Who needs a TV cooking show when you can host one online?

Almost every Monday night, Gaby Dalkin, hosts a live cooking demo from her home in southern California on her Instagram account, What's Gaby Cooking .

The show is under an hour and Dalkin's husband, Thomas Dawson, records it and reads out questions and comments from viewers.

Dalkin, who went to culinary school and has worked as a private chef, will offer tips for de-boning salmon, cleaning mushrooms, and joke about her polka dot sweatsuit that Thomas says resembles pajamas. It's all very casual and doable, which Dalkin said is the point.

This April 10, 2019 photo shows Gaby Dalkin at Santa Monica Downtown Farmers Market in Santa Monica, Calif. Dalkin, the chef behind the popular Website and social media accounts, What’s Gaby Cooking, is forging her own path. Every Monday she posts a live demo to Instagram as she cooks dinner which has become appointment viewing for some fans. Her husband films it and reads questions from viewers as she’s cooking. (AP PhotoChris Pizzello)

"It's like you're cooking alongside your best friend in the kitchen," said Dalkin in a recent interview. "I don't want to spend five hours cooking a meal and I know everyone else doesn't. Let's show people how to make something simple and delicious and go about our lives."

It turns out there is an audience who make tuning in a ritual.

"We have people in India where it's their morning when they're watching," said Dalkin.

This April 10, 2019 photo shows Gaby Dalkin taking a photo of strawberries at Santa Monica Downtown Farmers Market in Santa Monica, Calif. Dalkin, the chef behind the popular Website and social media accounts, What’s Gaby Cooking, is forging her own path. Every Monday she posts a live demo to Instagram as she cooks dinner which has become appointment viewing for some fans. Her husband films it and reads questions from viewers as she’s cooking. (AP PhotoChris Pizzello)

She recently got a message from a viewer's husband who said every Monday night he falls asleep listening to her voice because his wife is watching as they go to bed. He wanted to not like her, but now he's a fan.

She also encourages her followers to make the recipes throughout the week and tag her on Instagram, which as Dalkin notes, is free marketing and publicity.

Thomas may be heard and not seen in the cooking demos, but he's earned his own devotees. There's an Instagram account, What's Thomas Eating, where he's often poking fun at his wife. He sometimes posts his own videos when he's home alone and cooking her recipes.

This April 10, 2019 photo shows Gaby Dalkin posing for a portrait at Santa Monica Downtown Farmers Market in Santa Monica, Calif. Dalkin, the chef behind the popular Website and social media accounts, What’s Gaby Cooking, is forging her own path. Every Monday she posts a live demo to Instagram as she cooks dinner which has become appointment viewing for some fans. Her husband films it and reads questions from viewers as she’s cooking. (AP PhotoChris Pizzello)

"He started What's Thomas Eating as a total joke and I think sometimes he's more influential than I am," laughed Dalkin.

Dalkin says she's not looking for a traditional cooking show because she feels like she's already doing that online.

"Back in the day, all I wanted was to be the 'Next Food Network Star.' I applied three years in a row and got denied three years in a row. Yes, we would do some sort of TV series, but I would need it to be a lot more animated and fun and maybe even lifestyle and travel-related."

This April 10, 2019 photo shows Gaby Dalkin at Santa Monica Downtown Farmers Market in Santa Monica, Calif. Dalkin, the chef behind the popular Website and social media accounts, What’s Gaby Cooking, is forging her own path. Every Monday she posts a live demo to Instagram as she cooks dinner which has become appointment viewing for some fans. Her husband films it and reads questions from viewers as she’s cooking. (AP PhotoChris Pizzello)

Dawson is in the process of transitioning from his day job in advertising to work with Gaby full-time. The goal is to ramp up their content and produce more videos for her website, YouTube and Instagram accounts. Dalkin also has two cookbooks, "Absolutely Avocados" (fans know she seriously loves avocados,) and "What's Gaby Cooking: Everyday California Food." She's now working on a third.

"I haven't taken a day off in the last probably five years," confesses Dalkin. "Sometimes I'll have a full meltdown because I can't think of any recipes and Thomas is good about being like, 'Let's go for a walk and remove ourselves from the kitchen and where we normally work.'"

