Adrián García González

4º Estudios Ingleses

Henry Phillips – Henry’s Kitchen: Delicious Chocolate Donut Recipe

https://youtu.be/liLnvMtISFE

Today we will be using this video recipe to tackle a silent killer. On the surface, Henry’s Kitchen is
your typical ten-minute cooking guide with a master chef at work and smooth, cutting-edge editing,
but upon further inspection one can start to appreciate the different layers and depth this piece of
media has to offer.

Let us start at the beginning. “The recipe I’m using makes five donuts, but we are only going to be
making one donut, so I’m just gonna be dividing the ingredients by five.” Pause the video here. Did
you notice? One donut. Henry is cooking one donut, just by and for himself. Nobody to share it with,
except for the inhuman AI Siri. Now we can dig deeper.

Living by yourself. Alone. Think about what that entangles. Grocery shopping. Bills. Hostile, noisy
neighbors. A pile of clothing you don’t know if it’s still clean or not. Dust. Electronic devices
malfunctioning. Expiration dates forcing you to either waste food or risk getting sick – best way to
avoid this is by having your refrigerator empty all the time. Nobody ever comes to visit. Did
something happen today? You better write it down because you have no one to tell. Your voice
slowly weakening as you spend your days in complete silence.

Today we know the effects loneliness has on us both physically and mentally. In paper we are more
connected than ever thanks to social media and dating apps, however data suggests that we actually
feel lonelier than ever. This can lead to increased stress levels, higher chances of getting a heart
disease, depression and even suicide. Life is not meant to be experienced alone, that is the reason
the original donut recipe made five donuts.

Now let’s go back to Henry. Around four and a half minutes into the video we can hear a song.
‘There’s something broken inside of me, something no one else can see.’ This is the brightest and
most positive part of the video. Usually depression eats away at our lives in such a way we can’t
even enjoy things we used to like anymore, however Henry seems to still have an interest in music
so he puts it in the video even though it’s a chore and there is no need to – there is still hope for
Henry and, if he focuses on his hobbies, having fun and self-improvement that may very well help
him create meaningful connections again in the future. Hopefully, by next time he won’t need to
divide the ingredients by five anymore.