BL ACKMAGIC DES IGN – WATCH THI S SPACE
French YouTuber and Twitch streamer Chez Jigmé is a pioneer of
high-end cookery content, but his journey to creating cinematic cuisine was anything but simple...
or a long time, television screens have been dominated by cookery shows and competitions. From the deafening tones of Gordon Ramsay to The Great British Bake Off , it has been something of a revolution
for the small screen. Then came the streaming revolution, forever changing how we consume content. Cookery shows have had little trouble adapting to the internet, and there have been swathes of budding creators looking to make their name in the world of online content and live streaming. This was no different for chef Chez Jigmé, the increasingly popular French YouTuber and Twitch streamer. Launching his channel in 2012, Jigmé started his YouTube career as a comedy channel. He initially hoped to become a photographer, but decided to take this skill down the videography route. At this stage of the streaming timeline, the platform wasn’t yet a viable career path. “At the time, I had a job at an Apple Store,” Jigmé explains. “YouTube was starting to get a lot of hype in France, with some famous French creators emerging, such as ‘Norman fait des vidéos.’ I was impressed that they could show what they did using this platform – almost as an online résumé. I wanted to do the same thing.” As an internet career became more realistic, Jigmé quit his job at Apple to focus entirely on his online work. “I guess I got lucky because, in the first three or four years, I hit two million subscribers on my comedy channel. However, with comedy and the algorithms changing on YouTube, I stopped that after a while.” The fine-tuning of algorithms on platforms like YouTube has often herded creators into a certain box. “With the algorithm pushing me to pump
out new content constantly, it became very time- consuming. It was a format that wasn’t working for me any more.” KITTING OUT THE KITCHEN Jigmé decided that cooking was the perfect area to transition to in 2016. “At the time, there were few channels dedicated to cooking – and the ones that were, weren’t that great,” Jigmé says. “I was a big fan of Jamie Oliver ’s channel – his content stood out for its sexy quality and professional editing. It made me realise that we didn’t get online cookery content of that calibre in France.” Taking the form of recipe-style videos, Jigmé threw himself in the direction of cuisine. Having launched his comedy channel using a Canon EOS 5D Mark II, which at the time was the market
COMEDYWAS CHANGING ON YOUTUBE, ASWELL AS ITS ALGORITHMS
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