What 'Barely Cooking' Got Right (and Wrong)

I recently stumbled across something on a streaming service that made me pause and say:
“Wait… what is this!? and why haven’t I seen this before?”

This was my exact reaction to Barely Cooking, a quirky Canadian series now on Amazon Prime. It’s a mix of actual cooking lessons, aprons, and enough food puns and innuendo to fill a self published cook book.

Originally filmed in British Columbia back in the early 2000s, Barely Cooking markets itself as “a cooking show where the hosts wear only aprons.” Each episode covers a different theme such as “Saucy Sauces,” “Dinner as Foreplay,” and “Breakfast in Bed for 2 or More”.

The result is equal parts campy, oddly charming, and at times, surprisingly educational.

Beneath the double entendres, there are real cooking techniques. You’ll pick up legitimate tips on emulsions, steaming vegetables, seasoning, and plating. The hosts clearly know their way around a kitchen, even if the camera sometimes lingers more on body parts rather than ‘mise en place’.

As a naturist chef, I appreciate how the show normalizes nudity (or nearly so). The hosts are relaxed, confident, and having fun, which is, honestly, what cooking should be about. There’s something refreshing about seeing the human body treated casually in a kitchen setting, not as something to hide or shame. In that sense, Barely Cooking offers a glimpse of what naturist-friendly media could and should be.

But it also misses the mark. The sexual jokes and flirtatious tone shift the focus from body acceptance to body spectacle. True naturism isn’t about titillation, it’s about freedom, comfort, and connection. When every cucumber slice is a punchline, the message of wholesome nudity gets buried under the giggles.

Giving credit where it’s due: Barely Cooking had potential. It made space, however clumsily, for nudity and good food on camera many years ago when there wasn’t a platform to do so, and I haven’t seen much in this space since then!

Maybe one day we’ll see a series (or an up and coming content creator 😉) that keeps the body-positive confidence but leaves out the corny, unnecessary sexual innuendos.

Until then, I’ll keep cooking naked in my own kitchen, because in my book - everything tastes better with parsley… and a little freedom.

-Rob, The Nudist Foodist