According to the New York Times, Lynn Yamada Davis, an influencer whose outrageous cooking lessons on her TikTok account Cooking With Lynja won the respect of millions of fans, passed away on January 1 at Riverview Medical Center in New Jersey. Her age was 67.
Davis had four Japanese grandparents and was a third-generation American. Before obtaining her master’s degree in business administration & public health from Columbia University’s Business School, she graduated with a degree in civil engineering from MIT.
Before her post-retirement period as the “internet’s grandma,” as her fans frequently referred to her, Davis worked for the federal government and AT&T Labs for 29 years.
According to his brother Sean Davis, Lynja had “everything she could have ever wanted” by the time of her death. He claimed that she had lived a beautiful life, seeing amazing places, cooking, getting to know amazing people, and, above all, making people happy wherever she went.
Davis had 2.3 million Instagram followers and almost 19 million TikTok followers before she passed away. According to Davis, he and Tim started the account in 2020 to help with his ongoing cinematology education throughout the pandemic. Davis told the New York Times about this.
What Happened To Lynja Cooking?
As stated by the Times, Davis’ daughter, Hannah Mariko Shofet, claimed that her death was caused by oesophageal cancer. The beloved social media star had been battling the condition before the start of her TikTok career in 2019, according to Forbes, which included Davis in its “50 under 50” list in 2022.
Before the pandemic, Davis and her 27-year-old youngest son, Tim, worked together on several cooking tutorial films, which helped kickstart Davis’s TikTok career and helped Tim hone his cinematography skills. Davis’s signature floating edits and quick cuts distinguished every Cooking With Lynja video.
According to what her son told the Times, he wanted to make the film to preserve his mother’s memories and discover her recipes. On January 12, he shared a TikTok with her followers, stating that her final hours were peaceful and joyful, spent with the people she loved most: her friends and family. He also added pictures from her past.
Davis posted her debut TikTok video on June 26, 2020, and it has received over a million views. She cooked bacon, eggs, and cheese in a style that her fans referred to as “charismatic” and “grandmotherly.” Loved for her quirky personality and sexy dance moves in her innuendo-filled cooking demos (sautéed squash to Philly cheesesteaks), Davis was also known online as Lynja.
Her YouTube subscribership reached over 9 million, her Instagram following over 2 million, and her TikTok following over 17 million. She won two Streamys in 2022—one for editing and one for food. Furthermore, Davis was widely recognized for her regular collaborations with Nick DiGiovanni, a former “MasterChef” contestant who has built a substantial social media fan base.
In August 2022, DiGiovanni and Davis broke the record for the most fast-food restaurants visited in 24 hours. The largest cake pop and the largest chicken nugget in history were both records they broke together.
On January 12, DiGiovanni honored Davis on TikTok by sharing images of the two from their time together. According to DiGiovanni, she battled her cancer diagnosis for as long as she could in a quiet, humble manner, never complaining until it finally got the better of her. She will always be the woman in my memory.
Davis’s son Tim promised to continue sharing videos of Cooking with Lynja that were shot before her death. In one of these videos, Lynja and DiGiovanni are shown preparing pasta and looking for truffles. After the last video is uploaded, he says, the account will no longer be updated.
Her two siblings, Jay Yamada and Karen Dolce Yamada, her daughters, Hannah Mariko Shofet and Becky Steinberg, her second husband, Keith Davis, and her two grandchildren survive her.
Tim adds in his TikTok tribute, “So glad that you guys got to experience how wonderful of a person she was and how you guys treated her so well.” I am, therefore, grateful for the past several years. We thoroughly enjoyed making the videos.
In a video uploaded on her Instagram, her son Tim Davis, who assisted her in creating content, noted that her last minutes were quite serene, spent with her closest friends and family.
I’m so grateful you guys got to witness the jewel of a person she was and the way you guys treated her so well,” he said, his eyes welling with emotions. In the caption, the bereaved son referred to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate as both an even greater friend and the best mother he could have ever asked for.
