Yahoo Food’s Blogger of the Year: Molly Yeh
Yeh on the farm, at her wedding. Photo: Molly Yeh
Here at Yahoo Food, we believe that food bloggers are the next celebrity chefs. “They have devoted fan bases, they make wonderful food that isn’t overly complicated, and they often photograph and style their dishes beautifully,” said our editor in chief, Kerry Diamond, in an interview with Barneys New York. “They make people want to cook again, and that’s so important.” Celebrating these people is part of what we do on a regular basis, in our Blogger of the Week column.
If food bloggers are the new celebrity chefs, then Molly Yeh could be the next Mario Batali.
Yeh is the 25-year-old Chinese-Jewish woman behind My Name Is Yeh, which she writes from a farm in North Dakota. She studied percussion at the Juilliard School for performing arts in New York City, wound up writing about food, and then wound up moving to the Midwest to be with her then-boyfriend.
Scallion Pancake Challah Bread. Photo: Molly Yeh
Recipes such as Yeh’s scallion pancake challah bread and Brussels sprouts latkes tap into that Chinese-Jewish heritage. They’re also a lot of fun: Yeh raised the gingerbread house bar this Christmas by making a gingerbread farm, a sugary replica of the farm she now lives on, and she’s also developed a homemade Peeps recipe, Cheeto-crusted jalapeño poppers, and DIY bubble tea. Other things that inspire Yeh’s recipes, in her own words: “my mama, my gluten-free and dairy-free eggboy [what Yeh calls her boyfriend], my time spent living in new york, my midwest-y surroundings, minimalism, the seasons, nostalgia, and my blogger friendsies.”
Perhaps the most striking thing about Yeh is her following; a trail of positive energy follows her every digital move. Her readers love her recipes—we have yet to see a critical comment—they love her photographs, and they love her. And that’s now extended to the media.
Within the last year, Yeh has been profiled by Food & Wine magazine, she’s written for Food52 and Condé Nast Traveler, she was tapped to contribute recipes to West Elm’s blog, she spent some time with The New York Times’ Sam Sifton (he traveled to North Dakota to see her), and, of course, she was one of Yahoo Food’s Bloggers of the Week.
Oh, and she got married: The then-boyfriend is a now-husband (the wedding bells rang just last week!). The wedding cake? Funfetti, “of course.”
Funfetti Cake. Photo: Molly Yeh
We’re wrapping up 2014:
