Ryan Can’t Cook reveals biggest challenge in bringing Monster Hunter Wilds’ food to life

Ryan Alexander, better known as ‘Ryan Can’t Cook,’ recreated some of the mouth-watering vittles from Monster Hunter Wilds for the game’s launch event in partnership with Rockstar Energy. We quizzed him about his favorite eats, how he got started making content and what’s next for his career.

Ryan’s social media moniker, ‘Ryan Can’t Cook,’ couldn’t be further from the truth. A quick look at his content shows just how talented he is in the kitchen — and how wildly creative he is when it comes to making videos.

His chaotic, hilarious, high-energy clips have earned him a combined four million followers across YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, so it’s not hard to see why he was Capcom’s first pick for bringing the food from Monster Hunter Wilds to life.

We at Dexerto got a chance to play the game ahead of time, and it’s safe to say that we were blown away — and really hungry — by the time we were finished. We can confirm that Ryan produced a faithful recreation of the food our character and their Palico got to chow down on between Hunts, including that eye-popping garlic naan cheese pull.

At the Rockstar Energy x Monster Hunter Wilds launch event, guests got to nom on a good selection of eats, including chimichurri pinwheel steak kebabs, garlic parmesan chicken kebabs, balsamic garlic mushroom kebabs, garlic cheesy naan and mini Thai tea Basque cheesecakes.

RyanCan’tCook brings Monster Hunter Wilds’ food to life

For Ryan, the most difficult part of pulling off this culinary feat was scaling the grub down from how huge it appears in-game.

“Some of the items in the game are just massive (no ninja meme), so getting accurate life size versions can be a bit challenging,” he told us. “I also severely underestimated how much cheese I’d need to put in the cheesy naan to get a cheese pull like the one in the game, so that took several attempts to get right.”

That cheesy naan was definitely something we looked forward to eating, and it was Ryan’s favorite, too. In fact, he says the Monster Hunter games have some of the most delicious-looking food out of all video games that he’s played.

“The cheesy naan just looked absolutely insane,” he admitted. “I love cheese, and that definitely stood out to me. Out of all video games, the kebabs from the Monster Hunter games; biting into those just always looks so satisfying.”

Of course, translating food from a game to real life certainly has its struggles — something Ryan would know all about. In fact, Ryan says that he once spent a total of two months attempting to create the perfect omelette, which he nearly repeated in his quest to perfect the Thai Tea Basque Cheesecake for the party.

“I spent about two months testing different methods for making eggs (mostly French omelets) on every different type of pan,” he recalled. “I wouldn’t say this is the craziest food, but it did consume nearly two months of my life, as I was researching and making every type of egg until I got each technique perfect under any condition. I would typically go through a carton or so just about every day. For the most part, I’m sick of eggs now.

“Similar to the eggs, I once spent about two weeks making basque cheesecake every day until I could get it perfect. It’s one of those things that has so many environmental factors that can cause it to not come out right. It’s also 100% my favorite course on the menu. The easiest are the chicken kebabs. I think it’s pretty hard to mess up chicken, especially when it’s lathered in garlic parm.”

From grandma’s kitchen to social media star

It’s easy to look at Ryan’s recent videos and think he’s always had a natural talent for cooking, but it’s probably because he got an early start — as well as a great teacher. He told us that his interest in cooking first sparked thanks to his grandmother, who put him to the test after he kept badgering her to teach him how to bake at just four years old.

“I was in the kitchen watching my grandma make pastries,” Ryan said. “I was mesmerized with her attention to detail and techniques when it came to baking and cooking, so I asked her if she could teach me. Instead, she kept telling me I was too young and kicked me out of the kitchen. I kept insisting, so she finally told me, ‘I’ll teach you this one time. If you screw it up, you’re not allowed in the kitchen anymore.’

“So, I just locked in and I guess I did a pretty decent job, so she kept letting me help. I was about four years old at the time, and I just fell in love with cooking from that point on. Around 2019-2020, I started honing in on my skills and decided to just start making the foods I’m craving at home, as well as practice my knife skills and so on. I always found cooking so therapeutic, and it really just allows you to exit reality for a second.”

Ryan translated his love of cooking into online content during the global health crisis in 2020 – 2021, cataloging his culinary progress on his Instagram spam account. What first started as a way to record his improvements and inspire others to start cooking quickly snowballed into what is now his primary career — a job that’s resulted in collaborations with major celebrities like rapper bbno$ and even Gordon Ramsey.

“I feel absolutely blessed for the opportunities that have come to me,” he admitted. “I’m not quite sure how it happens, but things sort of tend to just fall in place the way they’re supposed to. Every collab I do is my favorite when I make it. I don’t necessarily enjoy one more than the other, they’re all super fun to make.

“If I really have to choose, I would say BBNO$ was my favorite person to work with. He’s someone who I’ve looked up to for many years, and I’m proud to be able to call him a close friend. We’re both really chaotic people and our styles just mesh really well so every video just tends to work.”

As for what’s next in Ryan’s career, he wants to try his hand at making long-format videos on YouTube, and even teased a possible “streaming side-quest” in the near future, since he loves gaming so much.

It’s that love of gaming, and his passion for cooking, that’s brought him this far — and the only way left to go is up. You can check out Dexerto’s review of Monster Hunter Wilds here, before the game’s official launch on February 28.