美国国家公共电台 NPR The YouTube Star Who's Teaching Kids How To Bake

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

You'd like to think that a kid learning to cook would do it by spending hours in the kitchen with a loving parent. But failing that, there is YouTube. For our series on children's media, NPR's Neda Ulaby introduces us to a celebrity¹ chef for the digital set.

NEDA ULABY, BYLINE²: Rosanna Pansino may have created with sounds like an impossibly tiny niche³, nerdy baking videos, about six years ago.

(SOUNDBITE OF YOUTUBE VIDEO, "SUPER MARIO CAKE - NERDY NUMMIES")

ROSANNA PANSINO: Hello. Today I'm going to make a "Super Mario" star cake - or attempt to - with fondant. So this could get a little messy.

ULABY: Now she makes $6 million a year decorating baked goods inspired by "Super Mario," "Harry⁴ Potter," "Minecraft" and "Game Of Thrones." At first, she made cakes from mixes and used frozen⁵ pizzas.

(SOUNDBITE OF YOUTUBE VIDEO)

PANSINO: This is super funny. I am going to decorate it like a cake. I'm going to put barbecue sauce.

ULABY: 8.5 million people subscribe⁶ to Pansino's YouTube show, "Nerdy Nummies." The 32-year-old has morphed over the years from a sweet, scruffy⁷, pigtailed look to something more like a coiffed Food Network star. I asked in what other ways her show has changed.

PANSINO: They've become actual recipes (laughter). In the beginning, I really focused on having fun and decorating.

(SOUNDBITE OF YOUTUBE VIDEO, "HOW TO MAKE A UNICORN⁸ CAKE - NERDY NUMMIES")

PANSINO: Pansino's team of 10 employees help her dream up real recipes for "Frozen" princess cakes, rainbow cakes.

(SOUNDBITE OF YOUTUBE VIDEO, "HOW TO MAKE A UNICORN CAKE")

PANSINO: The recipe that we're making today is a Funfetti cake from scratch. The things you'll need will be two cups of all-purpose flour, 1.5 cups of sugar...

ULABY: "Nerdy Nummies'" devout⁹ fans include two best friends - both named Sofia, both 12 - who live in Southern California.

SOFIA ROBERTS: My favorite episode¹⁰ is where she made a unicorn cake.

SOFIA MATHEWS: That one's good.

SOFIA R.: It was really cool.

ULABY: Both Sofias love to bake. They just finished making four kinds of French macarons. That's normal for a certain kind of foodie kid today, who did not exist when I was 12. Back then, just making chocolate chip cookies counted as a major culinary win. The Sofias' moms, Katheryn Roberts and Ellen Mathews, swear their daughters almost made the macarons alone.

KATHERYN ROBERTS: I helped to fold egg whites. That's my job. So...

ELLEN MATHEWS: Yeah. Me, too. I didn't help either. I just cleaned up.

ULABY: The Sofias like to text each other recipes and notes about other YouTube shows, like "How To Cake It," which comes from Canada, or "The Scran Line" from Australia.

(SOUNDBITE OF YOUTUBE VIDEO)

NICK MAKRIDES: I'm going to line my cupcake tin with some cupcake liners¹¹, filling these up about three quarters of the way.

ULABY: It's impossible to know the exact ages of the people watching these channels. YouTube says it does not track viewers under age 13. In fact, a company spokeswoman told me YouTube does not even see itself as serving children. That's news to 12-year-old Sofia Mathews. She says YouTube's do-it-yourself videos are perfect for kids.

SOFIA M.: You can tell if you're doing it right because a person is actually doing it.

SOFIA R.: They show you...

SOFIA M.: Yeah.

SOFIA R.: ...Exactly what you're going to do. And they tell you exactly what you need to do.

ULABY: So helpful for visual learners like Sofia Roberts and the host of "Nerdy Nummies," Rosanna Pansino.

PANSINO: I have a learning disability, and the best way that I learned was through visual content and communication style that was very clear and direct.

