Today we’d like to introduce you to Ryan Alexander.
Hi Ryan, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was in the kitchen watching my grandma make pastries. I was mesmerized with her attention to detail and techniques when it came to baking/cooking, so I asked her if she could teach me. Instead she kept telling me I was too young and kicked me out of the kitchen. I kept insisting so she finally told me, “I’ll teach you this one time, if you screw it up, you’re not allowed in the kitchen anymore.” So I just locked in and I guess I did a pretty decent job so she kept letting me help. I was about 4 at the time and I just fell in love with cooking from that point on. Around 2019-2020, I started honing in on my skills and decided to just start making the foods I’m craving at home as well as practice my knife skills and so on. I always found cooking so therapeutic and it really just allows you to exit reality for a second.
During covid-era, I decided to use my Instagram spam account as a catalog for my food progress. I was also learning a lot from other cooking creators on social media at the time so I thought, why not, I can do that too and document my learning journey. Maybe even inspire others to start cooking, make them laugh, or maybe just put a smile on their face along the way.
NOTES:
Mostly self taught (ie. YouTube, books, trial/error ect.)
Attended ASU Film Program, but dropped out after a semester to pursue content creation.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Since every creative decision is mostly up to me, it’s tough to land on the best idea/concept sometimes. Finding the right song on a video can sometimes take up to 2 days. I’ll go through hundreds of songs just to find what I feel would best fit the vibe of my video. Even just figuring out how to constantly innovate so that I’m not repetitive can be challenging at times.
It’s tough sometimes to constantly improve especially with how much more competitive social media is getting. Everyday I see crazier and crazier ideas come up, meaning I have to go above and beyond each time if I want to stand-out.
I was raised mostly by my mom, but in my later years of high school, I wanted to find a way to help out with the bills as well as do something I enjoy. Social media just became the perfect fit. I love making videos, plus I can help out the people I love while putting a smile on people’s faces. Honestly just a win-win.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I make cooking-skit videos. Basically super high-energy chaotic cooking videos with some sort of story line. Most of my videos are hyper-edited with super fast paced edits/transitions.
My style is pretty much just an extension of what it looks like in my brain. I’m pretty chaotic as a person and my humor’s cooked so that’s just bound to show in my videos. My attention span is not the greatest either so I make videos that I wouldn’t get bored watching. I don’t like dead-space and everything needs to be in constant motion or else I’ll lose attention. My main takeaway is if I make something I enjoy watching, others will enjoy it too. For anyone struggling with retention, I recommend sitting for around 30 minutes just watching your video on repeat until you lose attention. That exact moment, or the scenes leading up to it, are likely the problem, so tweak those moments or change them accordingly and repeat the process. If for some reason you can’t watch your video for 30 minutes straight, that likely just means the idea isn’t good enough. You can try to boost retention with little tweaks all you want, but it’s not gonna make much of a difference if the idea isn’t good to begin with. (This tip is more of just a way to maximize viewer-retention by cutting out the fluff).
What sets me apart is my attention to detail. Every shot, transition, color, and sound need to be perfect and in-sync. Pacing is very important in my videos as well; each video is crafted as if I’m making a song. If you close your eyes and just listen to the audio/cuts, they either glide with the beat or create a beat all in their own. I often spend upwards of 30 hours per video perfecting this.
Any big plans?
My biggest goal this year is to lock-in on YouTube long-format videos. Making YouTube videos has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember. I also regularly play video games, so I’ll possibly start a whole streaming side-quest in the near future. Am also looking to start a separate page dedicated to skits/short stories.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ryancantcook.bio
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryan.cant.cook/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ryancantcook1
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ryancantcook
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryancantcook
Image Credits
bbno$ (in the baguette picture). Chef Rush (in the burger picture).
