Cooking a Silkie chicken - a bird well-known for its black skin and soft feathers - may not be such an easy task, but Noms with Neeko is going to give it a try anyway. Streamer Nicole Sanchez, known on Twitch by the username Neeko, is set to whip up a Silkie dish during the Halloween episode of her cooking show’s second season.
Neeko has always loved cooking. It’s an interest she developed after moving away from home and being forced to fend for herself, which she discovered made great content for her budding Twitch channel. Three years and half-a-million followers later, Neeko’s culinary passion has blossomed into a full-scale cooking show. Game ZXC spoke with the streamer about Noms with Neeko’s second season, which started streaming on September 18, and how she’s developed her skills as a cook. Interview edited for clarity and brevity.
Q: Tell me a little bit about yourself. How did you get started streaming?
A: My name is Nicole, but I go by Neeko. I am a Mexican-American streamer, and I first started dabbling in streaming back in late 2017. It was a bit of a learning curve for me, so I didn't start full time streaming until the following year while I was figuring it out.
Around that time, I met my boyfriend [Nick Brotman]. He just happened to be a talent manager for content creators — although at the time I didn’t even know what a manager was. He gave me advice on trends and stuff like that, and he was with me when I got my big break. I became a political viral meme, and that’s how I got a following.
After that, the real learning curve started. I had to find out what did well, and I found a couple of things I was interested in. One of those was cooking, and I now have a cooking show on Twitch called Noms with Neeko.
Q: You mentioned that cooking was an interest of yours. Was that something you pursued before Noms with Neeko?
I think my interest in cooking comes from my background. I had to be independent at a very early age, and later I incorporated those skills, like cooking, when I moved away from home and I was trying to save money.
I moved out briefly to Seattle, because Hispanic parents can be very overbearing, and I was like, ‘I need to move out.’ Of course, moving out means paying rent, paying bills. Saving money was something that was important to me.
As a content creator, you’re always thinking about how to make things into content. So, I started doing cooking streams. I started by just cooking on my own and setting up my camera and laptop and making content out of that.
The streams were super scuffed at first, but nonetheless, it just showed me that I have a passion for cooking. I wanted to do harder things, cook more complicated dishes, and try different spices. That slowly became a more integrated part of my content over time.
Q: You’ve obviously expanded your cooking content since then. Noms with Neeko is about to start its second season. Did the positive audience response motivate you to build out your cooking show, or were you more interested in exploring this passion?
A: It was a little bit of both. I saw people on my stream get a little more interactive, saying things like, ‘hey, you're not doing that right,’ or ‘that looks awful.’ There was a lot of encouragement in my chat as well.
Growing up, my mom would scowl at me to come help her in the kitchen, and I would hesitantly go. You know, it’s one of those things where your mom is saying ‘you need to do this,’ and you don't want to do it. But, I think I retained a lot of the things she taught me, and I realized that I actually love doing this. So yeah, I think the interest was always there. It's something I've been doing since 2019, far before I had the opportunity to do Noms with Neeko.
Q: So, something that started out as sort of a necessity for you grew into a passion. I’m sure the types of things you’ve made on stream have gotten more complicated as you’ve gone on, too.
A: Yeah, the menu for this season of Noms with Neeko is kind of insane — we decide all the recipes beforehand. As a sneak peek: in one of my streams I’m going to be making a rare black chicken called a Silkie. It has black skin, and that’s going to be part of our Halloween special.
Q: I would imagine that your show has also gotten more structure since starting Noms with Neeko. What was that transition like for you?
A: I think all streaming has a structure, really. If you want to be able to put out the best content, you definitely need structure, especially when it comes to cooking.
When you're making a show, there’s definitely a lot more added structure, and of course there's a bit more production cost. The quality of my show is something that I definitely put a lot of time, effort, and money into, but I also don't want to lose that personal touch, where the viewer feels like they could also do what I’m doing.
I think showing people that cooking is something they can do on their own, without all the flashiness, is something that resonates with people. Even if they don't actually go out and do it on their own, the fact that they feel like they can is super important. I want to demonstrate to people that they can also set up a camera and show people what they can do in the kitchen.
It’s important to me that Noms with Neeko doesn’t lose that personal touch.
Q: How did you feel coming away from the first season of Noms with Neeko? What’s changing in the new series?
A: I learned a lot. One thing I improved for season two, aside from the amazing artwork that I got done for the show, is definitely the overall quality. I recently invested in a DSLR camera, so I'm hoping that that works flawlessly, so not only can my audience see me cooking the food in 4K, but hopefully they can actually see the true beauty of what's being cooked. I feel like when I was using my Logitech camera — no offense to Logitech — the food looked delicious to me, it didn’t look as good on camera. I’m hoping to get a bit higher production quality with the new camera. I also got a stream deck with a bunch of buttons on it, that you can program to switch scenes. I’ll be doing all the camera movements myself.
Q: Have your cooking skills improved, do you think?
A: That's something that is a part of my stream: learning to cook new dishes. I'm not going to act like I'm a pro at cooking. I’ve never cooked something like a Silkie before. I think the learning experience is a big part of my show. I have basic cooking skills, things like cooking an egg, or flipping properly, or being able to tell when something's fully done.
