Sohla El-Waylly

Sohla El-Waylly (born Nusrath Sohla Muzib) is an American chef, restaurateur, author, and YouTube personality. She is known for creating recipes, hosting culinary web series, and serving as a judge on television programs. Among her major achievements, her debut cookbook was named a James Beard Award winner.

Raised in Los Angeles, California, in a Bangladeshi-American family that operated a Baskin-Robbins store, El-Waylly gained early food industry experience working at Outback Steakhouse. She later attended the University of California, Irvine, where she studied economics while working at a Cheesecake Factory. Beginning in 2008, she studied at The Culinary Institute of America (CIA).

Following her culinary studies, El-Waylly worked at New York City restaurants, including Del Posto and the two-Michelin-starred restaurant Atera. In March 2016, she and her husband opened Hail Mary, a diner in Brooklyn, New York. The ambitious restaurant received favorable reviews but closed after 11 months due to financial constraints from operating without outside investors and challenges regarding customer expectations.

El-Waylly transitioned into food media, serving as a culinary editor at Serious Eats in 2018 before joining Bon Appétit magazine as an assistant food editor in August 2019. During her time there, she regularly appeared on the magazine's YouTube channel. In June 2020, following public controversy involving the magazine's editor-in-chief, El-Waylly spoke out against racial discrimination and inequitable pay for employees of color within the company. She subsequently stepped back from video appearances and severed ties with the publication later that year.

Following her departure from Bon Appétit, El-Waylly expanded her video production work. In September 2020, she launched the YouTube series Stump Sohla on Andrew Rea's Babish Culinary Universe channel, a collaboration that ran through early 2021. She also authored the weekly column "Off-Script with Sohla" for Food52, hosted the web series Ancient Recipes with Sohla for History, and hosted shows such as Cooking 101 with Sohla and Mystery Menu for the New York Times Cooking YouTube channel. In 2025, she publicly announced the end of her work with The New York Times.

In addition to her digital series, El-Waylly joined the HBO Max culinary competition show The Big Brunch as a judge alongside Dan Levy and Will Guidara. In October 2023, she published her first cookbook, Start Here: Instructions for Becoming a Better Cook. The book received widespread industry recognition, winning the 2024 James Beard Award for General Book as well as an IACP Award for Book Design. She was previously named to the Time 100 Next list in 2021.

El-Waylly resides in New York City with her husband, fellow chef Hisham "Ham" El-Waylly, whom she met at The Culinary Institute of America. The couple welcomed their first child in September 2023.