“I’ve isolated at home with my husband since Feb. 15 as I got a mild fever after a work task at a public place with people from other countries,” Diah, a natural dye artist who was used to having workshops with a number of people, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday via text message.

“Being pregnant in this condition is hard and it is so easy to get stressed after reading the news. But cooking is like therapy to me,” she said.

This is Diah’s first pregnancy.

Diah said she used to cook instant foods, such as chicken nuggets or pasta as she and her husband had busy schedules. Now, with a lot of free time her hand, she has been encouraged to cook more complicated foods armed with recipes she found online.

“I was so proud that I successfully made doughnuts. Normally it was so easy to get out of the house and get doughnuts from street sellers, but now I don’t want to take the risk of contracting the virus if I go out for a snack,” she said.

She followed a recipe from her favorite online chef, William Gozali. 

“For other snacks, I like @yackikuka," she said.

Cooking is said to have therapeutic effects that can help you cope with stress. The Wall Street Journal mentioned that mental counselors have been using cooking or baking as therapy tools for people with depression and anxiety. Cooking is claimed to help people curb negative thoughts by focusing on following a recipe and making enjoyable things from scratch.

Some even consider binge-watching people cook a way to relax.

Along with Diah’s favorite channels, there are countless cooking channels out there to watch. 

For example, Bahtiar Sigar through his channel @masakdarurat shares easy-to-make recipes with simple equipment.

For Indonesian recipes, you can check out Yuda Bustara and Theresia. Both offer advanced but doable recipes, especially if you have a lot of time on your hands, such as now.

Want to go behind the scenes of the Indonesian culinary business? Agus Cuguy and Sobat Dapur are your friends.

Their content includes the exploration of familiar, beloved Indonesian street foods, such as bakso (meatball soup), fried cassava and low budget fried chicken. They also share the recipes so you can remake your favorite street foods in the comfort of your own kitchen.

Read also: Bali's award-winning Locavore restaurant continues to support farmers despite pandemic

Do you like cooking and dogs? Check out Cooking with Dog, a Japanese cooking show web series. Since its premiere in 2007, the show has gained popularity due to Francis, a toy poodle who accompanies the Japanese cooking lady by the stove and “narrates” the show. 

Another quirky Asian cooking show is presented by Zhou Xiaohui, more famously known as Ms. Yeah. She became well-known after making a video of her cooking hot pot noodle from scratch using a water dispenser in her office. Following her success, she made more cooking videos using her office tools with her colleagues working in the background.

For more instructive Asian recipes, you can check out Marion’s Kitchen. With a Thai and Australian background, she has a huge appetite for both Asian and Western cuisine. She has even made the Indonesian beloved soto (soup) that you can practice in your own kitchen.

You can also check out Ryoya Takashima from Peaceful Cuisine, who made quite a ripple on YouTube by cooking vegan food without any background music. Take joy in listening to the soothing sounds of knives cutting vegetables, water boiling in a pot and coffee beans against a glass jar. 

For hearty Western recipes, you can count on a Canadian chef whose expertise includes profanity, Matty Matheson. After gaining loyal viewers from his web series with Munchies, he has hosted at least eight eating and cooking shows on the internet.

Chef John from FoodWishes.com also presents a quirky personality with a distinctive accent and easy recipes. John Mitzewich, the person behind chef John, is a real-life chef who was born in New York in 1963. He started his restaurant career after graduating from Paul Smith’s College in 1983 but left to focus on teaching people to cook online.

For more laughter, you can check out You Suck at Cooking where a flat, bored-sounding voice over gives you impossible instructions and quirky back stories in making the simplest, doable food such as guacamole and aglio e olio. (wng)