Why Everyone (But Especially Men) Should be Watching SortedFood
By: Ashley Pribyl
Tags: YouTube, Friendship, Masculinity, Cooking, Sortedfood

Like most people during this period of extreme anxiety and extreme boredom, I turned to the internet to find some sort of soothing distraction to pass the time. One day, that brilliant YouTube algorithm, knowing that I have a love for cooking shows and British sports, suggested the channel SortedFoods. I thought, “Alright, I’ll just see what this is about,” and the next thing I knew, I had binged probably five hours of content. As I soon found out, that was barely scratching the surface of their extensive 10-year catalogue.

My own personal enthusiasm for the show aside, I began thinking seriously about why I felt this show resonated with me during this time, and why I found myself recommending it to every single person I have met since I started watching in May (which let’s be honest, during this pandemic, is like five people). In particular, I was constantly suggesting it to men.

Here’s why:

1) You’ll learn to cook. Seriously. Unlike many cooking shows, this one is made with the average person (or “normal” as they call it) in mind. The mythology around this show is that the leader of the group, chef Ben Eberall, and his three childhood friends (Barry, Mike, and Jamie) came home from their different universities and went to the pub. The three “normals” admitted to their friend Ben that they did not know the basic life skill of cooking, and thus the idea of the show was born: Though some recipes are more complex than others, the general take away is that anyone can learn to cook like a chef. There’s even an entire series on “mid-week meals” or food that can you just throw together at home in less than thirty minutes or so.

We know that in a heterosexual couple, even when both partners work, most housework and household management fall on the woman because women are trained from an early age to do those things, and men are not. The mid-week meal app, which can help you plan and execute the grocery shopping, the easy to cook recipes, and Ben’s dedication to teaching you to clean as you go, will greatly lessen the load on your partner/wife/girlfriend and lead to a somewhat more even distribution of household work. This means more time for the two of you to spend together and a generally more equitable relationship. Plus, you will be able to impress her with some dishes that look much more difficult than they really are.

2) You’ll save money. Everyone knows that cooking at home is less expensive than ordering out, and for many of us, cooking at home or microwave meals are really the only options at the moment. Their mid-week meal app can help you make sure you’re only buying the ingredients you need, and many of the recipes are things I would never even have considered making at home, like Indian curries or sushi. They even have a series where they blind taste-test expensive vs inexpensive ingredients, which can help you decide what is actually worth spending that dollar or two more on and when to just buy the cheap option.

3) You’ll be healthier. This is not to say that every dish on this show is healthy. Both Ben and the other chef, James Currie, are classically-French trained at UCB and clearly love their butter and dairy. But there are also plenty of vegan, paleo, and gluten-free recipes, and even an entire cookbook dedicated to celebrating vegetables. Plus, look at James’s arms. Clearly, he’s doing something right.

One of my favorite types of episodes is when they learn about food, such as what’s the difference between GMO and plant-breeding. They speak to experts about how food is grown and produced, cutting through a lot of the internet nonsense and allowing you to make the best choices about your health. Plus, learning about food is fun!

4) You’ll find #squadgoals. And this is actually the #1 reason I would recommend SortedFood to men. As someone who writes and teaches about masculinity, particularly toxic masculinity, I’m often asked, “What does healthy masculinity look like?” This is a fair question, as there are very few examples of healthy masculinity in our media and everyday lives. Suicide rates for men are much higher than for women, in part because they are not taught emotional intelligence, expected to eschew vulnerability, and told that they are valued because of what they achieve and not the depths of their personal connections.

While I obviously do not know any of these men in real life, the friendships as presented on SortedFood exemplify healthy masculinity. Don’t worry, masculinity is still there! Competition plays a key role in many episodes — including fun but embarrassing punishments, sarcasm and insults are thrown around (though often accompanied by “sorry” when someone feel that they have crossed a line), and “Benuendos” and dad jokes abound. But it’s also very clear that all five of these men care for each other very much, support one another when there is frustration or failure, and though we don’t see it on the camera, I imagine they are equally supportive of one another during difficult periods outside of the show.

They also all have their own types of masculinity, from Jamie — who in my opinion has the most typical “American” masculinity, with a love of beef and bourbon — to Ben, who was literally described as a quiche, to Barry, who loves fashion and the latest trends. Masculinity can and is more than one thing, and men can and should be supportive of all of the wonderful variations.

So there it is — my argument for why everyone, but especially men, should be watching SortedFood. There will never be enough representations of healthy masculinity in the world, but this food show is a great start.

Plus, who doesn’t love to eat?