Jennifer Garner’s ‘Pretend Cooking Show’: How to Watch and Where

Jennifer Garner has been sharing Pretend Cooking Show installments on her Instagram page for years but has resisted industry calls to host a real cooking show. For the moment, the only way to watch her videos, in which she actually does more than just pretend to cook as she talks viewers through her favorite recipes, is by following her Instagram page. Garner’s most recent Pretend Cooking Show installment was published in January.

The Pretend Cooking Show dates back to 2018 and was originally filmed by Garner’s assistant, Entertainment Tonight reported at the time. However, the episodes began really taking off in 2020, following the coronavirus pandemic lockdown. In one July 2020 episode, Garner made cornbread with her mother on Zoom to talk her through the steps. Over 3.8 million Instagram users watched the four-minute video.

Garner’s most recent Pretend Cooking Show episode was published on Jan. 14 and has over 4 million views already. In it, she showed fans how to make buttermilk biscones for breakfast. “It’s the new year, but somehow everyone still needs breakfast,” Garner, 48, wrote in the caption. “My kids have been making [Back in the Day Bakery] buttermilk biscones with me since they were peanuts—add some chocolate chips and you’ve got yourself a party!” Every past episode of Pretend Cooking Show is available under the IGTV tab on Garner’s Instagram page.

“Cooking connects me to my family because my mom was such a steady, solid, really great cook,” Garner told Good Morning America in December when asked about the importance of cooking in her life. “Whenever I smell a roast chicken or fresh bread baking or my neighbor Marge’s gingersnaps in the oven, it connects me to my childhood. And I feel like I’m passing that on, and that comfort and coziness, as much as I can to my kids, as well as an expectation that they will grow up and they know what healthy food is.”

Garner said she usually decides to film new episodes on a whim, whenever she has a free moment. She will even call up her famous friends, including Barefoot Contessa Ina Garten to join her. “Pretty much it’s just, ‘Hey, we have a couple hours, what do I want to make for lunch or bake for the kids?’ and we go ahead and just shoot it,” Garner told GMA. “We don’t think ahead and plan it, it’s more random — other than like, ‘Hey Ina, do you want to do this show with me?’”

Garner only joined Instagram after she co-founded the startup Once Upon a Farm. She is fiercely protective of her children’s privacy, which explains why they never appear in Pretend Cooking Show episodes. According to a new Hollywood Reporter profile on Garner, she has been approached to make a real cooking show. Garner and ex-husband Ben Affleck are parents to daughters Violet, 15, and Seraphina, 12, and son Samuel, 9.

While Garner’s fans can’t watch a Pretend Cooking Show series, they can check out her acting in the new Netflix movie Yes Day, co-starring Edgar Ramirez and directed by Miguel Arteta. The family movie was released on Friday and centers on a couple who do anything their children ask for a whole day. The Alias star’s other recent credits include Peppermint and Love, Simon.