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UCLA alumna showcases original mouthwatering creations on YouTube

(Aubrey Yeo/Daily Bruin)

By Alisha Kapur

April 1, 2015 12:00 a.m.

On a regular weekday, alumna Izzah Khan sits in front of a computer at her day job in risk management, but cooking, baking and filming for her YouTube channel, “Rookie with a Cookie,” fill her weekends.

Khan, who worked at the De Neve Bakery during her fourth year in 2013, recently started the channel, where she shares her recipes. She puts out videos every Wednesday and has made many different dishes, from a No Bake Nutella Cream Cake to a Chilli Pepper Double Decker Grilled Cheese Sandwich, on screen.

Normally, Khan said, UCLA students do not work at the De Neve Bakery. However, she wanted the job, so she said she approached one of the chefs at Covel Commons.

“I asked him if it was possible for me to get in touch with the pastry chef or somebody who could get me inside the bakery,” Khan said.

The chef she spoke to connected Khan with former UCLA Executive Pastry Chef Anthony Nigro, who allowed her to work in the kitchen as a student assistant. When she started, she completed easier tasks, such as taking out trays.

“Slowly they kind of let me make the batter and whipped cream and stuff like that,” Khan said.

Khan worked under the supervision of the bakery’s food service manager, James Brannon.

“She was really invested in learning. She always wanted new recipes,” Brannon said. “You could tell that she wanted to do something in that field.”

After graduating, Khan started working in risk management. However, she said she wanted a creative outlet and had always wanted to take videos of her cooking. She started to do so in December after buying a new camera.

“I’m creative. I majored in English, and I’m working at a job where I’m just basically sitting in front of a computer all day, and that’s not really my cup of tea,” Khan said.

Khan said she makes the videos on the weekends when she does not have work. She invents the recipes featured, but she said, especially for baking, she builds off of recipes she finds online.

“Once you know the science behind it and you know the basics, you can play around,” Khan said. “I love experimenting, so I don’t like baking the same things over and over.”

Khan’s brother Avwab Khan said he fully realized her cooking potential when he moved in with her.

“She just loves cooking,” Avwab Khan said. “The quality is so good, and I’m a really picky eater, personally.”

Khan said her sister films her videos, but Khan edits them herself. She said she finds it challenging to make high-quality videos despite her new camera.

“She’s really particular when it comes to editing,” said Akna Khan, Izzah Khan’s sister. “It’s not just educational, but it’s also very entertaining with her personality.”

Mostly, Khan said, her viewers consist of friends. She currently has 152 subscribers, but she hopes to find a wider audience that is more interested in actually cooking the food she shows. One of her videos, which showcases a recipe for pretzel-crusted chicken fingers, has more than 1,000 views.

She said she feels her recipes are simple enough to make at home. Initially her videos were longer, but she whittled them down after seeing on her Google Analytics page that people would stop watching at a certain point. Most of her videos are now less than five minutes long.

“It’s like a music video,” Khan said. “People actually get to watch the entire thing without being bored.”

Khan is from Pakistan, and she said her friends want her to show them recipes that she grew up with. She said she wants to gradually add it in, so that it’s not too much of a surprise for her viewers. She recently uploaded a video of a Cuban appetizer, stuffed potato balls. Khan said she realized that Cuban food uses similar spices to Pakistani food when she first tried a potato ball at Porto’s Bakery and Cafe.

“I kind of want to build it to the point where people expect that there will be something traditional,” Khan said.

Khan said she has recipes for Pakistani food that do not take as much time or effort as her viewers might expect.

“I feel like a lot of people don’t really have time, and people think Pakistani food, or Desi food in general, is really time-consuming, which it really is not,” Khan said. “American food could take a couple extra spices.”

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Alisha Kapur
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