In a soft, breathy voice that sounds almost like a meditation guru, dressed in a white leather corset trimmed with lace, presumably the work of some world-famous designer, model, entrepreneur and influencer Nara Aziza Smith places a wooden cutting board on the counter.
The camera moves closer to her delicate hands, perfectly groomed nails and immaculate manicure, which matches her corset with almost suspicious precision. Everything gleams. Everything sparkles. Everything looks impossibly seductive. And then the cooking begins.
Gallery
Nara Smith at Paris Fashion Week; from the runway to the bookshelf
(Photo: Aurore Marechal/Getty Images for The Business of Fashion)
"When my husband asked me if I wanted to go get frozen yogurt together after the kids went to sleep, I looked at him and told him it would taste so much better if I made everything myself, from scratch," she explains in her hypnotically soothing voice.
She starts with the yogurt, mixing the ingredients and leaving them out for six hours before transferring the mixture to the freezer for another four. While the yogurt chills, she explains, there is plenty of time to prepare the toppings. She squeezes fresh apples for juice and makes gummy candy from scratch. Because who doesn't whip up homemade gummy candy when their husband suddenly fancies some refreshing frozen yogurt?
A minute and a half. That's all it takes Smith to compress two days or more of utterly exhausting kitchen labor into a viral ASMR-style video that looks like an erotic fantasy crossed with a caricature of an impossibly devoted 1950s housewife. The lace corset, manicured hands, whispering voice and elaborate dessert preparation turn something the rest of us mere mortals would simply buy at the neighborhood frozen yogurt shop into a mesmerizing spectacle.
At the time of writing, the video had accumulated 3 million views, less than half of Smith's reported average of around 6 million views per video.
In her videos, Smith is invariably dressed in haute couture, her sharply sculpted bob perfectly in place and her nails filed to perfection. The kitchen? Always spotless. The clothes, makeup and overall styling? Flawless. Even when she spends hours preparing messy sweets and baked goods from scratch, always from scratch, she never seems to break a sweat.
No child runs between her legs demanding to be picked up halfway through cooking, or, heaven forbid, approaches the oven and tries to touch it (that last one actually happened to me with my baby just yesterday).
There are no grease stains on the countertop, no splashes from overturned drinks and not a speck of flour on her delicate clothes, some of which appear to cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Making Skittles from scratch
Nara Aziza Smith, 25, is a model, content creator and entrepreneur. Born in South Africa to a German father and an African mother, she spent her childhood in Germany and now lives in the United States. She is married to fellow model Lucky Blue Smith, and the couple have four children.
She began her fashion career at just 14, when she was discovered by the modeling agency IMG. She later built a substantial social media following by combining three worlds that lend themselves exceptionally well to the camera: home cooking, high fashion and family life.
Nara Smith; born to an African mother and a German father
(Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images for The Business of Fashion)
Her cooking videos began attracting significant attention in late 2023. In them, she prepares almost everything imaginable from scratch, sometimes taking the concept to frankly absurd extremes.
In one particularly memorable video, she wears bright red, fetish-inspired latex gloves while making Skittles from scratch. Yes, Skittles. Rather than buying a packet at the nearest supermarket like an ordinary, reasonably sane person, Smith embarks on an entire homemade candy-making expedition, however long it takes.
And there is always someone else at the center of the effort, usually her children or her husband. Never, heaven forbid, herself.
That is one reason Smith has become closely associated with the social media phenomenon of "tradwives," short for traditional wives. The term refers to women who present a lifestyle on TikTok and Instagram based on traditional, often religious ideas about marriage, motherhood and gender roles.
Housework, cooking and raising children are depicted as feminine ideals, typically accompanied by a nostalgic vision of an immaculate country home, a photogenic husband and a large family.
But Smith does not fit neatly into that definition. For one thing, she does not conform to the white, 1950s housewife image frequently associated with the trend. She is biracial, born to a Black mother and a white father.
More importantly, she is not a housewife in the traditional 1950s sense of the word at all. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Smith explained that she sees herself as an independent, career-driven mother. Cooking, she said, is a hobby and a passion. As for cleaning up the mess left behind after all that baking? Apparently, that is her husband's job. Good for him.
From social media to bookstore shelves
On Tuesday, October 13, Smith took her carefully curated culinary universe from the screen to the bookshelf with the release of her first cookbook, "Homemade." Featuring 80 recipes, the book promises to help readers bring some of Smith's signature aesthetic and approach to cooking and baking into their own kitchens.
Published by William Morrow, the 288-page volume includes not only the dishes that made her a social media star but also recipes inspired by her childhood memories of Germany and the family cooking traditions she grew up with.
The collection ranges from baked goods and comforting home-cooked meals to salads, pasta and sweets. Alongside more elaborate creations, readers will find homemade versions of familiar supermarket products, one of Smith's most recognizable trademarks.
Among the recipes are homemade cinnamon cereal, Smith's take on the American breakfast favorite Cinnamon Toast Crunch, which has become closely associated with her online content. There are also homemade cheese crackers, complete with dough made from scratch, and a selection of breads and baked goods, including white potato bread, English muffins and focaccia with roasted garlic oil.
Pasta enthusiasts will find recipes for handmade dough that can be shaped into different varieties, along with sauces and even lasagna sheets decorated with edible flowers.
A pork schnitzel recipe draws on Smith's childhood memories of Germany, while other savory dishes include a roasted vegetable salad with a miso and sherry dressing, and beef steak with soy sauce accompanied by a plum and herb salad.
For those with a sweet tooth, the collection includes Lucky's chocolate oatmeal cookies, her husband's take on an American classic.
And because this is Nara Smith, of course, there are also recipes for making ingredients most people would simply pick up at the grocery store, including mozzarella, flavored butter and chocolate-hazelnut spread.
Beyond the recipes themselves, the book offers advice on grocery shopping, organizing the pantry and kitchen, planning menus and entertaining guests.
Naturally, it also features lavish color photography, with an emphasis on the polished, fashion-conscious aesthetic that has become inseparable from the Smith brand.
But will readers actually start making their own breakfast cereal and mozzarella from scratch? I doubt it. I guess that many buyers will purchase the book for its beautiful photography, treating it more like a coffee-table design book than a practical kitchen manual.
Then again, Smith has nearly 5 million social media followers, so there are probably quite a few among them who are genuinely prepared to give it a try.
First published: 10:27, 10.16.26