Cadence – Taku Kondo – YouTube Channels For Foodies

Ask any actor, voiceover artist, or athlete, and they will likely wax lyrical about cadence being a seriously big deal in their world. With actors, in particular, how effectively they deliver their lines is heavily influenced by how they speak, when they speak, their facial expressions, body language, and the flow of the plot they’re delivering from the script. Their delivery has to have an authentic cadence in each of these areas for the viewer to forget they are watching an actor and, instead, connect with the character the actor is portraying.

Actors generally go to acting school, where they learn how to deliver their lines with perfect cadence. Thousands of hours are spent tweaking their tonality, body language and every other ‘tell’ that might cause them not to come across as authentic to their audience when they finally get their first acting role. When they do land that first role, actors are then gifted content in the form of a ‘courier font size 12 script’ which has been re-written copious times to be the best it can be and appeal to the target audience of the film or tv series it’s intended for. Whilst delivering this script, they are supported by co-actors, given the perfect clothes to wear, have their faces painted to perfection, are permanently cajoled and helped with their artistic direction, and then, after all that, the editing process tweaks yet further to make it all as polished as possible. The net-net of all this is that hopefully enough has been done to convince us that the actor isn’t actually themself at all but, is in fact, an exceptionally authentic Viking warlord.

As YouTube increasingly becomes our platform of choice over ‘traditional TV’ we’re now naturally looking to deeply connect with the content on this platform. Perhaps we’re subscribed to ten channels, ideally looking to watch two videos a week from each one. To feel connected and to keep coming back week after week to watch these two videos from each YouTube creator we require the content to have certain qualities. It needs to be focused on our niche interests, as well as being informative, fresh, and consistent. Some of us also really like the creator to personally and regularly engage with us. While providing all this to the camera (often self-held) the creator must permanently maintain likable tonality and body language. Even after all of this, heaven forbid they try to generate much-needed revenue by promoting a brand that they clearly aren’t passionate about. To be able to consistently deliver all these varying demands of the viewers, the creator absolutely must be authentic through and through.

As with actors, the creator’s ability to be genuinely authentic is greatly influenced by their content and delivery cadence. However, for creators, their cadence requirement is the polar opposite of actors. Actors need us to forget who they really are, wanting us to believe they are an authentic version of someone else. Creators need us to always be certain that they are being their authentic selves, and never want us to think they are trying to be someone else.

Creators, unlike actors, don’t have schools to attend where they can hone their delivery cadence skills. They speak how they speak and when they want to speak, and their limbs and facial expressions do what they want when they want. Also, unlike actors, content cadence isn’t gifted to them in the form of a neatly typed-up and polished script in courier font size 12. Nope, their content has to be drawn up from their own observational intuition.

With no school, no definitive rule book, no script, no director and producer, and often the most meager of budgets, they need to work it all out for themselves. One of the awesome things about being a creator (although so very difficult to nail) is that they simply need to be outstandingly good at being themselves. The description of “being outstandingly good at being yourself”, however, becomes an oxymoron when you plonk any words such as ‘school’, ‘script’, or ‘acting’ onto the end of it. It’s for this reason that (and with absolutely zero medical evidence I must add) I think that the real crème de la crème creators are genetically blessed with oodles of natural delivery and creative cadence – they were most likely born that way.

If Taku Kondo were to have a DNA test done, it would probably reveal that he’s descended from an ancient tribe called Cadence. A tribe that was famed for all its people running like Usain Bolt, cooking like Thomas Keller, and speaking like Morgan Freeman. Taku is an ex-sushi chef, now running his outstandingly brilliant YouTube channel from northern California’s Bay Area. The channel combines Taku’s passions for the outdoors and cooking into a glorious amalgam of joy. The channel is called Outdoor Chef Life.

I could, quite literally, watch this guy all day long. His videos always, in some shape or form, combine his passions for sustainability, foraging, fishing, cooking, camping, and general food yumminess. Quite simply, Taku knows his stuff around his key passions but, isn’t afraid to admit when he’s not quite sure about something. His cooking skills are sublime, simply watching him filet a fish is a treat to behold. Each video is a mini adventure, with him taking you fishing, foraging, or exploring. He will then invariably return to an outside woodfired BBQ of sorts and prepare, cook and combine all the ingredients that he’s gathered up into a veritable feast. If you haven’t already eaten pre-Taku, you will find yourself seriously hungry post-Taku.

His foraging trips have massively educated me around mushrooms, he’s taught me fishing tricks and tips, he’s greatly improved my fish fileting skills, and I’ve also learned some awesome brining and cooking techniques that I’d never have known had it not been for his channel. Suffice it to say that he’s got the food, outdoor life, and cooking elements totally and utterly copper-bottomed in relation to consistently interesting, fresh, and informative content. However, it’s the way he simply is himself during each video journey that elevates his channel into the most esteemed of echelons. To a tee, he’s always calm, measured, and informative but, never a show-off. He’s utterly and endearingly polite, charming, and funny with his friends and collaborators who crop up in his videos from time to time. His partner, Jocelyn, is also a total superstar, she’s clearly an integral part of the channel, their interactions on screen are a joy to watch and add massively to the overall authenticity.

There’s much debate about exactly what ingredients are in the secret sauce that makes YouTube creators truly authentic. I hope that this piece makes a case for natural cadence being one of the key ingredients of the said sauce. YouTube creators not having a school to attend might thus not be a bad thing after all. Their cadence simply has to come naturally – it simply can’t be taught, as that wouldn’t be authentic, right?

Great Taku video to start your channel journey with:

In this video, Taku fishes for salmon, then creatively prepares and cooks it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcLkW20tJXQ

Outdoor Chef Life main channel:

https://www.youtube.com/c/OutdoorChefLife