Sohla El-Waylly


Sohla El-Waylly is an American chef, restaurateur, and YouTube personality. She is an assistant food editor at Bon Appétit and is known for her appearances in videos produced for the magazine's YouTube channel.

Early life and education

El-Waylly was raised in Los Angeles in a Bengali-American family. The family owned a Baskin-Robbins store. El-Waylly continued in the restaurant industry by working for Outback Steakhouse. Beginning in 2008, El-Waylly attended The Culinary Institute of America.

Career

After graduating, El-Waylly worked at restaurants in New York City such as Atera, which has two Michelin stars, and Del Posto, owned by Joe Bastianich.
In March 2016, El-Waylly and her husband opened a diner called Hail Mary in Brooklyn, which attracted favorable reviews. However, it closed after 11 months, which El-Waylly attributes in part to opening Hail Mary without other investors, and in part to having served American food. In a 2017 interview with GQ, El-Waylly explained that customers often entered Hail Mary expecting "foreign or exotic ingredients" because of the owners' cultural backgrounds; she stated "There would have been more leeway allowed in the food shrouded by illusion of ‘authenticity’...There are white chefs that can pull from different cultures without explanation, but us making white food always needs a thesis behind it." After working at Serious Eats as a culinary editor, El-Waylly left to join Bon Appétit magazine in August 2019. At Bon Appétit, she works as an assistant food editor and appears regularly on the magazine's popular YouTube channel.
In June 2020, a photo of Bon Appétit editor-in-chief Adam Rapoport in brownface resurfaced online and sparked widespread criticism. During an emergency company-wide Zoom meeting, El-Waylly called for Rapoport to step down. She then publicly accused the magazine of discriminating towards employees of color, claiming they were subject to lesser pay than their non-minority counterparts. Rapoport resigned the same day.

Personal life

El-Waylly lives in New York City with her husband, fellow chef Ham El-Waylly. They met while they were both attending the Culinary Institute of America.