What started with a simple request at a shopping centre has turned into cooking videos and a growing online audience for 77-year-old Rudy Neish.
Neish, who lives in a Virginia town with a population just above 10,000, told TODAY.com he still finds it hard to believe.
“I told some people at church, I says, ‘You wouldn’t believe it. God has plans, and His plan and my plan is completely different,’” Rudy Neish tells TODAY.com on a sunny Friday.
“I said, ‘You wouldn’t believe it, I’m doing cooking shows now,’” he says. “They go, ‘Yeah, right, sure.’”
Neish was sitting in the kitchen of his 38-year-old neighbour, Tyler Butterworth, whose family farm has two houses for his family and his parents, as well as a barn, stables and a newly built content studio space.
“I’ve always thought Rudy’s a good person, and I’ve always wanted to be able to help Rudy in any way I can, for him and his family,” Butterworth tells TODAY.com.
The pair have known each other for a decade and have helped each other over the years with farmwork, paperwork and now, at Neish’s request, cooking.
“We ran into each other at the little shopping center and I was telling Tyler that I’m just tired of popping this processed food in the microwave for my wife,” Neish says. “I wish I knew how to cook better, give her better meals.”
“That’s how the conversation went, and it was just as simple as Tyler says, ‘Well, I love to cook, won’t you let me teach you to cook and we’ll film it.’”
Neish said his wife, Linda, used to do the cooking until her health declined. The couple have been married for 26 years.
“She has dementia, and she’s had both hips replaced,” Neish says. “I’m a full-time caregiver now, as opposed to being a farmer. I’m kind of a part-time, sometimes farmer, so my full-time job really is taking care of her.”
Butterworth already had a large social media following before the cooking videos. TODAY.com reported he has more than 5 million followers across platforms and regularly draws millions of views for humorous videos about life with a wife and kids, as a farmer, in military and law enforcement.
“He’s a go-getter,” Neish says.
Butterworth first posted about his neighbour’s request in late February.
“My 77-year-old neighbor asked me to attend a cooking class with him, which I just got out of. I’m now at Walmart buying an Instant Pot to teach him how to use it,” he said in the video. “I hope you’ll stay with me on this journey.”
The first cooking video, in which they made chili, drew strong support from viewers. One wrote, “Please protect Rudy at all costs. He’s everything we need right now!” Another said, “We are seated 🪑. We are prepared to love Rudy. Please continue.”
“Normally, I try to do it so that it’s as easy as possible and it’s not to insult Rudy’s or anybody’s intelligence, but it’s the ease of use in making it,” Butterworth says, adding that he made Rudy a binder with all his recipes.
He also shares the recipes in the captions.
Since then, Butterworth has taught Neish to make dishes including marinated pork tenderloin, kale salad and peri-peri chicken. In one longer YouTube video, Neish joked while making chicken potpie soup: “Me and potatoes have gone way back.”
“As I learned to cook better meals, more nutritious ones, my wife is doing better as a result,” Neish says.
He said he is still surprised by the attention.
“One thing that amazes me is the amount of people that are on a phone and watch this stuff,” Neish says. “On one video, people were asking me my opinion on things, and I’m going, ‘I don’t know about that.’”
Butterworth said future “Cooking with Rudy” videos will likely include produce from their gardens.
“I’m sure we will do a lot with vegetables because of getting stuff out of our gardens,” Neish says.
Butterworth adds, “Rudy and I are going to continue to be friends and continue to help each other.”
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