Joanne Lee Molinaro
“The Korean Vegan”: How a top lawyer became a Tiktok superstar with her cooking videos
With cooking videos to become a superstar: Joanne Lee Molinaro is “The Korean Vegan”
© “The Korean Vegan” / Joanne Lee Molinaro
It all started with stewed potatoes – and Joanne Lee Molinaro’s husband giving piano lessons in the background. The video went viral. In less than two years, the lawyer became a Tiktok star, with more than 3 million followers. In her recipe videos, she tells stories about her family, who immigrated from what is now North Korea.
In one of her cooking videos, Joanne Lee Molinaro tells of her mother defending her in front of a woman in a shop when she was scolded about her weight. Molinaro Japchae prepares a Korean noodle salad. The video has been viewed around 2.5 million times to date. In another post, Molinaro shares how her father supported her through her divorce. Meanwhile, she prepares a spicy tofu salad. Nine million views.
Joanne Lee Molinaro is a viral sensation and now a superstar on Tiktok. She reaches over four million people with her videos. This is not only because their recipes are special. All dishes are Korean, all dishes are vegan. She veganized Korean cuisine. A novelty in today’s world, Korean cuisine is far more plant-based than we think.
Joanne Lee Molinaro, a digital artist
What is special about Molinaro’s videos, however, are their stories: in almost poetic voiceovers, Molinaro invites the viewer into her kitchen, her home and her life. She talks about her parents’ experiences when emigrating from North Korea to South Korea, her own upbringing in America and her personal philosophy. She is open, compassionate and has an outspoken opinion. She cooks, reveals her culinary identity and lets you immerse yourself so deeply in her world that the videos can only be successful. As a spectator, one almost seems to be part of this life. Molinaro is a digital artist, 2.0.
Cooking was just a hobby; since 2016 she has been running a blog “The Korean Vegan”. At the time, she was a partner in a Chicago law firm. In 2020, to escape the dreariness of lockdown, she joined Tiktok and started posting videos about her political views and life as a lawyer. It was nothing less than a braised potato video that laid the groundwork for her success today.
The best cookbook of the year
Just two years later, three million people are following her on Tiktok. They helped make their 2021 cookbook – a collection of recipes and personal essays – a bestseller. Both The New York Times and The New Yorker voted The Korean Vegan Cookbook: Reflections and Recipes from Omma’s Kitchen as one of the best cookbooks of the year. The New Yorker describes the recipes as “at once personal and rooted in the practice of generations”.
Molinaro didn’t go vegan entirely voluntarily. Her now-husband decided to become vegan in 2015. She refused. “I didn’t want to go vegan with him,” she told the magazine last year “Washington Post” . “I felt like, ‘You’re taking away my Koreanness with what you’re doing.’ She was afraid of losing her identity. But at some point, Molinaro realized that if she went plant-based, she could maintain her culinary identity. So she decided to give vegan a chance. But she didn’t want to give up her childhood favorites. Instead, she set out to veganize them all. A breakthrough for her personally and for her current career.
Molinaro learned during a visit to South Korea in 2019 that Korean food goes far beyond grilled meat and fried chicken. The country’s large Buddhist population even eats a predominantly plant-based diet. “I visited a Buddhist temple and spoke to one of the nuns,” writes Lee Molinaro in her cookbook, The Korean Vegan. “And she explained very nicely to me that plant-based eating has been around a lot longer than Korean barbecue and even the word veganism.”
Korean for beginners and for advanced learners
Soon Molinaro is more than a partner in a law firm with a fun side business. It introduces Korean cuisine. For most, knowledge of Korean food ends at kimchi and barbecue. Molinaro introduces both vegans and non-vegans to staples like gochujang, a spicy chili paste, and tteokbokki, chewy rice cakes. Viewers familiar with the cuisine learn from her that jjajangmyun, a black bean sauce noodle dish that is Molinaro’s favorite dish, can be made without pork. Or that gamjatang — literally “potato stew” — can focus on the potatoes instead of the meat.
No one knows what Molinaro’s next post will be about. Often there are stories about her childhood, about her family, but also about topics dealing with politics, racism or eating disorders. The only constant is the food. “The Korean Vegan” has now become a full-time job. Molinaro says today, “In many ways, I know so much more about my culture now than I did before.”