76 newyork| october12–25, 2020
TheCULTUREPAGES
AndrewRea’s five-storyBrooklyntown-
house,whereheis expandinghisYouTube
channel,BingingwithBabish. Theconcept
is simple.Givehersomethingtocook,with
anobstacle—forexample,18th-century
macaroniandcheeseora seven-coursetast-
ingmenumadefromingredientssourcedat
a bodega.Today, thethemeis “scary candy,”
whichmeansshewilltrytotucksurprises
intochocolate.(No razorblades,sheswears.)
“Sheis unflappable,” saysRea.
“Ilikechallenges.It doesn’t putmeina
head-spin oranything,” El-Wayllysays.
“I likeit whenallofa suddenyouwalkina
restaurantandallthewalk-insaredown
andeverythingis rotten.Thatgivesmejolts
ofex citement.”Thereis anacutepleasureto
seeingEl-Wayllysolveharebrainedgastro-
nomicpuzzles, likethat ofwatchingan
Olympicpolevaulterclearthebarinslow
motion.Ina way, thisis howshehascooked
formuchofhercareerinhautecuisine
kitchens,includingatAtera,thesevere,
hyperconceptualTribecarestaurantwhere
foodoftenlookedlike objects.Thechef
wouldwanta Japanese-stylecheesecake
madefromHarbisoncheeseonthemenu,
andshewouldmakeit.(It’sharderthanit
so unds.)“ThetimeI learnedthemost in
restaurantswaswhenI wasaloneina
basement,”shesays.“I didn’t haveanyone
teachmeintheprofessionalsettings.My
momreallytaughtmeeverything.”
Fromanearlyage, El-Wayllywasinthe
kitchenalongsidehermother,SalmaBanu.
ShegrewupintheSanFernandoValleyin
LosAngeles,whereherparentsownedand
operatedBaskin-Robbinsice-creamstores.
Sohla?” the video begins. “Do you have a minute?”
The stars of Bon Appétit’s Test Kitchen have so many questions, and
Sohla El-Waylly is like their own human Alexa: Sohla, how do you
temper chocolate? Sohla, how do you pronounce turmeric? Sohla,
what’s a dosa? El-Waylly appears on command—busy, patient, with
a neatlycutbob—toanswer. Thefan-madeSohla supercuts (there are
many)didwhatBonAppétitfailedtodo:reframe the narrative so that
thebackgroundactormightactuallybethestar. “The Test Kitchen is
reallyfunaslongasyouplayyourrole,andI didn’t like the role I was
putin,”El-Wayllysays.“It becameincreasingly frustrating to become
a sidekicktopeoplewithsignificantlylessexperience than me.”
She gets her sense of adventure from Banu,
who liked to go to a specialty market, pick
an unfamiliar ingredient, and figure out
how to cook with it. She ate with the multi-
cultural sensibility of the city: Fish balls
went into a Bangladeshi-style korma; raita
topped a za’atar-spackled manakish. Her
mother hosted elaborate multicourse feasts
on the weekend. “My mom’s like a chef,” she
says. “She is. She didn’t know the names of
knife cuts, but I remember having an in-
depth conversation about how you cut
potatoes for different stews so the potato
cooks at the same time as the protein. That’s
a complex thought that, once you under-
stand, you can translate to any dish.”
Still, her becoming a chef was not the
immigrant parent’s dream. El-Waylly went
to UC Irvine, where she studied economics,
and worked at Cheesecake Factory on the
side. After graduation, she backpacked
around Europe. She had a lot of social
anxiety, but food was the way she connected
with people. “I’d do a big English breakfast
for everyone at the hostel, and then they
would be my friend and be like, ‘Come sleep
over at my apartment,’ ” she says.
When she got back to L.A., she knew she
wanted to be a chef, but she didn’t know
how to start. So she did the thing they say to
do, which is go door-knocking. She went to
all the white-tablecloth restaurants at the
time—Providence, Mélisse, Hatfield’s. She
would wash dishes, she told them. For free!
“It was straight-up ‘no,’ she says. “One chef
even said, ‘Why don’t you just get married?
You shouldn’t be here.’ ”
Casual chauvinism was the rule of kitch-
ens everywhere. In 2008, she began a pro-
gram at the Culinary Institute of America—
something she doesn’t recommend. She says
that when she was at CIA, a dean sexually
harassed her, and when she spoke up, a
female dean told her, “That’s what happens
in the real world. You better get used to it.”
After graduation, her classmate and now-
husband Ham El-Waylly continued to work
as a line cook, but she was pushed toward
the front of house and, eventually, pastry,
where many talented female cooks end up.
“It’s lonely when you’re the only woman in
the kitchen, and you don’t act the way they
want you to act,” she says. “I’m not going to
sit by and watch you kick someone down the
stairs. It makes you very unpopular.”
In 2016, Sohla and Ham decided to open
their own restaurant. They met with inves-
tors who wanted them to make “brown food,”
like chai-and-chaat or shawarma. The idea
made them queasy, so they decided to take a
chance on themselves and open a neo-diner
in Greenpoint. They called it Hail Mary.
They’d make the food they wanted to eat—
fried chicken, koshari, burgers—the way they
Themeteoricpopularity of theembattled
TestKitchenwasbuiltinpart onthevision
thatitwaslikeTheOffice—but tastier.
Unlike muchoftheshow’s talent,El-Waylly
cameinwitha wealthofprofessional
experience,includingtwoyearsofculinary
school,andgigsatfine-diningestablish-
mentsinNew York,anda stintrunningher
ownrestaurant.ShejoinedBonAppétitin
thesummerof 2019asanassistantculinary
editor,a juniorpositionthat meantshewas
supposedto cross-testotherpeople’s recipes.
Quickly,though,shebegandevelopingher
ownand,asthe TestKitchenuniverse
expanded,appearinginvideos.On-camera,
El-Wayllywasnerdybutkindofpunk,with
a bone-drywit.To viewers,shelookedlike
anintegralpart oftheensemble—atleast
untilearlierthissummer,when,amid
allegationsofracismandunequalpay at
Bon Appétit,shepostedonsocialmediathat
shehadn’t beenpaidat allforhervideo
appearances.“Workingina placelike that,
youcan’t say ‘no,’ ” shesays.“Younever
knowifanotheropportunity willcome
yourway.” (ArepresentativeforCondéNast
statedthat allemployeeswhoappearedin
videoswerepaidbutdidn’t providedetails
onhowEl-Wayllywascompensated.)
AfterleavingtheTestKitchenalongwith
manyofherco-workers,shehasbeensay-
ing“yes”toeverything.She’swritinga cook-
book,guest-judgingoncookingshows,
and,onthisOctobermorning,filmingan
episodeofthewebseriesshenowstarsin,
StumpSohla.“Thisshowis just doingthings
thatentertainme,” shesays,asshedips
M&M’sintoroyalicinginthebasementof
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