Web Video / Sorted Food

SortedFood is a YouTube channel run by a chef (Ben Ebbrell) along with three "normals" (Barry Taylor, Jamie Spafford, and Mike Huttlestone). Sorted began as a way to get students cooking, when chef-in-training Ben Ebbrell realised his three high school friends (Barry, Jamie, and Mike) had no idea how to cook. What started there developed into a YouTube channel with over two million subscribers, several cookbooks, and collaborations with not only other YouTube channels but brands, and more famous chefs.

The YouTube channel began in 2008, with episodes filmed in kitchens that were "begged, borrowed, and stolen", using filming equipment borrowed from a housemate who was a film student. Most of the people from the early videos no longer appear, and James Currie did not join as a development chef until later, not featuring in videos until even later after that.

On May 23, 2021, James announced he was leaving the channel to focus on a professional chef career. He has returned as a guest in some videos.

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Sorted Food includes examples of:

• Achievements in Ignorance: In the first Poker Face 2.0 video, the guys all have to drink Whiskey Sours for a round, where not only is one of the drinks spiked with citric acid, but they also have to eat a bud of Szechuan Pepper beforehand to enhance the flavors (or, more specifically, the sourness) even more. By the end of the round, the vote is split between Mike and Ben^note Mike for his more pained expression and Ben for his over-active sweat glands - Giggling and slight wincing aside, all of the guys actually manage to keep their faces relatively straight., with both of the guys in question firmly believing that Mike got the bad drink… Only for Kush to deny it after tasting it himself. Then he tastes Ben’s… And his scrunched-up face and yelling confirms that it was actually Ben who got it. Upon questioning how Ben could’ve possibly gotten it wrong, since Kush let them know that the bad drink should’ve been very obvious to the one who got it, Ben replies that he thought it was just the Szechuan bud doing its thing, to everyone’s shock. Ben himself is more upset about the fact that he fails to score a point on his own round.
  Mike: (wincing after tasting Ben’s drink) UGH! I CAN’T PUT MY FACE BACK!
  Ben: You guys were all making such a fuss over the Szechuan bud that I presumed mine was the same as one of yours.
  Barry: (appalled and also wincing) EBBERS!
  Mike: Ebbers, you android!
• Adam Westing: The collaboration with Jamie Oliver seems at first to be like their normal parody videos, until Jamie Oliver himself appears in it as an exaggerated version of himself.
• Adult Child: Pretty much the whole cast (with perhaps the exception of Ben). James in particular has an air of childlike innocence, such as in the Christmas gift episode where he receives an egg holder shaped like the Iron Throne, and his first reaction is "If you had a pet hamster, imagine the fun you could have."
• Artifact Title: Fridge Cam, which used to be the intro to a lot of Sorted Food videos where the hosts talk to the audience after opening a fridge. Nowadays they start the videos on a backdrop next to the set that has the word FRIDGE CAM displayed on the wall.
• Beware the Silly Ones: The "normals" are absolutely hilarious and love poking fun at each other, but it's hard to forget that they are also competent cooks when they pull out some very good-looking dishes on a nearly weekly basis.
• Blind Without 'Em: Ben is as good as, and doesn't appreciate when the others take his glasses.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: While this can apply to everyone at Sorted, Kush is a standout example. He spends a lot of his screen-time snarking at and playing pranks on people, but he also has 17 years of experience as a chef and used to work at a Michelin-star restaurant before joining the channel, meaning that the man really knows his food and gets to show it whenever he’s placed in the kitchen. And in his Sub-10 Minute Burger Challenge video, he manages to cook a delicious burger from scratch in less than two minutes, a record which (so far) remains unbeaten.
• Call-Back: Whenever a fusion video comes up, the boys (especially Jamie) never fail to bring up the "Paella Burrito" incident.
• Cast Full of Pretty Boys: All of the cast members are good-looking.
• Catchphrase: "That's [food item], sorted!"
• Chained Heat: James and Ben are handcuffed together as part of their review of Fifty Shades of Chicken. They manage to perform very well despite it.
• Characterization Marches On: Since this is a show made by and about actual people, they obviously develop over time. One notable example, which viewers have started pointing out, is that the three "normals" should no longer be called that, since they've learned a great deal during the show's run, and are all excellent cooks by now. As of September 2019, they are officially "foodies" - they've been upgraded!
• Color Blind Confusion: Jamie is colourblind, and has used it multiple times as an excuse for calling vegetables by the wrong name, such as mistaking aubergines for courgettes, or calling a cucumber a carrot.
• Cooking Duel: There are several series of these, including "Chef v. Chef" and "The Ultimate [Food] Battle," where the cast members compete based on a theme and are then judged on their efforts.
• Crossover: The SORTED teem has collaborated with a wide variety of organizations and celebrities, including but not limited to Donal Skehan, Jamie Oliver, Rhett & Link, Yogscast and Tom Scott.
• Deadpan Snarker: Mike as Janice has some pretty scathing comments in his voiceovers. In general, the boys absolutely love their sarcasm.
• Double Entendre: Ben has a habit of dropping innuendos (intentionally or not), so much so that the boys refer to it as "Benuendos". Mike also offers some gems, especially in battles.

