How a high-powered lawyer became a TikTok superstar

Joanne Lee Molinaro’s ‘thing’ for eating and talking over food as ‘the Korean Vegan’ has earned her more than 2.7 million followers in just over a year.

The Korean Vegan, Joanne Lee Molinaro, documents a meal for Instagram and TikTok. The Washington Post

Monica Eng

Oct 12, 2021 – 9.00am

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Chicago | On a warm summer night, I biked to the lakefront home of Joanne Lee Molinaro – better known as the Korean Vegan.

I thought we would whip up a few recipes from her new Korean Vegan Cookbook while I got to know her for this profile. But when I arrived on time at 6pm and took off my shoes, I realised all the cooking was already done. Molinaro’s dining room table was covered in linen, silver and picture-perfect dishes of kimchi, ssamjang, a rolled vegan omelet, steamed rice, perilla leaves and galbi (substituting mushrooms for the meat).

Washington Post