Mama Cheung (born 1957/1958; ), known as Lee Wai-ji () and Tessa Cheung, is a Hong Kong YouTuber who makes videos about cooking Cantonese dishes.
When she first got married, Mama Cheung was not experienced in cooking, so she learned how to cook from her mother-in-law. After having been a housewife for around 40 years, Mama Cheung initially had no plans to become a YouTuber. Her children uploaded a video of her making to YouTube in 2014. Upon seeing that the video was viewed several hundred times and had positive viewer feedback, she began making more cooking videos. In 2015, she collaborated with fellow Hong Kong cooking YouTuber Uncle Bob, who runs the Bob's Your Uncle channel, which increased awareness of her channel, allowing it to grow from several hundred subscribers to more than 10,000 in a year. She makes cooking videos about main dishes, dim sum, and desserts. One of her most viewed videos was about her using a rice cooker to bake a cake, which received over one million views. In 2020, Mama Cheung ranked among the top 12 Hong Kong YouTube channels that teach cooking.
Early and personal life
Mama Cheung was born in 1957 or 1958 and is Teochew. Her Chinese name is Lee Wai-ji (), and she is also known as Tessa Cheung. When she was growing up, her family operated a grocer. When she had spare time, her mother would collect eggs and flour to make a steamed orange sponge cake for her. Mama Cheung married a man with the surname Cheung. As a newlywed, Mama Cheung was not well-versed in cooking. She received cooking lessons from her mother-in-law. Since her mother-in-law wanted her son to have breakfast prior to heading to work, Mama Cheung began cooking at 5am for him. She has four children, including a daughter named Kaman.
YouTube career
Mama Cheung posts videos of Cantonese dishes to YouTube and Instagram. Having been a housewife for around four decades, Mama Cheung did not plan to become a YouTuber. In 2014, her children uploaded a video of her making to YouTube which received positive viewer feedback and sparked her interest to make more videos. Looking back at her first video, Mama Cheung found herself to be inarticulate and nervous whenever facing the camera. On an hourly basis, she monitored the video's view count and comments. Her first video received several hundred views. After he liked the fried oyster omelettes she had made, Uncle Bob, who runs the food YouTube channel Bob's Your Uncle, messaged her on Facebook asking her to collaborate. Having never met anyone from the Internet, Mama Cheung was initially scared to respond. With her daughter's coaxing, Mama Cheung overcame her fear after two or three weeks and called him. In February 2015, they jointly made a Chinese New Year cooking video titled "Strike It Rich" (), and Uncle Bob was surprised that she was filming videos with her phone. Their collaboration helped raised awareness of her channel which had until then had several hundred subscribers. In the year after they made the video, she accrued 10,000 more subscribers. Her most viewed videos were about her using a rice cooker to bake a cake, which received over 1 million views, and to make baked chicken. Another highly viewed video was about making turnip cake. She made videos about roast pork, eggplant with minced pork, Kung Pao chicken, fish fillet with sweet corn rice, and steamed spare ribs doused in douchi sauce. Dim sum she made include turnip cake and siu mai. Chinese soups she made include tomato tofu soup and papaya, peanut, and fish tail soup. Desserts she made include put chai ko, white sugar sponge cake, douhua, osmanthus cake, and egg tart. During the COVID-19 pandemic, people remained in their homes to prevent the spread of the virus and purchased bread that they kept around for longer. Mama Cheung made a video about how she had created sesame shrimp toast using bread that had been refrigerated for a few days.