‘Binging with Babish’ YouTube channel announces Walmart cookware line.

In early 2021, The New York Times
NYT ran a piece detailing an average Monday-Friday in the life of Andrew Rea: creator and lead host of the Binging with Babish YouTube channel known for its recreation of various dishes seen in television, film, and gaming.

This breakdown of his weekly routine made mention of an erratic sleep schedule, plenty of takeout meals, and the odd Xanax tablet in the race to survive “a perfect storm of deadlines.” Fast forward two years later, and Andrew (35) comfortably muses on the untenable nature of his once-unpredictable schedule.

“I’ve made the decision to put my mental well-being and wellness first, which, for the first six-some-odd years of the channel, it decidedly took a backseat,” he tells me over the phone, still affable in the midst of an air conditioning breakdown at his New York home (a multi-level Brownstone whose first two floors serve as the main production hub of the Babish Culinary Universe). “I started to pay the price for it. I had a really, really difficult 2022. It was not fun and I’m glad that it’s over.”

Nowadays, the filmmaker turned internet gourmand sticks to a compartmentalized agenda that allows him to clock out at a reasonable hour and, for the first time in the history of the channel, rack up a backlog of completed episodes.

“The vast majority of the time, it would be shooting one day, editing it — sometimes the same day — and then releasing it the next day,” confesses Rea, a graduate of Hofstra University’s film program. “That happened far too often and it was nuking my energy and my creativity and my bandwidth.”

The gradual addition of new hosts — such as Alvin Zhou, Rick Martinez, and Senpai Kai — has helped to relieve some of the burden and diversify the BCU portfolio.

Zhou’s Anime with Alvin, for instance, tackles the eats seen in popular Japanese animation. Martinez’s Pruébalo introduces viewers to the succulent offerings of Mexican cuisine. Football Fusion (hosted by Rea’s childhood friend and business partner Sawyer Jacobs) mashes up the trademark dishes of America’s NFL cities.

“The tenets of every show on the channel is good-natured, encouraging, informative, uplifting, entertaining,” Andrew proclaims. “We want to keep making kind and helpful and uplifting content — a lot of which is going to have to do with different forms of recreation. That’s another throughline of the series that we make, is recreating things and being able to live vicariously through food.”

Conversation eventually turns to the true purpose of our call: the announcement of Babish Cookware products curated exclusively for Walmart
WMT
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“Being able to work with Walmart is a huge dream for most any manufacturer,” Rea says. “We’re introducing nonstick cookware exclusively to Walmart, which is at a much more accessible price point for anybody who’s getting their first set of cookware or replacing their old set. It’s a great place to start.”

The collection — which launches on Walmart.com tomorrow (Tuesday, May 23) before hitting several hundred locations on June 12 — includes the Babish Everyday Pan ($36.88), Plasma 12-inch Pan ($34.97), 10-piece Non-Stick Cookware Set ($149), and Wok ($24.97). Each item boasts a seal of approval from the man himself. “I rigorously tested every piece,” Andrew promises, adding that he “had a hand in designing most aspects of everything that we’re putting out.”

While he’s now releasing less video content per week than he did at the height of the pandemic, Rea can afford to kick back a little, especially after the YouTube channel hit a whopping 10 million subscribers earlier this year. Any other creator might have just popped a bottle of champagne, thanked their audience in a brief message, and called it a day. But not the man behind the BCU. To celebrate the impressive milestone, Andrew traveled to Ecuador for a special episode on chocolate production (paying homage to an iconic episode of SpongeBob SquarePants).

“People tend to think of me as the guy who goes way too far for the sake of accuracy or for the bit,” he explains. “And I figured for 10 million, I might as well go even further.”

This 36-hour trip to South America was also a way to reward fans, whose continuous loyalty and suggestions have allowed Rea to build his edible empire.

“I’d say the vast majority of my ideas come from comments,” he adds. “It’s introduced me to a lot of shows and movies that I might not have seen otherwise. So I’m very grateful for that and it keeps me on my toes. I probably would have run out of ideas long ago, if it were not for the incredible suggestions of my viewers.”

As for what the future holds, Andrew is currently gearing up for the release of his latest cookbook (on sale Oct. 17), a collection of mouth-watering recipes developed under the Basics with Babish banner, and the grand opening of a bed and breakfast (or Bed & Babish, if you will), in upstate New York at the end of the summer.

“It’s going to be a gorgeous sort of Frank Lloyd Wright-esque slab of glass that’s overlooking the Delaware River with eagles nesting and leaves changing,” Andrew says of the latter. “It’s going to be a really gorgeous place to get away from the city.”

The ultimate goal on the video side of things is to establish “a fully-fledged production company” that paves the way for “a larger, traditional television series for streamers,” Rea teases.

One thing’s for certain, though: he’ll continue serving up generous helpings of “Babishian” entertainment with a smile and, of course, a little help from the carving fork gifted to him by Jon Favreau.

“This is my dream,” he concludes. “So I’m going to continue making my show and cooking content until my legs give out. But I also want us to have a more established presence in the traditional television production world. We’re looking to make some waves there in the coming year.”