We recently connected with Tina Tsai and have shared our conversation below.

Tina, appreciate you joining us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

I was raised by my mother, who was a single parent. She was a Traditional Chinese Watercolor Artist and was also juggling all sorts of jobs in order to support us. However, she always made sure to cook up some incredible, wholesome home-cooked meals. The average meal for us was a meat dish, a veggie dish, a seafood dish, served with rice, and there was also always a pot of soup on the stove!

So I grew up watching her cook, and I know that amazing food doesn’t have to be super complicated. She used fresh ingredients and she cooked with love. She taught me that food is nurturing and that food is love.

My mom also made sure that I stayed connected to my Taiwanese roots, even though we lived in the US. We visited Taiwan every summer growing up, we would watch Chinese historical dramas and listen to and sing Chinese songs, and I was also enrolled in Chinese school, which I attended every Saturday and learned Chinese history, Mandarin Chinese, Traditional Chinese Dancing, and more.

All of this shaped me into who I am today, and I am forever grateful for her dedication and love.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Tina Tsai, and I’m the creator of Oh Snap! Let’s Eat!, a website dedicated to sharing Taiwanese, Chinese, and Asian home cooking.

My journey started in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, where I was born. I moved to Atlanta, GA, with my mom at the age of four. Growing up, we visited Taiwan every summer, which I appreciated because that truly exposed me to the vibrant culture and, of course, the incredible food of Taiwan!

Back in the States, my mom, who was raising me as a single parent and juggling multiple jobs, always made sure that we had delicious, nourishing meals on the table every day. This taught me that good, healthy, delicious food doesn’t have to be difficult and complex.

I started Oh Snap! Let’s Eat! as a hobby in 2012, and I didn’t actually anticipate what it would eventually grow into! At the time, I just knew I loved food and I was sharing it with the world. Eventually, the recipes got more and more attention throughout the years, and here we are today!

I think what sets my blog apart from others is actually that I try to share classic Asian recipes in a manner that is easy to follow for home cooks. One of my proudest moments was receiving feedback from a reader who immigrated to the States from Taiwan, just like me. She thanked me for my recipes as they helped her reconnect with the flavors of her childhood, and it was easy to follow my recipes unlike other recipes she found, which required a lot of hard-to-find ingredients.

I believe that food is an amazing way to stay connected with loved ones and culture, and I feel so happy that I can help Asian food lovers through Oh Snap! Let’s Eat!

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

A big part of building your audience on social media is learning about your audience and what they are looking for. Ask yourself: Who is your target audience? What are they looking for? What do they need? Can you provide those things for them? Make helpful content that they need.

Another big part is to be authentic. Just like in real life, authenticity is very important to make genuine connections that matter. In a way, your social media is a platform and an extension of you and your business, and your audience wants to follow you because of you and your business, so be authentic!

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I actually feel like I am constantly unlearning things! That’s because there’s always new information and updates, and you have to be quick to learn, unlearn, and relearn. It’s an endless cycle, and a necessity if you want to improve and stay current.

One example is all the various algorithms across social media platforms and search engines. There are always updates on algorithms, and you just have to keep researching, follow industry experts, and continuously learn, unlearn, and relearn.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ohsnapletseat.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ohsnapletseat/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OhSnapLetsEat/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tinatsai/
• Twitter: https://x.com/ohsnapletseat
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Ohsnapletseat
• Other: TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@ohsnapletseat
  Pinterest – https://www.pinterest.com/ohsnapletseat/
  Cooking courses – https://ohsnapletseat.teachable.com/