Google analyst crunches data to cook up hit recipes on Instagram

Lynn Hazim's secret ingredients involve tweaking techniques and cooking temperatures ever so slightly each time

Lynn Hazim's creamy cheesecake. Photo: Lynn Hazim / No Soup For You

“I don’t cook 24/7,” says Lynn Hazim with a laugh, even though a glance at her popular Instagram account No Soup For You suggests otherwise.

Case in point: a craving for a classic short ribs French dip sandwich led Hazim to the kitchen to make her “own perfect version”.

Her beef short ribs were cooked low and slow for two days – until they were fall-off-the-bone tender – then sandwiched together with melted provolone, Emmenthal and a layer of caramelised onions on toasted focaccia, each bite dipped in beef jus.

Storm in a soup cup

Hazim is an analytical consultant at Google by day. At night, she is an occasional dabbler in sold-out supper clubs and pop-ups. Her Instagram account has grown to 15,000 followers. Just as she spends her time pouring over spreadsheets and finding hidden trends in numbers for her job, Hazim applies her analytical side to her step-by-step cooking techniques.

These are documented in detail on her feed. The photos – close-up shots of food bitten into revealing layers and textures – are filled with Hazim’s eating adventures from around the world.

A highlight of her academic but wholly enjoyable approach is going down rabbit holes to find the perfect versions of classic recipes.

"It’s my obsessive mind, like I’m playing a game with myself,” she says.

Hazim sets out to create multiple test versions of each dish, tweaking ingredients and cooking temperatures ever so slightly until she arrives at the desired result: from the viral "creamy-dreamy cheesecake" to hummus.

All her experiments, successful or otherwise, unfold on social media like a novel, chapter by chapter.

Garnished by a sixth sense

Eating is a cyclical act, a fact that is sometimes lost in a world full of perfectly curated, perfectly plated food, Hazim muses. When she moved to Dublin from Beirut, she found herself returning to dishes from her mother’s kitchen.

“I would ask for her recipes, then cook something I have eaten before and know what it should taste like. To me, that’s the best way to start cooking,” Hazim says.

Her mother has a huge influence on her style simply because she cooks every single day, says Hazim, describing her mother as an instinctual cook who follows the rhythm of seasons, takes daily trips to the supermarket and starts from scratch the next day. It’s why, Hazim believes, her food tastes so good.

“I don’t think people, including myself, have the time to cook every single day now, and this makes it harder to develop that sixth sense,” she admits, despite her immersive, devoted practice that helps her know exactly when the stew is ready, seconds before the timer is about to go off.

Hazim does rely on a few handy shortcuts, though, such as always having peeled garlic in the fridge, along with staples such as parmesan, labneh, lemons and eggs.

Dishing out knowledge

Hazim says she always has Parmesan cheese in her fridge. Photo: Lynn Hazim / No Soup For You

After moving to Dubai, Hazim found herself restless and reckless enough to indulge in newer styles of cooking. She began to invite friends over every Monday night, playing hostess and testing out original recipes from her growing cookbook collection.

Sometimes, friends bought friends and an idea for a supper club germinated. After some gentle nudging, Hazim advertised her first on Instagram, with little to no hope of people responding. It sold out almost immediately.

One of her most requested dishes is a labneh dip with pistachio and spiced olive oil topping. It’s what most of her guests request when they come over and almost always ask for the recipe.

“I can’t not offer it. When people come over, they expect to see this,” she says.

She has since retired from personalised supper clubs, but makes occasional appearances on the food scene with pop-ups and collaborations – “essentially supper clubs at scale”.

However, like the rest of us mere mortals, Hazim often gets takeaways too. And her two go-to orders are the sriracha bowl from Sushi Art and veggie pizza on multi-cereal dough from Zaatar w Zeit, with one standard request: “No peppers, please.”

Since Hazim is as much a fan of dining in as she is of eating out, she also often applies her academic rigour to finding the best meals in the city, testing them against each other to crown one as a winner in her book.

Unafraid of hot takes on food, her carefully constructed rating system ranks the best shawarma in the city, testing pita against pita. To pick the best fried chicken, Hazim and friends shortlist six restaurants at a time, grading them on crispiness, seasoning and juiciness, often with surprising results (hint: Texas Chicken trumps Jollibee, so she says).

Now that's the sort of data crunching one can expect from a Google analyst foodie.