Gustavo Tosta, known online as Guga, is a Brazilian-American cook and one of the most popular food creators on YouTube. Through his channels Sous Vide Everything, Guga Foods and Guga, he has built an audience of millions with approachable, experiment-driven videos about steak, dry-aging, sous vide and barbecue. He is not a classically trained restaurant chef but a self-taught home cook whose curiosity and enthusiasm have made him a leading voice in online meat cookery.
Warm, funny and obsessive about flavour, Guga has turned backyard experiments – dry-aging steaks in unusual ingredients, testing budget cuts against premium ones – into a genre of their own, and inspired a huge community of home grillers.
TL;DR
- Brazilian-American cook and YouTuber, born 27 July 1980 in Uberaba, Minas Gerais, Brazil
- Runs three YouTube channels: Sous Vide Everything, Guga Foods and Guga, with millions of subscribers
- Best known for dry-aging experiments, sous vide and steak cookery
- Self-taught; came to cooking after a career in web design
- Author of the cookbook Guga: Breaking the Barbecue Rules (2023); based in Miami, Florida
Guga (Gustavo Tosta) key facts
| Born | 27 July 1980, Uberaba, Minas Gerais, Brazil |
| Nationality | Brazilian-American |
| Known for | YouTube: Sous Vide Everything, Guga Foods, Guga |
| Specialities | Dry-aging, sous vide, steak and barbecue |
| Book | Guga: Breaking the Barbecue Rules (2023) |
From Brazil to Miami
Gustavo Tosta was born on 27 July 1980 in Uberaba, a city in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais known as a centre of cattle production. He immigrated to the United States with his family when he was young, settling in the Redland area south of Miami, Florida. Before cooking became his career he worked in web design and development, eventually running his own company – a background in presentation and communication that would later shape the clean, easy-to-follow style of his videos.
How the channels began
The story Guga tells is that he used to take his employees out to Brazilian steakhouses several times a week, until the cost became unsustainable. Looking for a way to cook great steak in the office instead, he discovered the sous vide technique – and became hooked. That obsession turned into the YouTube channel Sous Vide Everything, followed by Guga Foods and a third channel simply called Guga. Guga Foods, with its broader mix of barbecue, steak and experiments, eventually became his most popular channel, and together his channels have drawn millions of subscribers.
Signature style
Guga’s appeal is his experimental, testing-led approach. He dry-ages steaks in everything from koji and butter to more outlandish coatings, pits cheap cuts against expensive ones, and puts widely held cooking beliefs to the test – always tasting the results with genuine delight. His tone is generous and unpretentious: he wants viewers to try things at home rather than be intimidated, and he shares techniques, seasonings and homemade rubs freely. It is cooking as curiosity and entertainment, grounded in a real love of meat and flavour.
Book and reach
In April 2023 Guga published his first cookbook, Guga: Breaking the Barbecue Rules, collecting the techniques and recipes that made his channels popular. Beyond the book, his influence is felt across the huge online community of home grillers who follow his methods for dry-aging, reverse-searing and sous vide steak.
Guga in context
Guga is one of the defining figures of the modern food-YouTube generation, alongside other creators featured on Pickup Table 4 such as Sam the Cooking Guy and Mark Wiens – self-made cooks and hosts who built large audiences outside the traditional restaurant world.
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Guga (Gustavo Tosta) FAQ
Who is Guga?
Gustavo Tosta, a Brazilian-American cook and YouTuber known for his steak, dry-aging and sous vide videos.
What are his YouTube channels?
Sous Vide Everything, Guga Foods and Guga, which together have millions of subscribers.
Is Guga a trained chef?
No – he is a self-taught cook who came to cooking after a career in web design.
Where is he from and where does he live?
He was born in Uberaba, Brazil, and is based in Miami, Florida.
Has he written a book?
Yes – Guga: Breaking the Barbecue Rules, published in 2023.
