b'Channeling aLove for CookingSeth Boyden fourth grader hosts his own cooking showBY ELLEN DONKERJ acob Case never expected to bethough Jacob likes appearing in them, he qual-sharing cooking videos on Face- ifies it: Well, mostly, but it does take a long book. After all, hes only 9 yearstime to get the video out. And then we have old,withintereststypicalofto, like, sometimes do a lot of retakes. boys his age. But when schoolAsthedirectorfortheEarlyHeadstart wasshutdowninMarch,hisprogram at Unified Vailsburg Services Orga-mother,PaulaJohnson-Case,nization, all of this was new to Johnson-Case, asked him how he wanted to spend the time.at least the video and social media parts. She Initially thinking theyd be stuck at home fordoes have experience in the kitchen, having just two weeks, she was looking for a short- attended catering school after high school in term project. Jamaica, but never pursued it professionally.They decided to cook together for those 14Johnson-Case is committed to keeping Ja-days, capture it on video and post it to Face- cobs cooking channel going as long as he wants book. And thats how Cooking with Jacob wasto do it. In the end, its not all about cooking. born. Since Jacob didnt have much experiencepots, Johnson-Case says, laughing about the foodShe says, Hes learned more about me and Ive in the kitchen besides peeling carrots and snippingpolicefollowers who were giving her feedbacklearned about him. Although he doesnt always have green beans, he had a lot to learn. For their first dish,about how to improve the videos.patience for prep and cooking, hes starting to under-they made fried plantains. Of those first episodes,Taking the advice to heart, she began clearing thestand processes and how some foods, like oxtail, a fa-Jacob says, I was really afraid and nervous. Thatscounters, making sure they werent cluttered with why, like, I think in my first three videos you canitemsnotneededfortheshoot.Andshelearned hear my mom talking. Because she was helping me.how to use the video editor on her phonethe dif-When the two weeks were up and the pandemicference is noticeable. It enables her to trim her vid-showed no signs of ending, Jacob decided to con- eos so theyre a more digestible length and add type tinue his show, just not on a daily basis. He nowoverlays for recipe information or to fill in details had school to attend (albeit virtually) and his momthat Jacob forgot to mention. When Jacob gets upset had to go back to work. They decided to post onand doesnt want to finish an episode she can now WednesdaysandSundayswhileincorporatingcut out the frames. At 9 years old, hes bound to have changes to produce better-quality videos. some moments. [In the beginning] we didnt edit or care aboutJohnson-Case admits its a very tedious process,Jacob and his mother, Paula Johnson-Case, have learned a lot about each other with so thebackground.Iwasntpayingattentiontothesaying, A five-minute video takes hours to do. Andmuch time spent together in the kitchen.'