Lynn Yamada Davis, whose TikTok cooking delighted millions, dies at 67

Lynn Yamada Davis, a TikTok creator who brought joy to millions with her crazy style and cooking tips on her account, Cooking with Lynja, died Jan. 1 at Riverview Medical Center in New Jersey. She was 67 and lived in Holmdel, NJ

The cause was esophageal cancer, said her daughter Hannah Mariko Shofet.

Ms. Davis started making the wholesome Cooking With Lynja videos with her youngest child, Tim Davis, in 2020 to keep his cinematography skills sharp during the pandemic lockdown.

Her social media accounts remained active after her death, as she asked him to post videos that had already been edited. One such video shows them looking for truffles together in Italy.

“My mother was like my partner in crime,” Mr. Davis, 27, who edited the TikTok account, said in an interview Thursday.

Another thing she asked for, Mr. Davis said, was that he post some older videos they made together about a decade ago.

Those early versions of what would become an international TikTok sensation known for its wacky humor and lightheartedness were a way for Mr. Davis to learn how to make the food his mother cooked, “and to have a time capsule,” he said.

After the last Cooking with Lynja videos with Ms. Davis are uploaded, the account will stop posting, Tim Davis said.

The Cooking with Lynja videos started in 2020 and gained attention for a very popular video featuring the 6-foot-2 Ms. Davis makes a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich while showing off some quirky dance moves. Soon, about a million people were following Ms. Davis’s unusual content. (Today, the account has more than 17 million followers.) Sponsors also noticed the success and started contacting her.

Now, more than three years later, Cooking with Lynja’s YouTube account has almost 10 million subscribers and her Instagram account has more than two million.

In 2022, Forbes Ms. Davis included on the “50 over 50” list, and she won Streamy Awards for editing and food. In 2023, she attended the Forbes Women’s Summit in Abu Dhabi, where she she spoke on a panel.

Lynn Yamada Davis was born on July 31, 1956 in New York City, but lived most of her early life in Fort Lee, NJ. Her father, Tadao Yamada, was a businessman and her mother, Mabel Fujisake Yamada, was a homemaker.

She graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1977 with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, and received a master’s degree in business administration and public health from Columbia University’s Business School.

She worked for Bell Labs (now AT&T Labs) and had a long career in telecommunications before finding unexpected TikTok fame, Ms. Shofet said.

“She had this whole chapter as a pioneering female engineer, and she was very proud of that,” Ms. Shofet said.

But as a TikTok star, she would be recognized around the world, including in Japan and Italy, where she traveled with her youngest son.

Sean Davis, Mrs. Davis’ other son, is a professional soccer player who was formerly a midfielder for the New York Red Bulls and now plays for the Nashville Soccer Club.

“She was my first coach,” he said. When she would visit him in Nashville, he said, she would be recognized on the street, often by young people who use TikTok heavily.

“That’s when I realized how famous she was,” said Sean Davis, “people were asking for pictures and I took the picture.”

Most of all, Cooking with Lynja provided Ms. Davis with a lot of fun, Tim Davis said, as evidenced by the videos. Featuring special effects with little versions of Mrs. Davis flying across the screen and quotes like “Lynja’s got that dope!” her videos appealed to different generations of viewers. In her videos, she can be seen preparing all kinds of food and can be heard sinking her teeth into crunchy food sandwiches or potatoes, karate chop Ramen noodles and much more.

Ms Davis was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2019, which changed the sound of her voice. In 2021, she was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, for which she completed treatment. In one videoDavis is seen baking (lots of) cookies for the medical workers who treated her.

In addition to Mrs. Shofet and Tim and Sean Davis, Mrs. Davis is survived by her second husband, Keith Davis; another daughter, Becky Steinberg; two siblings, Jay Yamada and Karen Dolce Yamada; and two grandchildren.

Ms. Davis’ previous marriage to Hank Steinberg ended in divorce.

In her final years, Mrs. Davis got to travel the world, meet people, and cook and eat fantastic food. Sean Davis said Thursday, “I just think her final chapter was exactly how she wanted it to be written. .”