Rejected by His College Station, Caleb Brown Built a Cooking Channel Anyway

Back in college, Caleb Brown pitched a cooking show called "Gourmet University" to his local college station. He was politely rejected.

That, it turns out, was the best outcome. Brown, a member of X-Team's vetting team who hosts a cooking show on YouTube, didn't need anyone's permission once YouTube existed. In this story, he explains why he launched the channel, how he hunts for recipes that raise an eyebrow or two and what a weekend of filming actually looks like — from tripod setup to final edit.

Why He Started, and Why It's Different

The cooking channel grew out of two separate ambitions running in parallel: Brown wanted to sharpen his home cooking skills, which he'd been thinking about since his college days, and he wanted to learn audio and video production — a skillset he openly admits he came to with almost nothing.

Watching creators like Binging with Babish, Emmymade and Joshua Weissman inspired him to finally go for it. He started filming knowing the product would be rough. "I still have a long way to go, but I'm learning for sure," he says.

What separates his channel from others isn't a niche — it's the deliberate absence of one. Most cooking channels pick a lane: gourmet meals, fast food copycats, ancient recipes. Brown's formula is simpler. "Each episode I make is entirely based on what's fun to me and the kind of content I'd personally want to watch," he says. The results are, by his own description, inconsistent — but the process keeps him engaged.

Where the Ideas Come From

The brainstorming process starts with a single question Brown asks himself: what would be fun and weird to make?

From there, he casts a wide net. The history of food stretches back as far as human history, which means there's no shortage of obscure recipes that are hundreds or thousands of years old. He researches food trends on platforms like TikTok, where a new generation of ideas cycles through constantly. One recipe currently on his "maybe" list: a homemade pickle wrapped in cotton candy. He's quick to clarify — that one comes from TikTok, not ancient Mesopotamia.

All potential ideas go into a growing list in Evernote. About a week before filming, he picks whichever recipe he's most excited about, orders any ingredients he can't find locally and researches the recipe in depth for tips, history and anything worth adding to the video's commentary.

The Production Weekend

Brown's filming schedule runs on a weekly cadence tied directly to his work week. After wrapping up his X-Team work on Friday, he begins converting his home kitchen into a set — cameras on tripods, umbrella lights positioned for coverage.

He records an intro (typically three takes), makes the recipe on camera, then films a review and final thoughts. The rest of the weekend is editing and scheduling the final version for publication.

His current gear: a Canon EOS M50 as the main camera (upgraded from the iPhone 12 Pro he started with, though the iPhone still handles B-roll), a Rode Lavalier GO for on-camera audio, a Blue Yeti USB mic for voiceover, a MacBook Pro with the M1 chip for editing and an Elgato Stream Deck Mini repurposed as an affordable soundboard for sound effects and audio clips. He currently cuts in iMovie and is learning Final Cut Pro.

Each episode, he picks one thing he's unhappy with from the previous one and tries to fix or improve it. The broader goal isn't to compete with the biggest channels on the platform — it's to understand how YouTube algorithms work, keep learning and share recipes that are, in his words, "often bizarre." "So while I don't plan on going head-to-head with MrBeast anytime soon, I hope to learn a ton, improve the show's quality, and share some fun and often bizarre recipes along the way," he says.

Ready to build work you're proud of? Apply for an open role at X-Team.