Food Influencer Carolina Gelen Learned How to Speak English from Watching Cooking Shows — Now She Has Millions of Followers [Exclusive]

These days, Carolina Gelen has celebrity status in the food world, but cooking didn’t always look so luxurious. Growing up without a lot of money in Romania meant that learning how to cook was a means of survival. The cooking influencer and author of the upcoming cookbook Pass the Plate: 100 Delicious, Highly Shareable, Everyday Recipes learned how to prepare couscous before she was even school-aged by studying her mother in the kitchen.

“Everything we would make at home would be homemade,” she tells The Kitchn via a Zoom interview from her residence in Utah. “I think my mother welcoming me in the kitchen and nurturing that interest really helped me develop a true passion for cooking.”

She also studied cooking shows on TV — and even credits those for how she was able to teach herself English. “I think being young and watching people cook and watching them speak really helped me because English is a self-taught language for me.”

When she was in her early 20s, she decided to emigrate from Romania to the U.S. because of a job opportunity to work in the Park City Resorts and “just fell in love with the beauty of Utah.” From there, she continued to cook and began posting photos of her food to Instagram. Without even realizing that cooking could be a career, she began to unknowingly build an empire.

“I started writing recipes, and then videos came along,” she explains. “I started producing videos with no background in video producing or editing or any of that. It’s slowly built up from there. I managed to develop a really engaged and wonderful community on my socials, which I’m forever grateful for. I think they’re the best part of what I do.”

It’s true: Her combined audience surpasses 2 million people and is growing by the day. With the ability to upload a video — like her fondant potatoes —  that brings in 10 million views, it’s not a surprise that she decided to venture into cookbooks. What’s striking about Gelen’s videos is that she chooses to highlight recipes that are approachable. You don’t need to be a chef to make her recipes. 

“I like to describe the cookbook dream as a dream,” she admits. “I never even dared to dream … and now that I have a cookbook and it’s almost out, it still feels very surreal.”

Pass the Plate officially comes out September 24 but is currently available for preorder. And judging from her followers’ support (including some big names like Kat Dennings, Joey King, and Tiffani Thiessen), people can’t wait to try out the new recipes. 

“I wanted to develop a cookbook that was an extension to something I’m already doing, which is making food more approachable for people,” Gelen explains. “And it’s really teaching people how to cook in a way that’s not very intimidating.” She promises easy, delicious recipes and delivers both on social media and in her cookbook.

One recipe readers will be excited to make from her cookbook is the One-Pan Garlicky Chicken Couscous, which is a dish from her childhood. In Romania, “children eat couscous,” Gelen says. “I decided to make it with some chicken thighs because you get all that delicious schmalz in the pan. … It’s just one of those reliable one-pan meals you can make for yourself or you can make for a crowd,” she continues. “It comes together very easily. One of my mother’s tricks is to use chicken bouillon cubes to really elevate that chicken flavor. … It’s just such a nostalgic flavor.”

Galen credits her upbringing for making her “resourceful in the kitchen” and able to make things from scratch. That might be the reason why she’s resonated with so many people. But she doesn’t only have Romanian or American recipes in her cookbook. She highlights foods from different cultures around the world. 

“I think it’s such a beautiful thing to learn more about a culture’s cuisine and really dive into it,” Gelen says. “I try my best to read about it and give credit where credit is due. A lot of my dishes are more leaning towards fusion, so I will take something original and I add my own twist to it.”

With social media, a dish’s origins can quickly get lost in the conversation. To Gelen, maintaining the integrity of dishes is paramount to respecting other cultures while still being able to experiment with new flavors and foods. Since her whole introduction to cooking stemmed from necessity, she’s become an expert at making the most out of each dish she makes.