Cooking: the easiest genre for a VTuber to start

Why it is still open

Japan’s national time-use survey found that 19.0% of people aged 10 and over cooked or baked as a hobby during 2021. That is one in five, up from 17.8% five years earlier, making it one of the hobbies that is growing. Count everyday home cooking and the number of people who cook is far higher.

Cooking is one of the oldest big genres on video sites. But most of it is quick recipe shorts, or live-action videos of chefs and home cooks. Streams where a VTuber spends time with viewers while cooking are still rare.

Of the five genres VOID SCOPE picked first, cooking is the one with comparatively more VTubers already in it. We included it anyway because it has the lowest barrier to entry and connects easily to other genres.

There are three main reasons VTubers have stayed away:

• Setting up a stream in the kitchen is a hassle.Bringing a PC and mic into the kitchen looks like a lot of work.
• Fear of being identified.The kitchen shows more of your daily life than any other room.
• “I am bad at cooking.“In this genre, being bad at it is an advantage.

Who is watching

• People who want to start cooking for themselves.Students and new workers living alone for the first time are looking for easy dishes.
• People who will never cook it but love to watch.The sights and sounds of a dish coming together are enjoyable on their own. Some leave it on before bed or while working.
• People cooking at the same time.An evening stream is when viewers are in the kitchen too.
• Viewers abroad.Japanese home cooking, bento, and twists on convenience-store ingredients are popular topics overseas.

A VTuber’s strength is showing time spent together rather than cooking skill. Burnt it, spilled it, too bland: every mistake gets the biggest reaction in chat.

When people watch

Between 5 and 8 p.m., viewers are in their own kitchens. That is the best slot for “cook with me” streams. Keep morning bento streams short and late-night baking streams long. Matching the length and the dish to the time of day is the trick.

Stream ideas for VTubers

1. Make dinner together.Same time every day. Simple dishes are fine.
2. Morning bento stream.A short morning slot for viewers about to leave for work or school.
3. One dish from a viewer’s leftovers.Let chat pick the ingredients.
4. Recreate food from games and anime.The bigger the fandom, the easier it is to be found through search.
5. Only convenience-store or supermarket ingredients.Anyone can follow along.
6. Baking marathon.Bread, cake, chocolate. The waiting time becomes chat time.
7. A VTuber who cannot cook learns how.Starting from how to hold a knife, the progress log keeps people coming back.
8. Your hometown’s food.Regional dishes become part of who you are.
9. Sounds-only cooking.A quiet slot built around chopping, sizzling and simmering.
10. Pair it with an eating stream.Eat what you made in a separate chat stream.

How to start, and what you need

You can start with one camera filming your hands from above.

• Mount your phone directly overhead.Use an arm to shoot down at the cutting board and stove. It is the angle least likely to catch your face, room or windows.
• Avatar in the corner.Your hands are the star; the VTuber is the person chatting next to them.
• Keep the mic away from oil and water.Use a neck-worn mic or one placed a bit away. The range hood is louder than you think, so test the audio before going live.
• You do not have to bring your PC into the kitchen.You can start with just a phone streaming app. Once you are used to it, send the hand-cam feed into your usual streaming software.

Start with no-heat dishes or ones that take fifteen minutes. Once you are comfortable, expand to longer streams and baking.

Your first four weeks

• Week 1:Make one no-heat dish with a single hand cam. This one is about checking how it looks and sounds.
• Week 2:Two evening streams. Announce the dish the day before so viewers can cook along.
• Week 3:Add one stream where chat picks the ingredients.
• Week 4:Look back at what you made this month and cook the most popular dish again.

Once it takes off

Cut each dish into a one-minute short with the dish name in the title. It is the door that turns search visitors into regulars of your long streams. Recreating food from games and anime reaches people searching by title, so it makes a great big event once you are growing.

What to watch out for

• Plan for fire and knives.Decide that you turn the heat down and put the knife down whenever you read chat. Until you are used to it, skip deep-frying on stream.
• Show good hygiene.Washing hands and using a separate board for raw meat: viewers notice more than you think.
• Giving away or selling food is a different matter.Keep stream cooking to what you eat yourself. Selling food in Japan requires a business permit under the Food Sanitation Act.
• Never promise weight loss or health benefits.Exaggerating what food does can count as misleading advertising under Japan’s Health Promotion Act. Be especially careful with food sponsorships.
• Mark sponsored content clearly.If a brand gives you seasonings or appliances, say “PR” or “sponsored” up front. Since October 2023, hidden advertising is regulated under Japan’s misleading-representations law.
• Protect your identity.Check that the view out the window, notices on the fridge, delivery boxes and grocery receipts do not show store names or your address.

Cooking is the genre where something you do every day becomes a stream. You add no new preparation; a streaming slot simply appears inside your normal routine.