‘Grandpa Kitchen,’ beloved Indian YouTuber, dead at 73

Cherished Indian YouTube cook Narayana Reddy, whose enormous meals served local orphan children, has died at 73.

Since Reddy debuted on social media in August 2017, his channel Grandpa Kitchen grew to more than 6.19 million subscribers on YouTube. There the animated old man would film himself cooking outdoors over an open fire using traditional tools. The food, along with the proceeds raised via his channel, went to help support orphaned and underprivileged people near his rural home in Hyderabad, Telangana, in south-central India.

According to his family, Reddy died on Oct. 27, though they waited until after his funeral to make the announcement to his loyal fans.

On Wednesday, his family uploaded an emotional video for Reddy’s followers showing him being laid to rest, covered in a blanket of bright flowers as hundreds of people from his community gathered to pay their respects to the high-spirited chef. There were drum circles, petals being tossed like confetti and a ceremonial bathing of his body before a cremation ritual.

“You are live forever in our hearts,” the video reads.

Reddy’s very first video, “King Of 2000 EGGS,” showed the mustachioed man — “always friendly and smiling,” according to his grandnephew Srikanth — making a giant spiced scrambled egg dish, which he and his grandsons, who helped crack all those eggs, later divvied up and personally handed out to homeless people in a town nearby.

A fundraiser on Patreon was also set up to help support his charitable operation.

“We entertain people by cooking food and donate the proceeds to charities,” Reddy’s Patreon site reads. “Our goal is to provide basic necessities like food, clothing, school supplies and birthday gifts to the orphans.”

Srikanth told CNN, “We used to have jobs in the city and would visit him during the holidays and he would always make big meals for us. We then got the idea that we should do the same for the community.”

Soon, much of his family had quit their jobs to support the YouTube channel, which boasts over 250 videos. Now, said Srikanth, “We will continue his work.”

Scores of his YouTube followers pored over the channel this week, sending condolences in myriad languages — in German, “Lieben, Teilen, Sorgen,” or the Spanish “Amar, Compartir, Cuidar” — all espousing Reddy’s mantra: “Loving. Sharing. Caring.”