ULABY: In fact, that's what this digital cooking celebrity learned from an analog¹² ancestor, a public television star.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE FRENCH CHEF")

JULIA CHILD: Hi, I'm Julia Child.

PANSINO: The only person that I watched was Julia Child.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE FRENCH CHEF")

CHILD: Now we're going to have what I think is one of the great desserts of all time, a souffle Grand Marnier.

PANSINO: She's fun, and she's fearless. She's not afraid to make mistakes. And if you watch videos of her cooking in the kitchen, she makes mistakes all the time.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE FRENCH CHEF")

CHILD: Well, that didn't go very well.

PANSINO: Who cares if you spill a little batter¹³? It'll bake out. Try everything.

ULABY: A great lesson for kids both in and out of the kitchen, although one mom I know wryly¹⁴ joked she wished online cooking videos paid just a little more attention to cleanup.

Neda Ulaby, NPR News.

1 celebrity   

n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望

参考例句：

• Tom found himself something of a celebrity. 汤姆意识到自己已小有名气了。
• He haunted famous men, hoping to get celebrity for himself. 他常和名人在一起, 希望借此使自己获得名气。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 niche   

n.壁龛；合适的职务(环境、位置等)

参考例句：

• Madeleine placed it carefully in the rocky niche. 玛德琳小心翼翼地把它放在岩石壁龛里。
• The really talented among women would always make their own niche.妇女中真正有才能的人总是各得其所。

4 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

5 frozen   

adj.冻结的，冰冻的

参考例句：

• He was frozen to death on a snowing night.在一个风雪的晚上，他被冻死了。
• The weather is cold and the ground is frozen.天寒地冻。

6 subscribe   

vi.(to)订阅，订购；同意；vt.捐助，赞助

参考例句：

• I heartily subscribe to that sentiment.我十分赞同那个观点。
• The magazine is trying to get more readers to subscribe.该杂志正大力发展新订户。

7 scruffy   

adj.肮脏的，不洁的

参考例句：

• Despite her scruffy clothes,there was an air of sophistication about her.尽管她衣衫褴褛，但神态老练世故。
• His scruffy appearance does not reflect his character.他邋遢的外表并不反映他的性格。

8 unicorn   

n.(传说中的)独角兽

参考例句：

• The unicorn is an imaginary beast.独角兽是幻想出来的动物。
• I believe unicorn was once living in the world.我相信独角兽曾经生活在这个世界。

9 devout   

adj.虔诚的，虔敬的，衷心的 (n.devoutness)

参考例句：

• His devout Catholicism appeals to ordinary people.他对天主教的虔诚信仰感染了普通民众。
• The devout man prayed daily.那位虔诚的男士每天都祈祷。

10 episode   

n.（作品的一段）情节，插曲，系列事件中之一

参考例句：

• The episode was a huge embarrassment for all concerned.这段小插曲令所有有关人员都感到非常尴尬。
• This episode remains sharply engraved on my mind.这段经历至今仍深深地铭刻在我的心中。

11 liners   

邮轮( liner的名词复数 )； 客轮； 班机； 衬里

参考例句：

• He came out with some good one-liners. 他讲了几个很有趣的小笑话。
• The resins were used to turn out millions of helmet liners. 用这类树脂生产了成百万只钢盔内衬。

12 analog   

n.类似物，模拟

参考例句：

• The analog signal contains high-frequency video information,which helps make up the picture.模拟信号包括有助于构成图像的高频视频信息。
• The analog computer measures continuously,without proceeding step by step.模拟计算机不是一步一步地进行，而是连续地进行量度。

13 batter   

v.接连重击；磨损；n.牛奶面糊；击球员

参考例句：

• The batter skied to the center fielder.击球手打出一个高飞球到中外野手。
• Put a small quantity of sugar into the batter.在面糊里放少量的糖。

14 wryly   

adv. 挖苦地，嘲弄地

参考例句：

• Molly smiled rather wryly and said nothing. 莫莉苦笑着，一句话也没说。
• He smiled wryly, then closed his eyes and gnawed his lips. 他狞笑一声，就闭了眼睛，咬着嘴唇。 来自子夜部分