Maxwell "Max" Miller (born: March 30, 1983), is an American YouTuber residing in Burbank, California, United States, known for being the creator and host of Tasting History with Max Miller, a culinary and history fusion web-show, and Drinking History, a web-show about historic beverages. Tasting History explores ancient recipes and the history of the cultures surrounding them.
Before YouTube[]
Before starting YouTube Max worked in musical theater, Disney Cruise Line, recorded audio books, and worked at Walt Disney Studios for 6 years. He was hired as a Media assistant in May of 2014 and was promoted to a Marketing Operator in August 2016. He then transitioned into a Creative Film Marketer in January 2017 and promoted to a Theatrical Sales Representative of the Western Division of Walt Disney in September 2019. Unfortunately, in March 2020 he was furloughed from his job at Disney due to the Covid-19 pandemic. He has spent his time furloughed working on his YouTube channel and online presence.
Creation of his channel[]
Max created his channel after a coworker suggested that he start a YouTube channel based on his hobby of historical recipes. While working at Disney, Max would make old recipes and bring them to work and have his coworkers try them out with him. Max was also inspired by The Great British Bake Off and how the hosts, Mel and Sue, would discuss the history of the dishes the contestants were preparing in a humorous manner.
Formula of Tasting History Episodes[]
Each episode starts with an introduction to the recipe and a tease of the history behind it. After the intro, Max starts with the recipe listing the ingredients and reading the historical document that has the instructions on how to make the said recipe. When the recipe reaches a point where you would normally wait, like in boiling; baking; or rising, Max then goes into depth about the history surrounding the recipe or its main ingredients. During the history section of his videos Max references multiple historical documents and figures.
After the recipe is finished, Max then tastes the recipe and gives it a review.
Drinking History videos are shorter and more causal than his main show, and focuses more on the history than the recipe. He also stated that the historical subjects in Drinking History do not have to be about food.
Rapid growth & popularity[]
Tasting History grew rapidly. In June the channel hit 10K subscribers and days later hit 100K. At the end of 2020 the channel had over 500K subscribers.
In June of 2020 Max started a second channel with his fiancé for Q&As. In August of 2021 he started a secondary show called Drinking History. A Tasting History cookbook is planned to be published by Simon & Schuster. In his video on the history of ketchup he confirms that the release date will be April 25, 2023, and that the cookbook is available for digital pre-orders.
Personal life[]
Max Miller was born on March 30, 1983, in Phoenix, Arizona. He graduated from the University of Phoenix with a degree in music and vocal performance. He worked at Audible from January 2011 to August 2014 as an audio producer. Max is openly gay and has been with his fiancé José Mendoza since 2013. Both Max and José are Pokémon fans and Pokémon plushies are often in the background of Tasting History videos. They own two cats, Cersei and Jaime, both cats often appear on their second channel.
In April 14th, 2021, Max posted an update video on his channel that explained that he got a call from Disney informing him that he was no longer furloughed. After the call, Max decided to quit his job at Disney to pursue Tasting History full-time because he deemed it impossible to do both.
In October 8th, 2021, Max and José officially became married. They had their wedding in Hawaii.
Trivia[]
- Max got into baking in 2014 after binging The Great British Bake Off. Until then he had no culinary experience.
- He credits his channel's growth to his Garum episode.
- Max is known for being good at pronouncing words and names of multiple languages.
- His videos have English, Spanish, and Portuguese subtitles.
- His videos usually feature a guest Pokémon often inspired by the recipe or history chosen by José.
- He himself only has 1 pokemon plush, while José has over 200.
- Max's channel is often compared to Alton Brown's Good Eats.
- While he has no official criteria for what recipe can be featured in an episode, Max often sticks to recipes at least 100 years old.
- His favorite recipes are from the Edwardian era of Great Britain.
- His favorite animal is the Manatee as confirmed in his Hardtack video.
- He enjoys chunky Pokémon like Blastoise, Snorlax and Wailmer.
- He is of Scottish descent as confirmed in his Toad in the Hole video. He gets his name from the Clan Maxwell which is the Clan his family descends from.
Subscriber milestones[]
Note: The following dates are according to Social Blade. Dates may vary by one or two days due to differences in time zones.
- 1 million subscribers: December 18, 2021
- 2 million subscribers: November 21, 2023
