Sohla El-Waylly facts for kids
El-Waylly in November 2021
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| Born | Nusrath Sohla Muzib 1984/1985 (age 40–41) Los Angeles, California U.S. |
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| Spouse | Hisham "Ham" El-Waylly |
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Previous restaurant(s)
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Award(s) won
James Beard Award (2024)
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Sohla El-Waylly is an American chef, author, and YouTube personality. She creates recipes and hosts online video series for the History channel and the New York Times Cooking YouTube channel. She also helps judge a cooking show called "The Big Brunch".
Her first cookbook, Start Here: Instructions for Becoming a Better Cook, came out in October 2023. This book won a James Beard Award in 2024, which is a very important award for food professionals.
Before this, she was an assistant food editor at Bon Appétit magazine. She appeared in many videos on their popular YouTube channel. Later, she made videos with Food52 and Andrew Rea on the Babish Culinary Universe YouTube channel.
Early Life and Education
Sohla Muzib was born and grew up in Los Angeles. Her family, who were Bangladeshi-American, owned a Baskin-Robbins ice cream store. She started working in restaurants early, including at Outback Steakhouse.
She went to the University of California, Irvine to study economics. While in college, she also worked at a Cheesecake Factory restaurant.
In 2008, El-Waylly began studying at The Culinary Institute of America (CIA). This is a famous school for chefs. She has shared that she faced challenges there and spoke up about unfair treatment.
Culinary Career and Shows
After finishing culinary school, El-Waylly worked in several New York City restaurants. These included Atera, which has two Michelin stars, and Del Posto.
In March 2016, Sohla and her husband opened their own diner in Brooklyn called Hail Mary. The restaurant received good reviews. However, it closed after 11 months. El-Waylly explained that opening the restaurant without other investors was a challenge. She also noted that some customers had certain expectations based on the owners' backgrounds.
In 2018, El-Waylly worked as a culinary editor for Serious Eats. In August 2019, she joined Bon Appétit magazine as an assistant food editor. She became well-known for her appearances on the magazine's YouTube channel.
In June 2020, a photo of Bon Appétit's editor-in-chief caused a lot of discussion. During a company meeting, El-Waylly spoke up and asked him to leave. She also said that the magazine treated employees of color unfairly, especially with their pay. The editor-in-chief resigned that same day.
In August 2020, El-Waylly announced she would no longer appear in videos for Bon Appétit's YouTube channel. This was because she felt the issues of unfairness were not being fixed. Soon after, she completely left Bon Appétit.
On September 23, 2020, a new cooking series called Stump Sohla was announced. It was hosted on Andrew Rea's Babish Culinary Universe YouTube channel. The show started the next day. El-Waylly chose to work with Rea because she would have more control over her work and earn more from the videos. She said she didn't want to be "just a prop." Their work together ended in early 2021.
El-Waylly also started writing a weekly column for Food52 called "Off-Script with Sohla." She also began working on her first cookbook.
Today, El-Waylly hosts a web series for the History TV network called Ancient Recipes with Sohla. She also hosts Mystery Menu for the New York Times Cooking YouTube channel. She is a judge on The Big Brunch, a cooking competition show on HBO Max.
Her first cookbook, Start Here: Instructions for Becoming a Better Cook, was released on October 31, 2023.
Personal Life
Sohla El-Waylly lives in New York City with her husband, Hisham "Ham" El-Waylly, who is also a chef. They met while they were both studying at the Culinary Institute of America. In September 2023, they shared the happy news that they had welcomed their first child.
