“A three-year-old to host her own online food show”
“Three-year-old Daria to give top chefs competition”
These were some of the headlines during the run-up to the launch of Time Out With Daria, an online food show released on YouTube’s Starrin channel. Featuring three-year-old Daria Bedi and her mother Tina, the show celebrates all things sweet – brownies, mousse, cakes and the little girl with the aww-inducing lisp.
The first episode was aired on July 20, followed by two more episodes. All of them have the mother-daughter duo baking, mixing and sprinkling sugar on things. However, Daria is not hosting the show as much as she is getting underfoot – a toddler’s prerogative – while her mother does the hosting and the cooking. Daria can name most of the ingredients going into the mixing bowl and has a blunt, pink knife that keeps her busy as her mother chops up fruits with the real thing. Most of the time, though, she is is like any happy toddler hanging around in the kitchen with her mother. She is no chef – yet – but a polite, spirited and happy girl with a sweet tooth.
The show is repetitive from the second episode itself. A new dish is introduced at the beginning and recipes from the previous episode are repeated. Daria helps her mother make meringues (she calls them “soft soft”) and walnut bread in the second and third episodes, but the recipes and the proportion of each ingredient is lost in the chaos that reigns in their outdoor, make-shift kitchen.
The show’s charm derives entirely from Daria as she enthusiastically offers help, breaks into giggles and obliges the crew members with one-liners. They coax her into saying things like “Yummy,” “Delicious”, “I love it” or simply have her repeat “Time Out with Daria.” Every mispronounced word warms the heart that much more.
Like most toddlers, Daria is not bothered about masking her feelings, and this is the reason to follow the show. Time Out With Daria has retained shots that might otherwise be part of blooper reels in any other production – Daria getting startled after eating a sour orange, or taking a sip of a mango smoothie, making a face on camera and declaring that she doesn’t like it one bit. She dances around with sweets in her hand, insists on doing anything that looks even remotely interesting, but mostly sits around with her hand in the sugar bowl (not caring about the difference between caster and icing), licking her fingers ever so often. The walnut bread preparation is especially hilarious, with Daria adding the pretty, “snow-like” flour by the handful (transferring some directly into her mouth) while her mother, with infinite patience, tries to distract her and get the bread-making back on track.
This is not a cooking show by a long shot. Many parents might get inspired to involve their children in the cooking process, but they will still be looking up the recipes.
