If you haven’t heard about the YouTube sensation “My Drunk Kitchen,” chances are we aren’t friends. If you’ve watched and don’t find it hilarious or endearing, chances are we’re never going to be friends. Hosted by twenty-six-year-old University of California Berkeley grad Hannah Hart, “My Drunk Kitchen” began as a joke between friends and has spiraled into a drunken, weekly web show where Hannah spends roughly five minutes mixing drinks, making puns and experimenting with recipes easy enough for the inebriated to follow. The results are hilariously ridiculous, the food is often under-or-over-cooked and Hannah is more excited about the process of cooking than the final (often pathetic) results. A regular ol’ Abstract Expressionist chef if I’ve ever seen one on YouTube.
The first installation, titled “Butter Yo Shit,” premiered March 2011 and features Hannah attempting to make grilled cheese…without cheese — a seemingly impossible feat that she manages to salvage. The result is “hot sourdough,” which “is good but ultimately disappointing.” Hannah’s advice: always make sure you have cheese. In the next episode, she makes mac and cheese — this time with cheese. Baby steps, friends. Drunk cooking isn’t as easy as it sounds.
Hannah introduces us to the concept of “My Drunk Kitchen” in the grilled cheese episode, saying, “This is a show about making sure that you don’t puke your guts out. This is a show that’s about friendship. This is a show about…hello.” Concise and informative unlike the show. Funny and scatter-brained like Hannah. The show also includes a good amount of meowing, beep-booping, hats and intermittent dance breaks, as well as literary/alcohol puns (see: “Tequila Mocking Bird”). Every episode is its own little comedic shit-show. Picture a drunk, gay Rachael Ray who is actually funny and doesn’t shoot caffeine into her bloodstream every morning, and you’ve got Hannah. And she’s got a loyal, easily entertained following of little Hartos.
You might be thinking that the concept of cooking while drunk sounds dangerous (as you should, because it is), but fear not; Hannah makes a point to advise her viewers on how to stay safe. “It’s important to remember that if you’ve been drinking, you should be also dancing.” Okay, so perhaps that wasn’t sound advice. But what comes next is closer. “You should also be drinking a lot of water because alcohol.” Okay, still missing the mark. “The first thing you gotta do is not be drunk when you’re cooking. Safety advisory. Just saying. Maybe you should have gotten a burrito.” Whoomp. There it is.
While Hannah does not have a culinary background (she graduated with degrees in English lit and Japanese language), she’s full of cooking wisdom. “It’s important for you to remember, when cooking, to use food.” She then holds up a carton of Smart Balance butter, which last time I checked was just chemicals…but I trust her judgment. Sometimes. I’m not going to single out any more episodes because I think they’re all funny and worth watching; asking me to pick a favorite recipe is like asking me to pick a favorite friend or color or movie or Hemingway novel. I can’t do it.
The show blew up; surprisingly, Hannah’s kitchen hasn’t. She’s had millions of hits on YouTube and has guest starred on other popular web shows, including My Damn Channel with Daily Grace. She’s been interviewed by Time, CBSNewsOnline and The Partners Project among other well-known publications. She has her own website hartoandco.com, and her success has prompted her to expand her video repertoire to include music videos (“Show Me Where Ya Noms At” and “Oh, Internet” are worth a million listens), advice vlogs (“Advice from the Hart”) and videos dedicated simply to puns. Hannah even traveled to London for the Olympics and recorded her adventures via a daily vlog. The goofiest of goofballs, Hannah’s main goal is make people laugh, or maybe it’s to be drunk. Either way, from the charming way she says “Hello” at the beginning of each episode to the inspirational, albeit inappropriately timed, advice she peppers into her videos, Harto is a YouTube goddess among mere mortals.
The world could learn a lesson from Hannah. The way that this woman loves and admires cheese should be an example of how all of humanity should regard one another. The world would be a cheddar place for it. Or at least, it would be a Gouda place to live. At the end of every video, Hannah makes sure to give her favorite food item a shout out, regardless of whether or not it was involved in the recipe (“Not featured: cheese”). Hannah’s heart (hart?) is as big as her appetite with room for more than cheese and mimosas. She’s appreciative of her fans; without them, her career would have ended after that whole grilled cheese fiasco. It’s clear from the fan feedback that the Internet shares a love of drunken cookery and terrible puns.
The moments when Hannah says or does something so outrageous that she can’t even take herself seriously are the best. Watching a Hannah laughing fit is the equivalent of “high-fiving a million angels,” as the wise Liz Lemon once said. Speaking of which, if Tina Fey (or Liz Lemon) ever guest starred on “My Drunk Kitchen” and made cheesy blasters, I think the Internet would explode. And by the Internet, I mean my mind. While no comedy legends have guest starred yet, certain episodes do feature hysterical guest hosts. Notables include “Macaroni Salad” with Grace Helbig from “Daily Grace” and “Birthday Cake” with Jenna Marbles. If you think Hannah is funny enough on her own, just wait. You’ll tear up from laughing faster than if you had been peeling twenty onions at once. And that, my friends, is a real culinary skill.
If you’re looking for a show that’s going to teach you how to cook or how to make delicious meals while drinking some PBRs, then don’t bother watching. But if you’re looking for a show that’s going to teach you about life, love and all things punny, then “My Drunk Kitchen” is the place for you. Just make sure to always bring the cheese.
