Awkwafina has added “restaurateur” to her already lengthy resume—and cameras were rolling as she figured out how. The AP reports that the actor-rapper’s new Apple TV+ series, Awkwafina: The Unlikely Cook, traces her from culinary rookie who says she once would have dismissed soup as “just a hot liquid” to someone confident enough to relaunch her family’s old Queens restaurant, Lum’s, first as a one-night pop-up and now with plans for a permanent spot. Across eight episodes, she trains at the Culinary Institute of America, waits tables in LA, and learns dishes from chefs including Roy Choi and TV pioneer Martin Yan.
What starts as an Asian American food-travel concept turns into a personal exploration of heritage, grief, and work—especially as Awkwafina reconnects with the Cantonese recipes that sustained Lum’s four-decade run and tries to honor her father, grandmother, and her late mother. The AP notes that the show’s through line is accessibility: Viewers watch her move from fumbling with ramen-and-Spam to critiquing sauces and commanding a kitchen. Cooking, she says, is “so accessible. It really is a world that you can step into anytime. No one’s going to tell you that you can’t do it or you’re not good enough.” More on her culinary left turn and the revival of Lum’s here.