Chef and content creator Tova Sterling, known on social media as Chef Tova, published a video on Monday on her Instagram and Facebook accounts in which she accused a commercial brand of blatant discrimination and antisemitism against her after she mentioned the word "Jewish" in content she filmed – and the brand demanded she film new materials.
She demanded additional payment since they had already used the materials she sent – the brand refused, and she issued a clear and threatening ultimatum: "This is the fun game we're playing now – pay me within 24 hours for the work I already did or I'll expose who you are."
Sterling (27) described in the video how she signed a collaboration contract with the brand after they approved the script she sent them, filmed content and delivered it as planned, but then the collaboration hit a snag when representatives from the brand contacted her demanding she re-film the materials and remove the mention of the word "Jewish," which they defined as "political content" – a move that from their perspective violated a clause in the contract prohibiting her from including such content, meaning they were not obligated to pay her.
In the video she shared with her hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook, which has so far accumulated nearly 3 million views and thousands of comments, Sterling added, "This wasn't just about the money. It's about the rage I feel from the fact that usually when things like this happen, people are powerless." She explained and addressed her followers with a direct message: "If you've experienced blatant discrimination and felt helpless in the face of a company's indifference, I see you. Maybe you're not in a position where you can demand people take responsibility, but I always will. I love you."
The video went viral and accumulated thousands of comments divided into two camps: those who supported her ultimatum and demanded she expose the brand's name, protesting what they described as the distorted use of the word "Jewish" in a political context and asking to know who it was so they could boycott them, and those who mocked her and claimed the brand was right in its claims.
Sabbath celebration burlesque-style and a Holocaust joke
Sterling (27) is a Jewish-American private chef who has emerged in recent years as a social media star, with hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram, Facebook, and Substack, and a client list that includes celebrities such as musician Paul McCartney.
She built a digital career around content that combines traditional Jewish recipes like gefilte fish and cholent, sarcastic humor, satire of Orthodox married life, and modern Jewish identity. Sterling became known for a unique "digital universe" she created – a mix of professional chef and cultural activist who, with her unique and often provocative voice, attracts a young Jewish audience in the United States and Israel seeking Jewish content that isn't necessarily traditional.
She uses her platforms to talk about mental health, social injustices, queer and Jewish identity, always with a hint of dark humor.
One of her prominent projects is "Sinners Shabbat" – a series of provocative burlesque-style Sabbath parties at New York nightclubs that began in May 2024. The events combine traditional Jewish rituals like kiddush by a tattooed gay rabbi with a very non-traditional twist – burlesque performances, drag queens, sushi eaten off models' bodies, DJ sets, and dancing until late hours. This unique party line, she explained in interviews, is designed to provide a live-body-art space for an alternative Jewish community of "freak" Jews, queer people, and artists, and is promoted under the slogan "Friday is saved for freaks."
In a personal essay she published on Substack in 2025, she told of an experience from 2019: In those days, she worked as a private chef for a wealthy family, and without thinking too much, blurted out a Holocaust joke in front of the family's 12-year-old son and his private tutor. The boy repeated the joke in a presentation about Auschwitz at his school, and as a result was suspended from school, and his parents reported her to the agency that employed her, claiming she was "spreading racial hatred." She was fired despite explaining to the agency that she made permissible use of dark humor because she herself is Jewish, the granddaughter of an Auschwitz survivor. Four years after that incident, she shared, the agency contacted her again, requesting that she return to their ranks.
