Twitch sets its sights on foodies with new cooking channel

With over 100 million gamers streaming on Twitch every month, the platform is already a go-to in the industry.

However, it’s widening its focus today with the launch of a new food channel that has nothing at all to do with games. So, kicking off at 2pm (PT) today, the channel will start by screening all 201 episodes of Julia Child’s ‘The French Chef.’

For anyone unfamiliar, the late Child was a legendary chef and after graduating from the famed Le Codon Bleu culinary arts school in Paris, she went on to change the shape of American food culture with her TV show. The launch of the channel marks the 65th anniversary of Child’s graduation from the Parisian cookery school.

It’s not the first time Twitch has gone off-piste with its content though. Last year it streamed every episode of Bob Ross’ Joy of Painting and it was so well-received by viewers that they continued streaming episodes on a weekly basis afterwards.

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Twitch says it has a growing creative community of foodies on the platform, like DomesticDan who started off streaming games and moved into cooking. He has now quit his job and is a full-time streamer.

While Twitch is primarily used for live videos and interaction between streamers and their audience, the company says pre-recorded videos haven’t hindered communications this in the past.

Using the Joy of Painting marathon as an example, Twitch says over 5 million people tuned in and used its chat feature to send 7 million messages, forming a community around their love of Bob Ross. So it’s likely expecting the same response with the Julia Child marathon.

After The French Chef stream has ended, the channel will continue to host shows based on food from its community. Some of the streamers include DomesticDan, FakeGamerGirl, WorkingChef and CookingForNoobs, among others.

➤ Food [Twitch]