These days, people seem to imagine that online cooking videos don’t get much more complicated than those visual recipes currently clogging your Facebook feed – you know, those clips of disembodied hands cooking up carb-heavy delights that you share, tags your mates in, and then never actually do anything about. But that’s just the very tip of the gustatory online iceberg: the internet is awash with talented creatives dedicating entire series (not to mention hundreds of hours of their time) to the cooking of their favourite obscure foodstuffs.
Case in point: BoxMac, a YouTube show hosted by two friends – and macaroni and cheese diehards – Frankie Frain and Jonathan Hunt. Professional filmmakers in their own right, Frain and Hunt have spent the last two years searching for the perfect brand of boxed macaroni and cheese, filming their exploits and in the process producing one of the funniest YouTube shows around.
For Australians, it might seem a bit odd that anyone would want to make (or watch) a show dedicated only to boxed macaroni and cheese – surely there can’t be that many different brands to go through? But packaged mac is a significantly bigger deal over in the US; a certifiable culinary institution with so many offshoots and brands that Frain and Hunt have so far filmed 76 episodes dedicated to cooking and consuming the stuff.
When pressed to explain why mac and cheese is such an American staple, Frain has a few answers. “There are many theories,” he explains. “The best I’ve heard is that because cheese was highly subsidised by the government during the Great Depression of the ’30s, more recipes involving cheese were created, which popularised mac and cheese as a tasty but affordable meal.
“I believe the fast food boom of the last few decades also contributes – there’s a big market in our high-paced lives for quick and easy meals. But above all that, I think it’s just that it’s so delicious.”
And of course, Frain would know. He has tried mac and cheese from all over the world – including a box from our fair isle of Australia. He didn’t much care for it. “The mac and cheese we were sent from Australia was in fact manufactured by Kraft, but tasted nothing like traditional Kraft macaroni and cheese. The cheese was in a tin can, which is very unusual here. It tasted more like Cheese Whiz, which is used more for crackers or nachos here, but not mac and cheese. The pasta, strangely, tasted like cardboard.”
Yet for every mac misfire, Frain and Hunt have a cheesy, carby, mac delight to make up for it – and, of course, they also have the love of their fans to nourish them. “We get mac-and-cheese-related memes [from fans], we’re informed immediately if mac and cheese is in the news or there’s a new mac and cheese product (like the Burger King Mac N’ Cheetos), we get an endless amount of recommendations on what to mix into mac and cheese, and lots more.
“We receive great photos of fans in our swag, or unboxing our merchandise, and we’ve gotten requests to shout out people’s birthdays and weddings as surprises for spouses. We’ve even received amazing BoxMac-inspired artwork, including drawings, posters, animations, and mac-and-cheese-inspired-make-up.”
Frain and Hunt repay that creativity with zany creations of their own, of course – aside from the traditional BoxMac episode set-up (the pair cook, eat and rate the mac, chatting away as they go), they also shoot themed episodes. They’ve produced Halloween episodes narrated by a Tales From The Crypt-esque skeleton, a Christmas show that pays homage to cheesy ’80s sitcoms, and even an outdoors episode where they encouraged their mates to make their own home-style macs.
“It’s already a bit zany to do a mac and cheese review show, but to stretch the concept to fit horror or sitcom narrative formats just shouldn’t work, but we’re very proud of the [episodes],” Frain says.
We’re informed immediately if mac and cheese is in the news or there’s a new mac and cheese product.
Nonetheless, what unites both the themed episodes and the regular old garden variety BoxMac instalments is the overall production value. Indeed, it’s the first thing that fans notice – for a show about macaroni and cheese, BoxMac sure does look classy. “When people notice high production value from BoxMac, I believe they’re seeing a blend of quality camera work using quality camera equipment, clear audio, styled editing, and hopefully entertaining content,” Frain says.
The biggest problem the pair face is not finding more macs to make, nor an audience, nor even keeping the formula exciting enough to stop it from getting old: it’s expiring macs.
“We’ve received a bevy of strange and hilarious mac and cheeses from around the globe. Since we’re sent so much mac, expiration does become a problem. We only shoot about once a month, at which time we bank about four episodes. So we normally try to see what’s expiring, and then design shows around that if possible.”
As a result, as long as they keep getting sent mac (and as long as they can get through it before it expires), Frain and Hunt will keep cooking it up and making the show – in the process inspiring fans from around the world.
“I love BoxMac most when it inspires creativity and art from our fan base,” Frain says. “I never would have thought a review show about mac and cheese would showcase so much talent and imagination.”
