Twitch, a popular destination for video game enthusiasts, is debuting a full-time food channel on Tuesday. The channel, called Food, will be yet another step in diversifying the gaming-centric video website.
The channel will be under Twitch’s Creative section, which debuted last October. The launch of the Creative section had a similar promotion, as Twitch featured a marathon of all 403 episodes of Bob Ross’ PBS instructional show The Joy of Painting.
The channel’s first bit of programming will feature a four-day marathon of Julia Child’s cooking show The French Chef . All 201 episodes will be aired back-to-back, in commemoration of Child’s 65th anniversary of graduating from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris.
“As the original TV chef, Julia Child laid the groundwork for all food show hosts today,” wrote the Twitch Creative Team on its blog. “By inviting viewers into her home and addressing them with a friendly and forgiving attitude, she inspired generations of cooks to take risks in the kitchen. Just like Twitch Favorite, Bob Ross, Julia Child wasn’t afraid of ‘happy little accidents’, famously telling her fans, 'the only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you’ve got to have a what-the-hell attitude.'”
According to the head of Twitch Creative, Bill Morrier, the food channel was inspired by the cooking community (like FakeGamerGirl, Goldamsel, WorkingChef, ChefLethalPlays, and Lulaboo) on the social-video platform. “Julia Child was the precursor to Twitch’s social cooking movement, making The French Chef show a great reminder about how visionary she was,” said Morrier.
After the marathon of Child’s show, which will begin at 11 a.m. EST on Tuesday, Food will feature other cooking content. In addition to the debut of the channel and the marathon of The French Chef , users will be able to use to new global emotes: NomNom and StinkyCheese.
