For Women’s History Month, EnVi shows extra love to women across the Asian diaspora and beyond, with special features in Fashion, Beauty, Music, Film, and Culture.
In a 2021 report, women in the United States make up 52% of restaurant workers and 71% of servers. Yet only 20% of women are head chefs.
“For too long, the food service industry has struggled to close the gender inequality that often occurs at top positions.” Ashlen Wilder wrote on LunchBox. Some factors that contribute to the jarring gender gap include the lack of media coverage, investment, and accessible childcare. However, in recent years, the industry has seen improvements with the inception of initiatives like The LEE Initiative and RestaurantHer, which aim to collaborate, uplift, and spotlight women in the culinary world.
While the COVID-19 lockdown largely affected women in restaurants, the internet has seen a rise of women chefs and food content creators carving their own paths in the industry. Women are utilizing social media to further spotlight their recipes, cultures, and talent. In many ways, cooking is a form of storytelling. Food is a way for people to preserve and connect with their own cultures, other cultures, and each other.
In honor of Women’s History Month, EnVi has compiled a list of four content creators and chefs who are sharing their stories, one dish at a time.
Mariam (@mxriyum)
Mariam is a California-based Palestinian content creator and runs the viral food account @mxriyum. She is known for her dreamy-like cooking videos that feature her beautifully decorated space. Mariam has amassed over 190 million likes on TikTok and 1.5 million followers on Instagram.
Along with other dishes, she uses her platform to share Palestinian recipes inherited from her mom, including chicken kufta and salata, cheese fatayer, and khubiz taboon.
“My mama has always encouraged me to do so,” Mariam writes in an Instagram post on why she shares family recipes. “Food plays a vital role in preserving our culture, and for me, it’s a way to give Palestine a voice through my content. Sharing these recipes is my means of celebrating our heritage and traditions.”
Tue Nguyen (@twaydabae)
Tue Nguyen, most commonly known by her handle @TwayDaBae, is a Vietnamese American chef and food content creator. In 2023, she opened the doors to her restaurant DiDi, which is Vietnamese for “let’s go.”
When Nguyen was a prep cook, she dabbled in creating food-related content like mukbangs. It wouldn’t be until 2020 when she began sharing her own recipes. “Food was always something that I could express myself through,” Nguyen told The Hollywood Reporter. “And, for me, food is a way to connect people.”
Now, Nguyen has amassed over 600,000 followers on TikTok and 400,000 followers on Instagram. She also partnered up with Red Boat in September 2023 to create her own limited edition line of fish sauce.
Chaheti Bansal (@rootedinspice)
Chaheti Bansal is a food content creator based in California, best known for her viral video of making tarbooz ki sabji, which is made out of watermelon rinds. The video was reposted by Buzzfeed Tasty, along with another video where she explains how the word ‘curry’ is deeply rooted in colonialism. In an interview with NBC Asian American, she said, “Curry shouldn’t be all that you think about when you think about South Asian food.”
Bansal continues to use her platform to share South Asian recipes, their origins, as well as her own stories and experiences. “As an adult, I realize that being a hybrid product of our multiple environments comes with its advantages – and for me, it’s been colliding those two worlds through food,” Bansal said in her video giving her own twist on ensalada de nopalitos. “The best cooks in your family all make staple dishes in their unique ways and pull from their past experiences.”
Ana M. Regalado (@saltycocina)
Ana Regalado started posting recipes on TikTok during the COVID-19 lockdown when the future seemed unclear and she wanted to leave a cookbook behind for her children. But when her videos started taking off, she found herself a community of viewers who enjoy her recipes and the stories she has to share.
Regalado wants to use her platform to bring comfort and a sense of home to viewers. The recipes she shares online are ones that have been passed down to her. Now, she is passing them down to her own children – as well as the world. “What I enjoy the most is when people comment that some of the recipes I create remind them of how their grandma used to cook for them, how their mom used to cook for them. Or how I remind them of their mom, or their grandma. And to me, that’s exactly what I wanted to put out there,” she told Good Housekeeping.
Interested in reading more about food? Check out our favorite not too sweet Asian snacks here!
