Just a few minutes into “Milwaukee Kitchen,” it’s clear this is not meant to be instructive like “America’s Test Kitchen.” Nor a competition, a la “Top Chef.” Each episode of this 5-year-old local YouTube show captures the warmth, beauty and deeply communal quality of cooking.
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Artist/show creator Paul Druecke uses the setting of a cozy Riverwest kitchen, anchored by a cast of regulars and guests who seem to just drop by. They puzzle over what to do with a lone rutabaga, bond over slicing onions. Druecke, who often acts as the host, puts them to work peeling, chopping and slicing. The notion of guests all congregating in the kitchen, strangers who shortly become friends, is celebrated. Druecke is so good at the nuances – the dialogue sounds (and largely is) unscripted. The show’s omniscient soul is Penita, Druecke’s fluffy gray cat, always there watching, sleeping, judging.
“The setup was always, let’s highlight the social nature of this domestic space, the role that food plays in socializing,” he says. “I love recipes, I love cookbooks, but I don’t cook that way. I cook more as I approach art. It always needs to be an experiment.” Stream the episodes (many less than 15 minutes) at youtube.com/milwaukeekitchen.
