One morning in December 2022, recipe developer Maxine Sharf was “completely shocked” to learn she was fired from her job selling tech. She was in the industry for 10 years, and in that company for four.
“I was very committed, very involved. It’s not like I was slacking off or anything,” she tells PEOPLE.
Sharf, who considered food blogging “a fun little hobby” at the time, says she spent “most days crying.”
“But then I had this little inner nudge like, ‘Wait, maybe this is my chance to chase my dream and focus on cooking full time,'” she adds.
With the support of her husband Doug, Sharf, 32, says she has been “running as fast as possible chasing that dream” ever since. Almost two years later, the culinary creator, who goes by @maxiskitchen on TikTok and Instagram, has nearly 3 million followers across all platforms.
“Since I got fired, very soon after I started having videos going viral,” she says. “I really started to see the momentum pick up.”
Among those followers are some seriously impressive A-listers. Jessica Alba, Mindy Kaling and Giada De Laurentiis shared fun cooking videos of themselves making Sharf’s popular rice paper dumplings.
“I feel like I get pinched every time I see something like that happen,” Sharf says.
After Sharf and her mom, Ann, posted a video of themselves making De Laurentiis lasagna in a pan, Giadzy’s founder reached out and asked Sharf to meet up.
“This is so crazy to me because we’ve been watching her for years, and it really puts it into perspective like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe I’m someone Giada is interested/willing to meet for coffee,'” she says.
The Los Angeles-based content creator has always been motivated by adversity. Before the layoff, there were a few tough high school years.
“In the seventh grade, I had this year when all my friends rejected me. I think they were trying to participate in more rebellious activities, and I wasn’t ready for that yet,” says Sharf.
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It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. “I spent a lot of time at home that year, and my mom kind of took me under her wing that year. She says, ‘Well, if you’re going to spend a lot of time at home, I’m going to teach you all our family recipes.'”
“Looking back, at the time I was really upset that I had that drama with my friends, but now I’m like, ‘Oh, maybe it was meant to be because it was a really critical step on my way to now obviously making this my career. ‘, she says.
Sharf, who says she also struggled with her weight as a child, is passionate about sharing “balanced, healthy” recipes that are still “really fun to eat.”
Maxine Sharf in a viral TikTok video.
Maxine Sharf/TikTok
Still, her ultimate goal is what she calls an “educational piece.”
“I have a vision board in my room, and in the middle it says, ‘Inspire you to cook.’ That’s the most important thing for me to encourage people to try new recipes, to bring their family together through home-cooked food,” she says. “I feel like I have so many family memories that I cherish that take place around the dinner table.”
When it comes to future career goals, Sharf is focused on publishing her first cookbook and producing more on her YouTube page in order to devote herself to longer cooking tutorials.
“As cheesy as it sounds,” she says, “I really feel like this is what I was meant to do on this earth.”
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education