Lauren Ko
If anyone was ever on the food side of Instagram or YouTube in 2019, I’m sure you saw the extremely beautiful and detailed pies created by Lauren Ko. Lauren Ko is an artist and baker who is a first-generation US citizen. Ko’s parents are both immigrants; her father is from Hong Kong and her mother is from Honduras. She was born in San Diego and spent her childhood there, but is now based in Seattle where she works full-time as a pie artist.
Lauren Ko started out working as a social worker in Seattle. She used that background experience and her platform to host fundraisers where the proceeds were donated to nonprofit organizations for immigrants, food services, and adoption. Ko has also talked about not feeling Asian or Latina enough. She uses this to make creations that capture the feeling of being multicultural and American. Ko uses her Latina heritage, Asian heritage, and traditionally American elements to create something new that best captures her identity. Lauren Ko also wants to use her art to show something—it could be a part of her, a story, or a feeling. The goal is for someone to look at her art and not only think that it looks good, but also make the viewer think more about the different cultural elements and what message the art is conveying.
With all of the support and attention Ko received from her family, friends, and social media fans, it only made sense for her to move on to even bigger things. Shortly after her first few viral posts, Ko began receiving messages from agents and editors asking her if a book was in the picture. Ko refused to answer these messages until she began thinking that maybe she could actually write a book about her art that people would want to read. She spent countless hours testing recipes, baking pies, writing down the recipes, and creating a story within the pages of a cookbook. All her work paid off and her book Pieometry was released in October 2020. It was extremely successful and quickly became a New York Times bestselling cookbook. I was gifted a copy for Christmas a year ago and the book itself is really beautiful and one of a kind. Ko continues to bake pies, and has started a movement of exploring the connection between food and its impact. Some of her pies (like the one below) connect aspects of her Honduran identity using colors of the Honduran flag with patterns she found in Chinese art, along with flavors from her childhood in California, to create a truly American pie.