Stephanie Kinsella was taking a shower on a Saturday morning in June 2024 when she discovered a mass in her breast. Stunned, she called her mom for guidance.

She was just 27 years old, and the mass didn’t fit the profile of a “hard, painless lump with irregular edges” that medical textbooks describe as likely malignant. It was the weekend, her mom pointed out, so she wouldn’t be able to have a professional assessment until Monday. By the time she saw a nurse practitioner, Stephanie had located a second mass, this one in her armpit.

Three weeks later, after a mammogram and a biopsy, Kinsella was diagnosed with cancer. Talking about the experience today, her care for others in her situation is evident.

“I want younger women to know that they shouldn’t just be looking out for [breast cancer] the way we were taught in school and from doctors about [which lumps should cause concern].”

Two years later, having received chemotherapy and a recent solo dose of radiation that doctors hope has been successful, Kinsella has found a way to share her message of awareness and confidence with the public. As “Chef Steph,” she creates video blogs (vlogs) that blend cooking with practical advice about cancer.

Kinsella grew up with parents who were at home in the kitchen, and she’s is a good cook herself. She noticed that “people stop scrolling on social media when they see food videos,” and chose her kitchen as the hook to capture attention for her message of awareness and empowerment.

Each vlog starts with Chef Steph in the kitchen, describing an appetizing dish. Then she advises viewers to pause so they can screenshot her posted list of ingredients and a simple set of directions. Resuming the video, viewers see the chef in action. Then while the dish is in a hands-off phase – perhaps in Kinsella’s beloved Instant Pot pressure cooker – she relates practical cancer advice. In one video, for example, she models the custom-fit full-face mask that protected her during stereotactic radiation therapy – an introduction that can ease the fears of patients facing the same treatment.

Kinsella’s vlogs are laced with humor, such as her shouted warning to her boyfriend (to whom she refers as her “sous chef”) that there are dishes in the sink that have touched raw meat, so he should sanitize them later. Her confidence is infectious and comes from years of tackling challenges and being inspired by others who have done the same.

“In high school, I would binge-watch [Food Network reality show] Cutthroat Kitchen,” she explains, “watching them scramble and figure out different ways to make things happen. Contestants can sabotage each other by taking ingredients away, or making someone prepare the dish with one hand tied behind their back, or trade out a chef knife for a plastic knife.”

Kinsella was inspired by the fact that “[the contestants] still have to create these dishes, and the judges come in, and they don’t know or care about the sabotages; they just want to eat good food. Watching people do that taught me how I can substitute, and make things work.”

Having family members who have faced challenging health situations has given Kinsella an appreciation for the importance of asking questions and forming solid working partnerships with the medical team.

“Before an appointment,” she shares, “I would sit down and tailor my questions to whatever doctor I was going to see. Even though I had the same questions for my doctors, they were all different – one did the mastectomy; one did the reconstruction – so I would think how to best ask those questions. It helped that communication, and it helped bond me and the doctors … Getting to know your team helps you to feel more comfortable and to have more confidence in them.”

A lesson from Kinsella’s vlogs is that confidence in oneself and one’s medical team is something that can and should be developed. “I don’t measure things,” Kinsella remarks, noting that the measurements listed in her vlogs are based on other people’s recipes. “I just sprinkle that stuff in.”

The takeaway? “You have to trust yourself and your judgment. You can start out following a recipe, but as you’re doing it, you start to feel more comfortable. Everyone fails once in a while, but you just try again until you nail it,” Kinsella advises, stating frankly that “it starts from just doing the dang thing even if it turns out really bad the first time. You’re going to grow confident in the kitchen and start throwing in your own twists on things.”

Viewers can find Chef Steph (and her recipes, including the popular “Sloppy Stephs”) on Instagram (instagram.com/cookingwithcancer.chefsteph), Facebook (facebook.com/steph.kinsella.5), and TikTok (tiktok.com/@chefsteph.cookingwcancer)