  "My sausage is nice and brown now. I've been on holiday."

  [after Jamie spills flour on his crotch] "Is it self-raising?"

• Dunning Kruger Effect: Or as the boys call it, "Barry Taylor Syndrome". In the "Pass It On" videos, the participants each have to rate their contribution to the final product. The two professional chefs almost always rate themselves 7 out of 10, even if they made (or saved) almost the entire dish, whereas Barry and Jamie only rate themselves lower than 8 when they spectacularly screw something up. When season 2 rolls around, Barry has seemed to learned his lesson and rarely rates himself above 8 unless he's particularly proud of something. Jamie still overrates himself a good chunk of the time, but it's less inflated nowadays.

  Mike (as Janice) in VO, after Barry rates himself an 8: Wouldn't it be wonderful to live in a world where draining potatoes and charring some corn was 80% of what is humanly possible.

• Everyone Went to School Together: Everyone but James went to the same school as kids.
• Funny Background Event: Is the case in quite a few FridgeCam intros and outros, with the background event occurring in the kitchen between whoever isn't talking to the camera.
• Food Porn: This is a cooking YouTube channel, so it's their bread and butter. It's also being mercilessly parodied, as they call the presentation of their finished dishes "Bring on the Sexies".
• Four-Man Band: Ben is obviously The Smart Guy, while Mike typically takes the role of the Only Sane Man. Jamie and Barry tend to alternate being the Buttmonkey, Jamie as a result of his somewhat bumbling Big Fun personality, and Barry largely for Hoist by His Own Petard reasons.
• The Gadfly: None of the guys (Except for Ben) is above messing with each other, but Kush's on-screen appearances have proven him to be an unabashed prankster and lover of messing with people. Among other things, he's thrown various objects and flown drones at participants in the Sub-10 Minute Burger Challenge videos to distract them, stolen Barry's ear buds with incredible speed and locked them in a "food safe" in a Gadget Review video and demonstrated unabashed glee when the descriptions of the bad food items in the first Poker Face 2.0 video have been read.
• Gentle Giant: James. He's easily the tallest member of the cast, but he's very soft-spoken and comes off as very shy.
  • In the Chef vs. Chef Ramen Battle, Barry pretends to grab James from behind and hold a knife to his neck. James meekly protests "Not in the kitchen!" a few times, before effortlessly wrestling Barry to the ground.
• Hidden Depths: Despite being portrayed as the airhead of the group, Barry has frequently shown a willingness to think outside the box and a strong aesthetic sense—in fact, on one occasion, his skill at plating managed to save a Pass It On meal.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Barry failed to get the food photography badge. The reason? He's a professional photographer and presented his dish in the same fashion one would depict a person. ^note  According to the comments on the video by a food photographer, studio photography is very different from food photography.
• Keet: Downplayed with Ben. He does get excited by the things he's nerdy about (food and science), but he isn't hyperactive.
• Masochist's Meal:
  • Some videos feature these but try to make them taste good, like a durian chocolate cheesecake.
  • "Food hell", which appears both in the VR series and as the consequence for the Brownie Point loser, is a food item/meal that the recipient has specifically elected that they dislike.
• Not So Above It All:
  • Mike is all about the badges, much to his chagrin.
    Why do I care so much?! It's really annoying!
  • Kush during any time as a behind the camera assistant is an Only Sane Man. Since his burger challenge, he's been prone to utter chaos when he can.
• Overly Narrow Superlative: Parodied:
  ... they will go head-to-head-to-head in what will later be called the eleventh-greatest Japanese and sake food pairing battle in east London. On a Sunday!
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The Sorted team will often engage in trolling, piss-taking and messing around just for the hell of it. The one exception is when they are working on someone's wedding. Then everyone is suddenly all business, discipline and focus... and goes immediately back to taking the absolute piss out of everything as soon as the work is over.
• Promoted Fanboy: James mentioned in his exit interview that his first contact with the "Sorted" team was going and listening to Ben speak at his university's career day.
• Running Gag: Many.
  • "BARRY! TURN. YOUR HOB. OFF."^note Barry has a habit of taking a pot or pan off the hob but leaving it running, which is a fire hazard and waste of energy.
  • Ben's imaginary son Tyrone, whom he traded for a Japanese knife.
  • Janice, the narrator of some of the competitions, who apparently has a romantic past with James.
  • Ben's red shorts.
  • Presenting dishes = Bring on the Sexies!
  • Ben's habit for innuendos, deliberate or not, has become a running gag, earning the nickname of 'Benuendos'.
  • Jamie putting meat in everything, and his Big Eater tendencies in general.
  • The "Pass It On" series features the boys taking 10-minute turns to contribute to an improvised dish. Jamie has repeatedly proven almost comically bad at these challenges, to the point where the soundtrack (which is of course added in post-production) always switches to the same trumpet-based tune that's like a cross between the Tom and Jerry and the Benny Hill theme.
    • This evolved into its own little skit in the 13th episode of the series: on his turn, Jamie starts by pointing to the camera and saying "First of all, you turn off that soundtrack and play something decent." The soundtrack temporarily switches to a rock tune; shortly afterward he admits he has no idea what to do, and mutters "You're playing the soundtrack, aren't you" (he's right).
    • Averted in the Fresh Pasta Relay Challenge, where the dish passes pretty much entirely because of the pasta Jamie made.
    • In the same series, Barry occasionally adds something ridiculous, trendy and/or pretentious that the people after him have no idea what to do with. Prime examples are the (attempted) cloud egg in the 'Food Trends' episode, and the blowtorched pepper in the Vegetarian episode, both of which resulted in mockery during their respective episodes as well as in subsequent ones.
  • Any time velouté sauce is mentioned after the Bottomless Brunch Battle, expect at least one of the 'Normals' to reference the 'My VELOUTÉ' bit.
• Serious Business: In the Ultimate Burrito Battle, Jamie put paella (Valencian) in a burrito (Mexican). His decision resulted in numerous angry articles in Spanish-speaking media, as well as death threats on Twitter.
• The Show Must Go On: Barry's wedding cake. Ben, who was baking the thing, on site, forgot to bring oranges, whose juice and zest were a key component in one of the cakes. So what does he do? Steal a glass of carton OJ from the bar, beg the florist for the two clementines he saw in her lunchbox, and get back to work.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: The boys are all British to the core, which also means they mostly express their affection for each other through insults (and, in the case of Jamie to Barry, the occasional slap on the face). This is especially true when the normals go head-to-head in the Ultimate Battles; however, the facade always drops when they try the dishes at the end, as they're all genuinely supportive or each other's work.

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