Jennifer Garner started her “Pretend Cooking Show” series on Instagram in December 2017. They’re short, Barefoot Contessa-inspired videos where Jen makes a recipe. She cooks alone and has celebrity guests. In December 2025, the PCS got its own YouTube channel. One of Jennifer’s most popular guests is her mother, Patricia “Pat” Garner.

Jen has been a brand ambassador for KitchenAid since March 2022, so she frequently incorporates their products on PCS. This past December, Jen and Pat took an emotional trip down memory lane when KitchenAid recreated the 1980s kitchen from her childhood home and filmed them walking through it for a commercial. During the launch for KitchenAid’s new Artisan Plus Stand Mixer, Jen told People that her mother loves all of the attention that she’s gotten as a result of being on PCS. She even loves it when fans recognize her on the street.

“She’s so funny,” the actress, 53, tells PEOPLE. “She loves it. She loves being recognized. She loves when people say hi to her. She’s very opinionated about what we should and shouldn’t do.”

“She likes to tell me that her episodes perform the best and are the best ones,” she adds. “And I’m sure she’s right because she’s been right about everything for the last 53 years of my life. Why not the next?”

Garner says there are two episodes that stand out from her culinary series, in which she shares recipes from her kitchen.

“I always like when my mom is with me because she’s so cute and she’s just the best and I love it,” she says. “And she’s a serious scene partner. I loved, early on we made bagels and that was funny. And then another time, I made beef bourguignon and I almost burned my kitchen down and that’s another good one.”

Garner, who shares Violet, 20, Seraphina, 17, and Samuel, 14, with her ex-husband Ben Affleck, reflected on the most meaningful thing she’s baked for her family.

“I’ve baked probably a hundred million birthday cakes,” she says. “I mean, if you think of it, I’ve been a mom 20 years. And so 20 plus 17 plus 14 cakes plus whomever else, that’s a lot of cakes.”

“The smell of fresh bread in the house is something that means a lot to me because my mom made bread on Sundays when I was growing up and it was always like, it just made the house feel like home,” she continued. “There’s something very safe about the smell of bread baking in the house. There’s nothing more nurturing in the world than fresh homemade bread.”

Garner says there’s one item still on her list of baking projects to tackle.

“I really am in a minute here going to commit to sourdough,” she says. “The ladies in my house have done it before and I’ve benefited from it, and I’ve made a bunch of discard recipes, but I have never on my own really focused in on sourdough. And I think it’s probably time.”

[From People]

I love Jen’s relationship with her mother! Pat is really great on the Pretend Cooking Show. I bet she’s a hoot in real life, too. I think it’s so adorable that she gets excited when she meets fans. I wonder if part of it is the thrill of being recognized and part of it is being proud to be known as Jennifer Garner’s mom. I’m going to assume that everyone whom Pat has encountered has been very respectful. If I ever run into her and realize who she is, I will absolutely say hello!

As for Jen’s determination to make an attempt at baking sourdough, an ideal guest would be sourdough bread aficionado Taylor Swift. Jen has had Kylie Kelce on as a guest before, so the introduction is right there!

photos are screenshots from YouTube’s Pretend Cooking Show and The Today Show