KQED's Forum Yewande Komolafe on Disability, Cooking and the Restorative Power of a Good Meal
Feb 3, 2026
Yewande Komolafe, New York Times cooking columnist and cookbook author, shares how severe illness and amputation transformed her approach to cooking. She talks about relearning techniques with prosthetics and assistants. Conversations cover the kitchen as refuge, collaborative cooking, memory and comfort foods, and adapting recipes and tools to reclaim agency and joy.
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First Comfort In A Cake
- Yewande describes a cake from Radio Bakery as one of the first sweet things she could chew and swallow after illness.
- The cake's brown-butter, crunchy exterior and pillowy interior delivered a powerful sensory comfort.
Illness Triggered By Flu And Sickle Cell
- Yewande caught influenza A after traveling and couldn't recover at home, which led to hospitalization.
- Her preexisting sickle cell anemia made the illness more severe and contributed to the crisis.
Waking Without Memory, Keeping Spirit
- Yewande woke with no memory of the coma and learned she would lose limbs and fingers.
- Despite that, she said, "I am not my body," describing a clear separation between spirit and physical limitations.
