1997: Cooking With Ankit / Cooking with Beto and Cheko

Date of Creation: 1997

Synopsis: Culinary Wiz Ankit (Ankit Patel) displays his gastronomical prowess in this how-to video. His potato rolls are to die for.

A Brief History: I'm not even sure what class this was for, but suffice to say, we were supposed to make a cooking video. We stepped up from the video painter to microsoft powerpoint for our graphics this time, which we video taped off a computer monitor. I'm not sure why the James Bond intro. Ankit's head was set ablaze using a little bit of lighter fluid and the heat from stovetop coil. Did we need the lighter fluid? Probably not. But it's more fun that way. The commercials were from some videotape ankit had, and yes, they are authentic (indian?). And yes, they are by far the best part.

Critical Analysis: It's a how-to video. But it definitely should've won some sort of award for "most entertaining", "worst graphics, ever" and "highest level of VHS generational degradation". It probably wouldn't have looked any worse even if I took a magnet to it.




Date of Creation: 1997

Synopsis: Capitalizing off a proven formula for cooking shows, Beto and Cheko follow up "Cooking with Ankit" with a strikingly similar educational culinary show, in which the audience learns how to cook churros.

A Brief History: When Beto (Dan Gartner) and Cheko (Zach Metcalf) were given the assignment of creating a cooking segment for their (7th grade?) class, it was pretty obvious that the path of least resistance would be to parrot the already successful concept behind Cooking with Ankit, burnt hat, awful powerpoint and all. Especially exciting is the 26 second audio-only introduction. I was annoyed that Dan was stealing my burning chef's hat idea, so I made sure to put extra lighter fluid on there to ensure some hair singeing.

Critical Analysis: Lacking in originality but otherwise top notch work. And those churros were delicious.