Fans filled the John E. Reeves Great Hall on Thursday to see Omi Hopper, the internet sensation behind the Cooking con Omi TikTok and the best-selling cookbook of the same name. SUNY Chancellor John B. King Jr. shared remarks and Elena Romero, assistant chair of Marketing Communications, moderated.
The event was the culmination of FIT’s celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. Additionally, at lunchtime, FIT’s Dining Hall cooked up a tray of pastelón from Cooking con Omi to allow more students to enjoy her visit.
Here are three takeaways from the event.
Food makes a home
For Hopper, who grew up between Puerto Rico and the mainland United States, cooking was a way to relate to her family and heritage. But it wasn’t until her grandmother passed away in 2021 that she realized she wanted to preserve that heritage. “I wanted to honor my people,” she said.
Chancellor King, who grew up in Brooklyn, shared his own memories of his grandmother’s arroz con habichuelas, arroz con gandules, and bacalao.
“Food is memory, food is culture, food is home,” King said. “One of the things that’s important to me, as the first Puerto Rican chancellor, is to make sure every one of our students feels a sense of belonging. I walked in and felt that here. Thank you for modeling how we can create that sense of home for all our students.”
Hopper’s road to stardom was almost accidental
She was working as a makeup artist in 2020 until the Covid pandemic hit. One evening, feeling broke after spending $35 on groceries, she filmed herself cooking sancocho and posted it to her professional Instagram account. “I had no one around me that I could touch or talk to, and I just wanted to connect with the outside world,” she said. “It was you all watching, supporting, asking for more recipes, telling me your stories, who gave me a sense of purpose that I forgot could even exist.”
Even she has imposter syndrome
As a contestant on Gordon Ramsey’s Next Level Chef, Hopper constantly doubted herself. “I kept thinking, how did I get there? I never worked in a kitchen. The other contestants were always trying to show off their fancy knife skills, and I’m over here beating an egg with a fork.”
But she kept advancing, eventually finishing fourth: “Every single time I cooked, it was our flavor that won,” she said. —Irina Ivanova