Dong Van Hung from Thai Nguyen, 27, owner of the YouTube channel Mother's Cuisine, proudly recalled the second anniversary of the video “Mother wrapping banh chung, making a year-end meal to celebrate Tet” introduced on the YouTube Fanpage.

Previously, the video made by Hung and his 56-year-old mother Duong Thi Cuong was played on their video channel on January 24, 2020. After about a year, the video gained 1.8 million views, many of which were from foreigners.

The video was introduced on YouTube Fanpage with nearly 100 million views on February 10, 2021. Not only is it a milestone of the channel but also proof of the appeal of Vietnamese cuisine. Although very familiar, banh chung is considered the national spirit of the country, a typical dish for Vietnamese New Year.

To date, the video has gained 2.7 million views, receiving many positive comments. Many viewers from abroad expressed their love for the Vietnamese people and their cuisine.

To complete the simple video, it took Hung and his mother more than a week to film and edit. Cuong had to repeat the steps of soaking beans, cutting leaves, wrapping cakes, etc. many times. She also prepared familiar dishes such as boiled chicken, salad, and spring rolls to celebrate the New Year.

“The footage is really the daily life of me and my mother. For some takes, my mother prepared quickly so I reminded her to slow down so that I could choose a good angle,” Hung shared.

“When I heard that the channel's video was introduced by YouTube to users all over the world, I was very happy and proud. I make food vlogs only with the desire to preserve childhood memories like many children born in the countryside. From that simple purpose, my mother and I had the honor of contributing to the promotion of Vietnamese cuisine and people to international friends.”

The channel was selected by YouTube through the official Twitter account in May 2020 and received the honor of becoming the representative YouTube channel for Vietnam in the YouTube FanFest 2020. It was rare that a channel from a Vietnamese content creator was noticed by YouTube.

Famous for ‘clean’ content

The channel was created in February 2020. At this time, YouTube and other platforms were seeing many clickbait content channels.

‘Mother-made Cuisine’ did not use any tricks but still attracted millions of views. Now, it has reached more than 1 million subscribers with the Golden Play Button, releasing 3 to 4 videos monthly.

The ingredients of the dishes are prepared, planted and processed by Mrs. Cuong herself. It takes at least a week to complete a video with the longest taking from five to six months.

The videos are reminiscent of rural life with vegetable gardens, rice fields, and old houses.

“A video posted on the channel must have good, unique, meaningful content and convey a positive message. With those criteria, the channel is loved and appreciated by everyone. We have received very little negative feedback,” said Hung.

Ngoc Lai