FOOD+DRINK
Christmas is officially
SORTED
“Our mission is to become the hub for everyday
cooks with an appetite for top notch grub and a
healthy dose of banter.”
Mike, Ben, Barry and Jamie from SORTED
How it all started
SORTED Food is the UK's largest YouTube
cooking channel, serving up quick, simple and
delicious meals to hundreds of thousands of fans
on a weekly basis.
The channel, started by a circle of friends,
runs out of a studio based in North London where
the group film their award-winning recipe series,
and their highly entertaining, yet ever so slightly
strange 'FridgeCam' video blog.
SORTED was born out of the school friends'
realisation that food had slipped to the bottom
of the agenda when they went their separate
ways at university. Ben, the only chef amongst
the group, was horrified when he discovered his
friends were spread across the country eating
expensive, fat-ridden ready meals from
supermarkets, instead of cooking for themselves.
To counter this, he started writing down recipes
on the back of beer mats during a pub drinking
session when the group returned for their
Christmas holidays.
Ben's recipes turned out to be great and
the boys started cooking more and more — after
all it was cheaper, healthier and actually quite
fun. It was from here the idea of SORTED was
conceived: a platform to share quick, simple
recipes with as many people as possible.
That was just over three years ago. Fastforward to 2013 and the Sorted Food YouTube
channel now has over 450,000 subscribers and
launches three videos a week. What's more, the
videos are getting over 2million views per month
from a global audience and the project has led
to a publishing deal with Penguin Books, a new
cookware range with Premier Housewares, and
much more.
Probably the greatest thing about SORTED
though, is the community. There are now
hundreds of thousands of people engaging in
fantastic conversations around food, actively
searching out the simplest way to create the best
tasting dishes from across the globe.
Meet the team
Ben Ebbrell, Chef
Ben loves cooking up quick, simple, tasty grub
to share with friends and is grateful for the
opportunity to help other young cooks enjoy food
as much as he does. Professionally trained, with
a 1st class honours degree in Culinary Arts
Management, Ben has nine years’ experience in
a multitude of kitchen environments, from
restaurants and hotels, to private dining. Ben
cooks the SORTED way — no frills, no nonsense,
no barriers, just an appetite for cracking food,
heavily seasoned with fun and banter.
Barry Taylor, Creative
Barry lives and breathes food from a rookie
perspective, and is always on hand to direct,
take pretty pictures and spur on the already
excitable crew. A passionate creative mind, driven
by entrepreneurship, Barry is also a trained
photographer from the London College of
Communication, not to mention assistant to Mary
McCartney and personal photographer to a whole
host of recognisable faces. To add to his
attributes, he is also a skilled designer and
increasingly (with thanks to SORTED), a dab
hand in the kitchen.
Jamie Spafford, Community
Jamie is what happens when three very unique
worlds collide: a passion for the online
environment, a passion for food and a passion
for entertaining people – and not necessarily in
that order! Since studying marketing at
Bournemouth University, Jamie has worked for
a range of leading integrated and digital agencies.
In fact, he has actually started to form
conversations made of 140 characters. Although
his nature appears to be making the preparation
and cooking of Ben’s recipes as awkward and
difficult as possible with inappropriate one-liners
and innuendos, Jamie's insight into both food
and online worlds is invaluable to the SORTED
journey.
Mike Huttlestone, Music and Editing
Though he would never like to admit it, Mike is
an absolute musical marvel. As a composer,
music teacher and DJ, he manages to knock out
track after track with sheer ease, including
everything from an annoyingly catchy jingle to a
full blown harmonised score. Excitingly, he's
managed to turn his talent into exceptional video
editing skills, applying lots of tricks to make the
SORTED videos as entertaining as possible. His
creative eye knows no bounds. All we need to
do now is teach him to cook and he'll be away!
Check out our top picks from SORTED'S Christmas-infused recipes. Yum!
Christmas Yule Log
Gingerbread
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6buvQkg3BVM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-THjBO1zbM
Christmas Cake in a Cup
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwVpd_1iuLo
With SORTED going from strength to strength, the boys have decided to go one step further and develop a
cookware range with the rookie cook firmly in mind. Teaming up with Premier Housewares, the SORTED
crew have created a stylish, good quality and efficient range of kitchenware to set up novices and keen cooks
in their first kitchen. From pots and pans, to knives, aprons, scales and utensils, the range includes everything
an aspiring chef or first time buyer may need — and better still, it's sold at a very appealing price.
Keep up with SORTED's goings-on via Facebook, Twitter or on YouTube @sortedfood
www.sortedfood.com
www.insidekentmagazine.co.uk
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