Ann Reardon

Ann Reardon is an Australian food scientist, qualified dietitian, and YouTube creator whose HowToCookThat channel has become one of the most important voices in debunking dangerous food content online. Reardon studied food science at Curtin University of Technology and subsequently worked as both a consultant dietitian in the food industry and as a community and public health dietitian. She launched her website in 2009 after having her third son, originally as a creative outlet, and began her YouTube channel in 2011. The channel grew to over five million subscribers and more than 750 million views, recognized not only for elaborate cake and dessert tutorials but for rigorous, evidence-based debunking of irresponsible viral food content.

Reardon's debunking work targets a specific and underexamined problem: content farms that produce millions of views by staging fake food "hacks" that are sometimes actively dangerous, or that present impossible recipes as achievable. She has systematically tested and exposed content from Five Minute Crafts, First Media, So Yummy, Troom Troom, BuzzFeed, and numerous other channels producing fake or hazardous DIY food content. Her approach is methodical—she actually attempts to replicate the techniques shown, documents when they fail or produce dangerous results, and explains the food science behind why certain approaches are unsafe. Her professional credentials as a food scientist and dietitian give her the authority to speak to both the culinary and safety dimensions of the content she reviews.

Beyond individual video debunks, Reardon has been a persistent advocate for platform accountability, calling on YouTube and other social media companies to take responsibility for the dangerous misinformation spread by high-follower content farms. Her work sits at the intersection of consumer protection, food safety education, and media literacy—demonstrating that science communication does not require a physics lab or a discussion of evolution to make a meaningful contribution to public understanding. Her channel shows that applied food science expertise, deployed with journalistic persistence, can protect viewers from genuine physical harm.