Lynn Yamada Davis, Cooking with Lynja TikTok chef, dies at age 67

Lynn Yamada Davis, an influencer whose zany cooking tutorials drew the admiration of millions on her TikTok account Cooking With Lynja, died on Jan. 1 at Riverview Medical Center in New Jersey, the New York Times reports. She was 67.

Her cause of the death was esophageal cancer, Davis’ daughter, Hannah Mariko Shofet, told the Times. The beloved social media star had been fighting the disease since before the start of her TikTok career in 2019, according to Forbes, who included Davis on its “50 under 50” list in 2022.

Davis’ TikTok career began during the pandemic when she partnered on a set of cooking tutorial videos with her youngest son, Tim Davis, 27, in the hopes of honing his cinematography skills. That signature style, with quick cuts and floating edits of Davis, was on prominent display in every Cooking With Lynja video. 

Davis had close to 30 million followers across various platforms, where she posted over-the-top videos of her cooking, often joking with her children. On TikTok, where Davis had 17.8 million followers, she appeared in videos tasting food around the world but she most often cooked from home.

She made wagyu steaks after complaining about the $100 price tag and ate sandwiches while dipping her feet in a kiddie pool — all the time maintaining a grandmotherly aura. An alter character "Little Lynja" would appear in the videos often admonishing her or giving her cooking instructions.

In 2022, Davis won a Streamy Award, which honors excellence in online video.

She was the "internet's grandma," her son said at the close of Friday's video. "She was the best," he said, adding he was glad her audience got to experience how wonderful a person she was. "Thank you so much for these last couple of years. We had so much fun making videos."