Keith Lee Brings Heart, Humor, And Hot Takes To ESSENCE Festival Mainstage

New Orleans is one of the country’s most food-centric cities, that’s why a panel featuring social media’s preeminent food critic Keith Lee, 28, made perfect sense. 

The former MMA fighter loves New Orleans as much as ESSENCE and helped bring back Kajunlicious—a mom and pop eatery that had to close down because of a positive review from Lee and the massive foot traffic that they were receiving. According to Lee, they’re reopening this weekend. 

ESSENCE Senior Editor Kimberly Wilson called Lee one of “the most trusted voices in food.”

“I’m honored to be here. It means the world to be here, more than y’all will ever know,” Lee said to a crowd of applause. 

Lee’s energy is the same. But there’s something different—someone is missing. His wife, who is also 28, isn’t at ESSENCE Fest. She’s “big and pregnant” as he said, with their third child. He jokingly recalled, someone told him, “You need to get up off her.” 

The audience laughed. Lee did too. 

Lee and his wife share two children—ages two and four. 

“My kids have been with me from the very jump,” Lee said. 

The critic created an infrastructure through his career that includes traveling with his wife and kids so that they’re always present. This includes his food tours. 

When Wilson asked him how he grapples with the responsibility of his platform, having 17 million followers on TikTok, he said, “It’s not me, it’s God!” “I’m just eating food.”

Staying grounded is important for Lee, who attributes a great deal of his reality to “having the people closest to you at all times.” 

That, and not worrying about the little things. By now, Lee’s >TikTok.

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