Claire Saffitz’s ‘Gourmet Makes’ Series Is Inspiring a Lot of Fan Art
Claire is a living, breathing human being. She is a phenomenal baker. A runner. An Olympics enthusiast. But to the fans of her Bon Appétit video series “Gourmet Makes,” where senior food editor Claire Saffitz recreates classic junk foods (Twinkies, Gushers, Oreos)—she’s worthy of deep, loyal worship. Honestly we all worshiped Claire already (this deep-dish apple pie is one reason among hundreds), but the YouTube series went viral and we realized we weren’t showing it nearly enough.
Here are some recent fan art contributions inspired by Claire and her iconic gray streak, her anguish and triumph in moments of culinary travail, her everlasting friendship with Test Kitchen manager Brad Leone.
Artist Jordan Johnson spent a night bingeing “Gourmet Makes” and “a lightbulb went off—I knew I had to draw Claire,” she told me. “After sticking with Claire in her quest to make Twinkies, as she bakes tray after tray of snack cakes using every tool and technique that she knows, it’s so amazing when she hits the nail on the head and there are actual gourmet Twinkies sitting there on the counter.”
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Illustration by Ian WorthingtonArtist Ian Worthington “was inspired by Claire’s iconic grey-streaked hair!” He said of his sketch, above. “It’s such a cool and stunning look, I imagine illustrators find it very evocative. I’m also just a big fan of the series and wanted to draw something in tribute.” (FYI, he also sketched Brad Leone of “It’s Alive!” test kitchen fame.)
Artist Seiji Ige also took his pencil to both Claire and Brad in this sketchbook on Instagram. “After hitting artist’s block, I generally find myself watching more new things that I had been meaning to watch—Claire’s videos were that thing.” He told me. “I also really connected with her moments of stress and bliss trying to get her recreations of snacks just right.”
A few more:
A fan even compiled every Claire-Brad moment into this 13 minute video, writing, “I created this for the good of humankind. Don’t be making it weird because two people are friends. Take good care of this and keep it pure.” Thanks for this, Sid Sid:
