Positively Passionate Polymath – Alex Aïnouz – YouTube Channels For Foodies

If you really like something, like, really like something, and have done so for pretty much all your life, it’s most likely a passion of yours. I’m definitely in that category with pasta. I love the stuff.  I’ve cooked and eaten copious amounts of it in all its glorious guises, although we all know that’s no indicator of expertise on any topic. To hopefully retain some modicum of respect in this area, I love food, it’s one of my main passions in life. So, pasta is one of my favourite elements within one of my key life passions. With all that considered, I’d like to think that I’m at least (on a hill with a following wind) on the more clued-up end of the pasta spectrum. That’s, however, where polymaths enter the equation. A polymath can merely say a few words, but these few words can ignite a proverbial grenade under our own preconceived wisdom on a given topic. The phrase, ‘proverbial grenade’ could be construed as negative in many instances but, not where positively passionate polymaths are concerned. A certain Parisian, going by the name of Alex Aïnouz, is definitely one of these rare and very special human beings.

A polymath is different to an expert. An expert knows stuff about a specific thing or things, usually on an academic level. So, when an expert tells us something that we don’t know in relation to their area of expertise, we are rarely surprised on any level…as that’s pretty much their role. A bit like when our university lecturer or teacher told us something we didn’t know, we were unlikely to be surprised by that gap in our knowledge. A polymath is a step up from an expert, they tell us things we didn’t know about things we thought we knew about, in a way that makes us wonder why we’d not thought of it ourselves. The positively passionate polymath isn’t trying to make us feel inferior in any way, au contraire, they’ve simply looked into it in more detail than we have. Alex does this in his sleep. He uncovers and highlights things that were hiding in plain sight, he’s a genius at it. A certain Elon Musk does the same.

The above is based upon my personal experience. I’m keen not to generalise here, so I guess this is an opportune moment to explain what Alex said that totally flummoxed me and made me immediately, and deeply, question my pasta knowledge. There are many of you, I’m sure, who already know this, and it’ll come as no surprise (and please go easy on me if you’re one of them) but, when Alex declared that dried pasta is superior to fresh pasta, I had a serious moment. ‘Of course’ I immediately thought – ‘fresh pasta can’t be al dente; fresh pasta is relatively easily made…’ I then racked my brain, I couldn’t think of a single person I’d ever known who’d made their own dried pasta, so it must be super hard to do. My gastronomic brain had clearly made a mistake many moons ago when it had decided to always rank ‘fresh’ above ‘dried’ for anything food related. I can’t even blame Google’s algorithm for this, as this belief of mine predates 1998 for sure. I tried, in vain, to soothe my culinary ego by thinking about fresh bread vs dried bread; fresh herbs vs dried herbs; fresh milk vs dried milk; the list goes on. I guess it’s an easy mistake to make. However, there was no denying it, I’d been wrong all those years regarding dried pasta. Alex had performed a culinary regression on me – I could now see the tagliatelle at the end of the tunnel, and it wasn’t a pasta rolling machine.

Obviously, there’s a huge caveat here. There are definitely types of pasta and associated dishes that totally suit fresh over dried but, it was a game-changer for me for sure.

Alex’s channel is a beautiful amalgam of all his enormous talents. He cooks things, builds things, mentally dissects culinary conundrums, as well as frequently delving into the simplest of dishes that most people probably feel they cook really well but, after a good dose of ‘Alex analysis’, it’s clear that it’s a tad more complex than perhaps we thought. 

If you’re new to Alex then I suggest that you watch his pasta series, it includes the dried vs fresh pasta bombshell that I talk about. The series starts with the video linked at the end of this piece, so if you start there then you’ll catch it all. In this series, one of the highlights is Alex consulting chef Luciano Monosilio at his Luciano Cucina Italiana restaurant. He had clearly earmarked Monosilio as the ‘one’ to teach him how to cook pasta, and for good reason – Monosilio is obviously a genius. Even the outrageously talented Alex is schooled by chef Monosilio in the art of Spaghetti Aglio e Olio, and Carbonara – I’d imagine that a vast majority of the human population would be too. I can’t wait to visit his restaurant at Piazza del Teatro di Pompeo (near Campo de’ Fiori) when I’m next in Rome – I won’t even need to consult the menu.

As many of us move away from Woolworthian terrestrial and subscription-based TV and onto YouTube, we all need regular content that challenges, entertains, and educates us in equal measures. Alex ticks all these boxes, and so many more.

A definition of a modern polymath is:

‘Someone who becomes competent in at least three diverse domains and integrates them into a top 1-percent skill set.”

Alex isn’t even close to being challenged by the ‘competent’ or the ‘at least three’ in that definition. He’s become absolutely awesome at cooking; YouTube videography; inventive electrical engineering; obsessively authentic content; and perfectionist cooking technique investigations. He’s then integrated them all into the must-watch channel (in the top 0.01%) that’s simply called, ‘Alex’. 

First Alex YouTube video for the pasta series:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptnXLYYIQ9Y

Luciano Monosilio’s restaurant in Rome:

 http://lucianocucinaitaliana.com/en/home-eng/