Although she’s been cooking on camera for around three years, Nicole Sanchez, otherwise known as Neeko, says she is still learning the ropes. “I'm not going to act like I'm a pro at cooking,” she said. “I have basic cooking skills: things like cooking an egg, or flipping properly, or being able to tell when something's fully done.”
Neeko, who just unveiled the second season of her live-on-Twitch cooking show, Noms with Neeko, traces her passion for cooking to her early days as an independent adult, and credits her Mexican-American heritage for some of the dishes she now prepares live. Game Rant sat down with the Twitch streamer to talk about how she’s been able to explore that interest through her career, and the hope that her audience will be inspired by her culinary journey.
Noms with Neeko Has its Roots in Neeko’s Childhood and her Early Days in Front of a Camera
Neeko’s interest in cooking didn’t begin with her streaming career, she said. She got her first taste of the art as a child, reluctantly helping her mother in the kitchen.
“Growing up, my mom would scowl at me to come help her in the kitchen, and I would hesitantly go,” Neeko said. “You know, it’s one of those things where your mom is saying ‘you need to do this,’ and you don't want to do it.” Despite her reticence, though, Neeko retained many of the skills she learned from her mother, and realized that she actually had a passion for cooking.
By the time she was hopping on for her first streams in 2017, Neeko was already employing some of those skills in her personal life. She had recently moved to Seattle from California, “because Hispanic parents can be very overbearing,” and was faced with sudden financial responsibility — bills and rent. Saving money was crucial, Neeko said, and so she started to focus on cooking for herself.
In addition to supporting herself, Neeko also had to find her niche as a budding Twitch streamer. “I had to find out what did well, and I found a couple of things I was interested in. One of those was cooking.” Therein lay an opportunity, she said.
“As a content creator, you’re always thinking about how to make things into content. So, I started doing cooking streams.”
Neeko did her first cooking stream in 2019. At first, she just set up a camera and her laptop to record herself while she made meals. It was “super scuffed,” she said, but the experience showed her that she had a passion for cooking.
“I wanted to do harder things, cook more complicated dishes, and try different spices,” Neeko said. “That slowly became a more integrated part of my content over time.” Now, Neeko regularly streams herself cooking — whether it’s on Noms with Neeko or another series such as Cozy Cooking, which ran its last episode in July.
Neeko credited her upbringing and early adult life with giving her the desire to build out her cooking streams, but she also pointed to encouragement — and criticism — from her early audience as a motivating factor.
“I saw people on my stream get a little more interactive, saying things like, ‘hey, you're not doing that right,’ or ‘that looks awful,’” she said. “There was a lot of encouragement in my chat as well.”
Noms with Neeko Aims to Show its Audience that Cooking is Accessible
Neeko’s cooking streams have come a long way from a single laptop and camera. Noms for Neeko, which is set in a modern, marble-clad kitchen and features a dedicated camera aimed at the cooking space, has all the trappings of a cooking show you might see on cable television.
Despite the time, effort, and money Neeko and her team have put into the show, she is insistent that she doesn’t want Noms with Neeko to lose its “personal touch.” Part of the intimate feeling she strives for is achieved when the viewer feels like they could also do what she does, she said.
“I think showing people that cooking is something they can do on their own, without all the flashiness, is something that resonates with people.”
Even if her viewers don’t go out and start cooking shows of their own, Neeko said the feeling of accessibility is something she wants to convey in Noms with Neeko. “I want to demonstrate to people that they can also set up a camera and show people what they can do in the kitchen,” she said.
Neeko stressed that she is by no means an experienced chef, and that she hopes Noms with Neeko will be a learning experience for her and her audience. “I think the learning experience is a big part of my show,” she said.
Not only will Neeko learn new and increasingly more complicated recipes on the second season of Noms with Neeko, but her handiwork will receive a direct review thanks to taste-testers she plans to invite on the show. That added risk is valuable to her overall goals, Neeko said. “I think it resonates with the viewer, that I could actually mess up what I’m making.”
In the upcoming season of Noms with Neeko, the streamer is aiming to go even further than she did in her last series. “I think one of the things I didn't do right last season was not doing enough,” she said. “There’s just so much you can do with cooking.”
Neeko wants to step her game and, all the while, show her audience that they are just as capable of preparing at home in her studio. “It’s important to me that Noms with Neeko doesn’t lose that personal touch,” she said.
Noms with Neeko Season 2 streams September 17.