In a story of familial traditions coming out of Denver, CO, 28-year-old Laila Beales just perfected another TikTok recipe that she knows she’ll pass down to her children one day.
“Cooking is huge in my family,” she said. “My grandmother passed her recipes down to my mother and my mother passed those recipes down to me. Unfortunately, I don’t really like any of those recipes, but I found a killer chocolate chip cookie recipe on TikTok that I’ll definitely be passing down to my kids.”
Laila said she sees passing down recipes as an important way to preserve familial legacy and a great way to honor your loved ones after they’re gone.
“I mean, sure, I still honor my grandma by making her homemade bread recipe on Thanksgiving,” she said. “But nobody really eats it, since they’re too busy devouring the cheesy rolls I discovered on TikTok. So, obviously, I’m going to pass the cheesy roll recipe onto my children instead of my grandma’s bread recipe. My kids won’t even know my grandma so it doesn’t really matter.”
While reporters suggested that maybe the whole point of passing down recipes through generations was to create a sense of connection to your ancestors who you might not have had the chance to meet, Laila wasn’t really paying attention as she was listing all of the other recipes she’d discovered on TikTok.
“The Gigi Hadid pasta recipe, homemade Crunchwrap Supremes, cowboy caviar,” she said, listing the recipes off on her fingers. “These are all recipes I’ve found on TikTok and that I’m sure will be made at hundreds of family gatherings in the future.”
While Laila did note that some of her recipes might be “trends,” that didn’t mean they wouldn’t last in her family.
“Yeah, maybe, mac ‘n’ cheese ramen won’t stand the test of time for the rest of the world, but it tastes so good when I’m hungover,” she said. “I want my kids to experience that, and I know they’ll want their kids to experience that, too.”
However, as of press time, Laila had created an entire cookbook to pass down to her children but had already forgotten about mac ‘n’ cheese ramen. She did, however, tell reporters that she “couldn’t wait” to make the Emily Mariko salmon bowl with her grandkids.
