Alex Aïnouz

Alex Aïnouz is a popular cook and YouTuber.

He has more than two million subscribers on his YouTube channel, ‘Alex’.

Introduction-

Alexis Gabriel Aïnouz was born on 25 May 1982 in Paris, France.

He grew up in Paris.

Alex’s father initially worked as a school teacher and later, he turned into a filmmaker and started filming documentaries.

His mother worked as an administrator for an Austrian company.

Alex’s maternal grandfather worked as a chef in the Orient Express train, and in a restaurant.

Multicultural experience & love for food-

In his childhood, Alex along with his parents travelled a lot to Mediterranean Europe countries like Italy, Greece, etc. and got exposed to different cultures.

He has been following French and Mediterranean cultures.

His mother is a polyglot and thanks to this, from a young age, Alex developed a passion for learning languages.

Even though as a child, Alex loved food, he didn’t think of becoming a chef after growing up, instead he wanted to grow up to become an inventor.

A techie-

At a young age, Alex started developing websites and later, he also did a few technology jobs and also ran an online advertising and social media agency in Paris.

He graduated as a telecom engineer specializing in wireless networking.

Later, Alex worked in the telecom industry and also gained a marketing background.

Becoming a proficient cook-

Around 2011, Alex moved in with his girlfriend.

While dividing the chores with her, as she didn’t like cooking, he agreed to cook and shop and she agreed to do the cleaning and laundry work.

As Alex has always loved food, he happily accepted cooking.

Soon, he became obsessed with cooking and started vigorously researching food and recipes.

And Alex started cooking new recipes every night.

He didn’t learn cooking from his family but instead from cookbooks like Modernist Cuisine and The Engineer’s Cookbook, blogs like Serious Eats, etc. and YouTube videos.

It took Alex around four years to become highly proficient in cooking.

Starting his YouTube channel-

Up until March 2013, Alex has been running his internet agency for several years.

Even though he was self-employed with his internet agency, he lacked artistic creation.

As Alex loved photography and filmmaking, he decided to start a cooking YouTube channel.

So, in March 2013, he made a risky move by closing his internet agency and started his YouTube channel with all his savings.

Even though Alex could have started a French YouTube channel, he explicitly started in English so as to attract a global audience.

He has been a full-time YouTuber since the beginning.

Working with Jamie Oliver-

In 2013, Alex entered in a competition conducted by Jamie Oliver titled- Search for a Food Tube Star.

His twist on beef bourguignon got selected to the top five, and he ended up third in the competition.

After this competition, Alex got an opportunity to work with Jamie Oliver, and he worked with him for a period of three years.

Becoming a successful YouTuber-

Thanks to his high-quality, interesting videos, Alex became a successful YouTuber.

As of March 2023, he has 2.02M subscribers on his YouTube channel.

And has 238K followers on Instagram, 656K followers on his Facebook page and 32.4K followers on Twitter.

He earns from a variety of sources like advertisements, Membership and ‘Super Thanks’ on his YouTube channel, sponsorships, selling merchandise, affiliate marketing and he also accepts donations on Patreon.

In 2019, Alex won a Shortys award in “Food” at the 11th annual Shorty awards.

Alex has a small remote team consisting of a producer and editor, Joshua to help him out with his YouTube videos.

He also has a website and he, along with Joshua, co-host a podcast by name, Food, But We Digress.

Alex is also a contributor to the Milk Street Radio Podcast.

His inspirations-

Alex obtains inspiration for new recipes from markets, cookbooks, YouTube videos and Wikipedia.

As a cook, he has been inspired by Jamie Oliver and Alton Brown.

Alex also appreciates Fergus Henderson, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Anissa Helou, Anthony Bourdain, David Chang, Franco Pepe and Babish Culinary Universe.

Also, for inspiration, instead of staying in the kitchen all the time, he likes to go out and read books.

His research process-

After thinking of a video topic, Alex notes down on his phone.

Then, he researches about it on Wikipedia, Google and then, he writes the recipe.

Then, Alex tries that recipe in his studio and tries to simplify and better it.

And finally, he prepares the script for his video and will shoot, edit and publish the video.

His book-

On 4 September 2018, Alex published a cookbook titled- Just a French Guy Cooking: Easy Recipes and Kitchen Hacks for Rookies.

Personal life-

Alex is married to his girlfriend and this couple has two sons.

He lives in Paris, France.

Some interesting facts about Alex Aïnouz-

• Alex didn’t take any culinary training and hasn’t worked in a professional kitchen. He has been a home cook.
• His favourite dishes are Asian stir fry, Sashimi, Italian pasta and Indian curries. He also loves bagels.
• Alex’s favourite French food is bread and French wine is his favourite drink.
• He also likes drinking Rioja and Tasmanian wines.
• Alex loves travelling and has travelled to several countries. He also loves biking and running.
• He loves Indian food.
• Alex’s favourite fruit is mango and favourite vegetable is onion and favourite cheese is goat cheese.
• The Power of Now is his favourite self-help book and he has read it multiple times.
• Alex uses a custom camera printed with a 3D printer.
• His future plan is to work at a Ramen – ya for a month in Japan.
• Jamie Oliver is Alex’s favourite chef and he has also been inspired by Casey Neistat.
• He loves painting and drawing.
• His nickname is Frenchie.

So, how are you inspired by the success story of Alex Aïnouz?

Share with me in the comment section below.