The Views: How Lynja Cooked Up Smiles
Lynn Yamada Davis - Kevin Winter
“Cooking With Lynja” served up recipes, meals, and smiles to the Internet for several years. After the passing of host Lynn Yamada Davis, many viewers have considered her legacy not just within the Asian-American Pacific Islander community and cooking content creators, but the Internet as a whole. What can we learn from looking back on Lynja’s home cooked meals?
Handle: On Tiktok, Davis’ handle was @cookingwithlynja. Her YouTube handle is @cookingwithlynja and her Instagram username is @cookingwithlynja.
Series: Davis did not have specified series when making her content. Rather, she invited her audience to make meals alongside her and separated her videos into individual seasons after release. However, one style of video, where she took an ingredient, like eggplant, and uses the ingredient in dishes of increasing difficulty was popular. Additionally, Davis frequently collaborated with fellow food content creator Nick DiGiovanni on his channels as well as her own.
Creators: “Cooking With Lynja'' was hosted by Lynn Yamada Davis. Her son, Tim Davis, edited and was occasionally featured in videos. He also posted announcements on all accounts after Davis’ passing.
Platform: Davis posted primarily on TikTok. However, she also had accounts on YouTube and Instagram. Her short form TikTok content was cross posted on these other accounts as YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels respectively. Additionally, her YouTube channel features longer videos that go more in depth on recipes, though she stopped on these videos four years ago to focus primarily on short form content.
Genre(s): “Cooking With Lynja” primarily falls under the genre of cooking videos. However, she occasionally posted videos about her personal life, like her trip to Italy, in a vlog format.
Subscribers: As of writing, “Cooking With Lynja” has 12.8 million YouTuber subscribers, 2.7 million Instagram followers, and her highest following is on TikTok with 21.8 million followers.
Lynn Yamada Davis was born in New York City on July 31, 1956, to second-generation Japanese immigrants. After growing up in Fort Lee, New Jersey, she attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Davis graduated from MIT in 1977 with a degree in civil engineering and later earned degrees in public health and business administration from Columbia Business School. Her career focused primarily on ensuring the accessibility of federal buildings before she was hired by AT&T Labs (at the time known as Bell Labs) for 29 years as a project manager and systems engineer. Davis had four children, two daughters from her marriage to Hank Steinberg and two sons with her husband Keith Davis. Her son Sean Davis is a professional soccer player while her other son Tim was the inspiration and editor for her channel. This biography seems to detail the life of a successful woman in the United States, not an Internet celebrity. But just as it changed the lives of so many people, COVID-19 changed the trajectory of Davis’ career.
At the golden age of 63, Lynn Yamada Davis began making cooking videos during the 2020 lockdown. The goal was simple; make thirty videos in thirty days. Tim Davis came up with the idea as he needed more material to hone his editing skills. He assisted his mother with shooting and editing, earning acclaim several times at the Streamy Awards. “Cooking With Lynja” was nominated at the Streamy Awards in both the “Food” and “Editing” Categories in 2021, 2022, and 2023. The channel won “Best Editing” in 2021 and 2022 and won “Best Food” in 2022. It seems that Tim Davis’ idea changed his life, but how did it change his mother’s?
Davis’ recipes are straightforward and easy to master. The editing of her content is not. It’s often praised in the comments, not just receiving critical acclaim. But Davis’ personality and humor set her apart from other content creators within her genre. In “I Want This TikTok Grandma to Teach Me Everything About Food”, Bettina Makalintal doesn’t just praise Tim Davis’ editing, but focuses on Lynja’s relatability to a younger audience despite her age. In particular, Makalintal highlights Davis’ knowledge of the word “glizzy” – a Gen Z slang term for hot dog. The generational gap between Gen Z and Boomers is constantly referenced in pop culture, news, and other forms of media. Davis’ knowledge of slang terms on the platform not only bridges this gap, but it also actively facilitates discussion through laughter and instruction. Gen Z viewers can teach older family members slang while highlighting an Internet personality in their generation. By sharing this content across generations, Davis expands her audience and gains more fans. Or as she calls them, “Lynja-turtles”.
“Cooking With Lynja” doesn’t work just because Davis is in the know on Generation Z. She’s remarkably down to Earth and open to collaboration. In particular, she has worked with fellow food content creator Nick DiGiovanni multiple times to break Guinness World Records. In November of 2021, Davis and DiGiovanni broke the record for “Largest Ever Cake Pop” with a weight of 97 pounds and 8.52 ounces. Other records they smashed include “Largest Chicken Nugget” at 20.96 kilograms and “Largest Sushi Roll” at 2.15 meters. Upon receiving her certificate commemorating the broken cake pop record, Davis said in her trademark raspy squeak, “Don’t even think about breaking our record!”.
Lynja’s voice is hard to ignore. Davis herself likens her voice to cartoon icon Marge Simpso, but unfortunately the reason behind the rasp isn’t as lighthearted. In 2019, Davis was diagnosed with throat cancer causing the change. Two years later she was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. Though Davis went on to create a video titled “Cookies for Cancer”, in which she made cookies to celebrate finishing treatment, the cancer returned in 2023.
The drive Davis had to not only begin the “Cooking With Lynja” project after one cancer diagnosis, but to continue after a second diagnosis and its subsequent return is inspiring to any viewer who knows her story. Viewers cannot ignore this aspect of Davis’ health because her voice leads viewers through her recipes and guides them to create foods in a fresh and fun way.
On January 1, 2024, Lynn Yamada Davis passed away from complications due to the return of her esophageal cancer. A private funeral was held on January 9 for family and friends. Three days later, Tim Davis announced the passing of his mother on social media. Nick DiGiovanni released his own announcement hours later. Davis lost his mother. DiGiovanni lost a dear friend. And the Internet lost its grandmother.
“Cooking With Lynja” not only acted as Tim Davis’ passion project and a fun place for Lynn Davis to post her cooking videos, but it was also a haven for viewers and young and old to bond over food. Thanks to Tim’s editing and Lynja’s heart and humor, the Internet has a safe place to eat and to smile.
