a difficult thing to do for anyone, let alone an elderly man in a rural part of India, but he does it with aplomb.
The List Goes On
Over the past few years, Grandpa Kitchen has prepared a wide range of amazing foods beloved by children everywhere. Some of these finger-licking recipes are mouthwatering hamburger, enormous omelets, butter chicken, giant banana pancakes, spicy chicken curry, crispy potato wedges, warm apple pie, fried rice, and even KFC style chicken wings.
How Much it Means
Because of the sheer volume of these recipes, Grandpa Kitchen’s viewership continues to grow. Grandpa Kitchen shows that a person can find their calling at any point in their lives, whether that’s at 17 or at 70. The videos teach another important lesson: that the things we take for granted, something as simple as chicken fingers, can mean so much to those less fortunate.
Truly Heartwarming
It is the children’s reactions to the free, delicious food that is perhaps most heartwarming of all. And it’s clear from Grandpa Kitchen’s face that he loves taking the time and putting in the effort to make good food for his family and the people he cares about. It is perhaps that quality of the man that is most endearing.
All One Needs
Granda Kitchen’s videos also serve to prove that it doesn’t matter what one’s age or status is, a big heart can get you through anything. We should all look to Grandpa’s example of selflessness and remember to take his words to heart: “Loving. Caring. Sharing. This is my family.”