Tributes pour in after TikTok star Cooking with Lynja chef dies aged 67

Beloved TikTok star Lynn Yamada Davis, otherwise known as 'Cooking with Lynja', has passed away at the age of 67 from oesophageal cancer.

The popular internet star grew an audience of more than 17.5 million followers on TikTok after she began posting wholesome cooking videos during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Her daughter Hannah Mariko Shofet shared the sad news that Lynn died on January 1 at Riverview Medical Centre in New Jersey.

At Lynn's request, her TikTok account will remain active after her death as she asked her family to post videos which have been filmed and edited before her passing and the account will then be inactive once all those videos are posted.

Lynn's son Tim Davis paid tribute to his mother, he said as per The New York Times: "My mom was like my partner in crime."

In 2019, Lynn was diagnosed with throat cancer which later developed into oesophageal cancer in 2021.

During this time, she started her TikTok channel with her son Tim who says it was his mother's idea to post cooking content online.

Lynn spent her final year travelling around the world and meeting new people, and her son Sean Davis says her final chapter was "exactly how she would have wanted it to be written".

Before her days as a popular TikToker, Lynn - who was born in New York City and then lived in Fort Lee businessman father Tadao Yamada and mother Mabel Fujisake Yamada - previously graduated in 1977 with a civil engineering degree from MIT and later studied for her master's degree in business administration and public health at Colombia.

She then built a career in telecommunications to which her daughter described how her mother "had this whole chapter as a ground-breaking female engineer, and she was very proud of that".

Tributes have flooded in from fans who have thanked Lynn for bringing such joy and cheerfulness to them through her TikTok videos.

One person wrote: "I'm so sorry to hear about Lynja's passing. She had such light."

"Fly high Lynja, you deserve the best and your time here on Earth is precious," another person said.

A third person added: "Lynja, you are the goat of cooking TikTok, you reminded me of my grandma. Absolute goat, fly high."

"RIP Lynja. I loved your videos and you made a huge impact on my life. I know you can’t read this but I want to thank you for making content," a fourth person replied.

Someone else added: "Lynja thank you for giving us so much joy with your cooking videos, we will miss you so much."

Lynn is survived by her husband, Keith Davis, and her three children, Tim, Sean and Hannah, two grandchildren, as well as her siblings Jay Yamada and Karen Dolce Yamada.

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