Those are the building blocks of cooking. Now I'm learning all these new recipes, and I'm cooking them. I'm also having people taste test them, so I'm being judged as well. I think it resonates with the viewer, that I could actually mess up what I’m making.
Q: What’s the best thing you’ve made so far? What have you messed up?
A: So, last season, I made Garfield's lasagna, and I made a healthy peach cobbler. That day, I just decided I didn’t want to eat too much sugar, so I made a healthy cobbler. Of course, I also incorporate my Mexican culture and foods into my cooking show. That’s something that I actively try to do.
I think one of the things I didn't do right last season was not doing enough. There’s just so much you can do with cooking. You can make a new recipe every day for the rest of your life, and you wouldn’t come close to cooking all the dishes that exist. I realized that I need to step up my game and show people the kind of things that they can cook at home. But that kind of cooking is meticulous, it takes more time and care.
This season, I definitely want to up my cooking, which is why I have a lot of very intricate dishes that I'm going to be making like, you know, like the Silkie chicken. I’m also going to be making uni pasta. I actually went to Hawaii, and while I was snorkeling I saw all of these sea urchins at the bottom of the ocean. It was so awesome to see a bit of where our food comes from. Knowing where your food comes from is very important to me. All of these experiences together have definitely inspired me to up my game for this next season.
Q: You still stream other content in addition to cooking, right?
A: Yeah, I do a lot of reaction streams. Growing up, I was severely bullied, but an interesting thing that I was told was that it was fun to tease me because of the way I react. It’s funny, because now people find my reactions interesting while I stream. That’s why I think I started doing reaction streams. It’s not something I notice much, but it’s something that other people find amusing.
Q: Do you ever find it difficult to balance all of your responsibilities as a streamer, both on and off-camera?
A: Yeah, definitely. Finding a way to be efficient is super hard, partly because I produce bilingual content — I'm going to be doing Noms with Neeko in English and Spanish — but also because of things like switching cameras and writing my weekly newsletter on Discord. I have Twitter accounts in English and in Spanish, I make TikToks in English and in Spanish, and a bunch of YouTube accounts in English and in Spanish.
I have all these things that I have to balance, and it's really hard. But luckily, I have a group of really awesome people that I work with: my editor, my motion graphics designer, and a lot of different artists that I work with. It’s not something easy to do by yourself, it’s definitely a team effort. But I'm absolutely not alone.
Q: I think it would be fair to say that you had a bit of meteoric rise to fame. How have your priorities and responsibilities changed as a big-time streamer? How have you managed those changes?
A: When I first started streaming, I had no idea what I was doing. I just kind of hopped on, played a game and got off. Over time, I found one of my strong suits, which is talking. I talk a lot. I'm also very opinionated. I'm not afraid to have a bit of an edge.
I think that, although there are a lot of amazing content creators, I have come about my own unique personality, and I’ve discovered where I’m strong. I do edgy things like ban appeals and politics, but I also do wholesome and warm things like cooking. I have a lot to say, but I’ve also done a lot of learning.
I come from a very, very humble beginning. My parents worked for ten hours a day for a decade, I'm not even joking. I rarely saw them.
My parents weren't in the picture a lot of my life. They would come home, make food for us, give us the essentials that we needed. But we were made to grow up fast. I never lose sight of where I came from, and I'm extremely grateful every day for where I am now.
I have had a lot of hard moments as a content creator. It's mentally taxing going through things like hate mobs, trolls, stalkers, people that are always trying to find out where you live.
But, there have also been a lot of gratifying things. I’ve had a lot of opportunities come my way. Sometimes it feels like a simulation, it’s so crazy to me. I feel like I’ve entered a cheat code or something. Looking at where I was compared to where I am now, a lot of these amazing opportunities have really helped me get through it all.
Q: It seems like you have a bit of creative license now to explore your passions. Do you feel like your platform has put you in that unique position?
A: Absolutely, yeah. I think that's one of the most gratifying parts of my job. It's self-gratifying that I'm in a different position than where I was growing up, but it’s also gratifying to expand representation for other aspiring POC women content creators, or Mexican-Americans in general.
Since we're such a small demographic, I think it's super important to be that representation and to have more content creators in the streaming space that speak Spanish. If I was a viewer, and I was consuming Twitch content and other social media content, I would want to see someone like me. I would want to see someone that didn't come from a privileged background that has come far. It makes you feel like you can do these things, too. It can happen to anyone.
I hope I'm that kind of representation for people. That's what I aspire to be.
Q: What’s next for you? What sort of projects do you want to pursue?
A: I really do want to continue pursuing cooking. Noms with Neeko has a big budget, and I’m getting paid to cook, so I would technically say that I’m a professional cook. I’m hoping to work with other amazing content creators that I could share that passion with, and I’d like to keep upping the quality of my show. Cooking content on YouTube, TikTok, Twitch — it's something that I'm really passionate about, and I want to keep pursuing it along with all the other content that I’m doing.
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Noms with Neeko is streaming now on Twitch.