Online: https://whatsgabycooking.com

This April 10, 2019 photo shows Gaby Dalkin at Santa Monica Downtown Farmers Market in Santa Monica, Calif. Dalkin, the chef behind the popular Website and social media accounts, What’s Gaby Cooking, is forging her own path. Every Monday she posts a live demo to Instagram as she cooks dinner which has become appointment viewing for some fans. Her husband films it and reads questions from viewers as she’s cooking. (AP PhotoChris Pizzello)

This April 10, 2019 photo shows Gaby Dalkin at Santa Monica Downtown Farmers Market in Santa Monica, Calif. Dalkin, the chef behind the popular Website and social media accounts, What’s Gaby Cooking, is forging her own path. Every Monday she posts a live demo to Instagram as she cooks dinner which has become appointment viewing for some fans. Her husband films it and reads questions from viewers as she’s cooking. (AP PhotoChris Pizzello)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian court on Friday ordered the detention of the country’s farm minister in the latest high-profile corruption investigation, while Kyiv security officials assessed how they can recover lost battlefield momentum in the war against Russia.

Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court ruled that Agriculture Minister Oleksandr Solskyi should be held in custody for 60 days, but he was released after paying bail of 75 million hryvnias ($1.77 million), a statement said.

Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau suspects Solskyi headed an organized crime group that between 2017 and 2021 unlawfully obtained land worth 291 million hryvnias ($6.85 million) and attempted to obtain other land worth 190 million hryvnias ($4.47 million).

Ukraine is trying to root out corruption that has long dogged the country. A dragnet over the past two years has seen Ukraine’s defense minister, top prosecutor, intelligence chief and other senior officials lose their jobs.

That has caused embarrassment and unease as Ukraine receives tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid to help fight Russia’s army, and the European Union and NATO have demanded widespread anti-graft measures before Kyiv can realize its ambition of joining the blocs.

In Ukraine's capital, doctors and ambulance crews evacuated patients from a children’s hospital on Friday after a video circulated online saying Russia planned to attack it.

Parents hefting bags of clothes, toys and food carried toddlers and led young children from the Kyiv City Children’s Hospital No. 1 on the outskirts of the city. Medics helped them into a fleet of waiting ambulances to be transported to other facilities.

In the video, a security official from Russian ally Belarus alleged that military personnel were based in the hospital. Kyiv city authorities said that the claim was “a lie and provocation.”

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that civic authorities were awaiting an assessment from security services before deciding when it was safe to reopen the hospital.

“We cannot risk the lives of our children,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold online talks Friday with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which has been the key international organization coordinating the delivery of weapons and other aid to Ukraine.

Zelenskyy said late Thursday that the meeting would discuss how to turn around Ukraine’s fortunes on the battlefield. The Kremlin’s forces have gained an edge over Kyiv’s army in recent months as Ukraine grappled with a shortage of ammunition and troops.

Russia, despite sustaining high losses, has been taking control of small settlements as part of its effort to drive deeper into eastern Ukraine after capturing the city of Avdiivka in February, the U.K. defense ministry said Friday.

It’s been slow going for the Kremlin’s troops in eastern Ukraine and is likely to stay that way, according to the Institute for the Study of War. However, the key hilltop town of Chasiv Yar is vulnerable to the Russian onslaught, which is using glide bombs — powerful Soviet-era weapons that were originally unguided but have been retrofitted with a navigational targeting system — that obliterate targets.

“Russian forces do pose a credible threat of seizing Chasiv Yar, although they may not be able to do so rapidly,” the Washington-based think tank said late Thursday.

It added that Russian commanders are likely seeking to advance as much as possible before the arrival in the coming weeks and months of new U.S. military aid, which was held up for six months by political differences in Congress.

While that U.S. help wasn’t forthcoming, Ukraine’s European partners didn’t pick up the slack, according to German’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which tracks Ukraine support.

“The European aid in recent months is nowhere near enough to fill the gap left by the lack of U.S. assistance, particularly in the area of ammunition and artillery shells,” it said in a report Thursday.

Ukraine is making a broad effort to take back the initiative in the war after more than two years of fighting. It plans to manufacture more of its own weapons in the future, and is clamping down on young people avoiding conscription, though it will take time to process and train any new recruits.

Jill Lawless contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Ukrainian young acting student Gleb Batonskiy plays piano in a public park in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)