The First Nations foodie gaining popularity on Tik Tok, Christine Williams – otherwise known as Soso Chrissy on social media – is quickly becoming one of the Indigenous cooking communities most recognised new faces.
With her niche TikTok live series 'Mob Feed Monday', Williams strives to share her culture through cooking, with all her culinary creations showcasing traditional recipes that celebrate the rich traditions of First Nations people.
Williams noted that the sense of community that has been created through these live cooking demonstrations is one of the primary reasons she created the series.
"My most favourite thing about sharing my culture online has been connecting with the Mob Food family, connecting with my community, connecting with so many beautiful, beautiful humans… all because of food, or because of my culture," she said.
"My favourite thing about connecting with others is knowing that we all come from different walks of life. We're all in our own journeys, but the one thing that brings us together is our culture, our food and all that knowledge that has been passed from all of our beautiful Elders to now.
"That's the most wholesome thing and my favourite thing about connecting my culture through my food, is just connecting with others, but most of all connecting with my online family, and the family coming in, and the two coming in and connecting. Having their own yarns, having their own catch-ups in my Mob Feed Monday lives, where they can say… Hey auntie, everyone just catching up, so connecting and bringing us all together over something we all love, which is food."
When it came to this year's NAIDOC Week, Williams was eager to incorporate her culture into her celebrations, and further showcase this across her TikTok channel cooking a traditional Torres Strait Islander dish.
"This National NAIDOC Week, I had an amazing feature for our Mob Feed Mondays on TikTok, and we made a traditional Torres Strait Islander dish called, Sop Sop," she said.
"The way I like to incorporate my beautiful culture through NAIDOC Week is I like to make a traditional dish and I also like to share it, show how it's made, share the knowledge and the history behind the dish, and also inspire not only our First Nations communities but also our non-Indigenous communities to try our recipes and also support our NAIDOC events for the week, so that they can also engage and learn more about our beautiful Black history and also our beautiful black communities and all the amazing Black excellence within our community during our special week."
"The message I like to convey during NAIDOC Week, but not only to our Mob Feed Monday family, but to all of the new people and new viewers that might be watching, is that our beautiful First Nations history has been on this Earth for thousands and thousands of years, and there's so much more knowledge and history to be shared each and every day, each and every year, and each and every special NAIDOC week that we have for these years to come."
Williams said Mob Feed Monday initially came about with the help of the TikTok community.
"Mob Feed Monday was actually created by my online TikTok community. I was cooking on a live stream just to pop up on a Sunday and they were like, Chrissy we love your cooking It's so fun, you make it look so easy and we want more… we want to see more, so I asked them what they thought of the name," she said.
"They created Mob Food Mondays and then we just continued our Mob Food Monday's from there. And we've been going for a year and a half now, almost two years in November. So our Mob Feed Mondays is like a year, almost two years old now."
William also noted that while she enjoys choosing what dish to create, she sometimes leaves it up to her Mob Feed Monday's community to decide.
"We ask some Mob Feed Mondays, so I sometimes pick the recipes for some weeks, and then also we leave it up to the Mob Feed Monday family, and they get to decide what we cook. So I take on their suggestions very much in order as well, and we just go from there," she said.
"It has been really, really easy to connect and be open and vulnerable with the TikTok family because everyone's been so open to not only learn about the beautiful, beautiful history behind our food and how our dishes come together, but also to learn a little bit more about the special meaning of food and what it means to me and my family."
Similar to most foodies, Williams is inspired by her family, history and rich First Nations culture.
"What inspires me to cook these beautiful recipes are my ancestors. So my my mum, my dad, my aunties, my uncles ,just all of my beautiful family inspire me to share these recipes," Willams told Style Up.
"For me, cooking's not just cooking. Cooking is connecting with my ancestors, connecting in with all of my loved ones, past and present, and it really is family. Cooking is one thing that brings each and every one of us together and it's so easyto find a balance with sharing my culture through food because so much of my culture is infused with food."
With an ever-growing social media presence, combined passion for food and First Nations culture, Christine Williams is a refreshingly down to earth media figure who's energy and enthusiasm continues to see her admired by both chefs, celebrities and other passionate foodies all around Australia.
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