For Emi Báez, cooking has always been about more than food. Born Emilce Elizabeth Báez Cristaldo, she grew up in Juan Emilio O’Leary, in Paraguay’s eastern department of Alto Paraná, surrounded by family, rural traditions and the cooking of her grandmother, Leonora, who spoke only Guaraní. “In my house we were taught to do everything: cook, help with chores and support the family”, she tells The Asunción Times.
Years later, after building a career in Paraguayan television journalism, Emi would return to those childhood lessons and turn them into a new career. Today, she is one of Paraguay’s best-known cooking content creators with over 800,000 followers on Instagram and a combined following of more than 3.3 million people across platforms. To all, Emi shares traditional recipes in Guaraní.
Rooted in Paraguay’s traditions
Emi describes her childhood as a happy one, surrounded by family and rural customs. Her grandmother taught her to cook from a young age, passing down recipes alongside the practical skills expected of children in her family.
Her grandmother died some years ago, but Emi still feels her presence whenever she prepares a traditional dish. For her, recipes are not simply lists of ingredients. They are a way of preserving family memories. That connection to tradition would eventually shape both her journalism and her work online.
From accountancy to the newsroom
Before journalism, Emi studied accountancy, graduating before moving to Asunción, where her career took a different direction. While still studying, she worked as a radio presenter, deepening her interest in communication before moving into television reporting.
During her television years, she worked on Ñanemba’éva, meaning “what is ours” in Guaraní. The segment took her into rural Paraguay, where she documented artisans, traditional foods, festivals and communities rarely represented in national media.
The experience strengthened her appreciation for Paraguayan culture and gave her a deeper understanding of the traditions she had grown up with.
Leaving television for her family
Emi’s eventual departure from television was not simply a career decision. Her father became seriously ill, and she resigned from her television position so she could care for him.
It was one of the hardest decisions of her life, particularly because journalism had been a career she loved. But she does not regret it.
“I was able to give him my time and my presence when he needed it most. That, to me, is priceless.” Her father’s illness changed the way she thought about work, time and family. It also coincided with the growth of something she had never initially planned as a profession: cooking content.
From the kitchen to social media
During the 2020 pandemic, Emi Báez began sharing recipes online, initially as a way to pass the time at home and cook for her family. The videos gradually attracted a much larger audience, and brands began approaching her to sponsor her content. What had started as a personal pastime became a business.
The new career also gave Emi something television could not: control over her schedule. She could work from home, remain close to her family and earn an income doing something connected to the traditions she had inherited from her grandmother. “I realised this could be far more than a hobby,” she says. “I could do something I love, be independent and put my family first.”
Guaraní, memory and a taste of home
Guaraní is central to Emi’s content. Many of her recipes are narrated in the language spoken by her grandmother, connecting her videos to her childhood and to Paraguay’s rural culture.
Some followers abroad have asked her to use Spanish instead, but Emi has resisted. Guaraní is part of who she is, and she has seen how hearing the language can transport Paraguayans living overseas back home.
Her recipes have travelled far beyond Paraguay, reaching people who tell her that a particular dish reminded them of their mother, grandmother or childhood kitchen. In that sense, cooking becomes a form of memory — a way to offer a taste of home.
A journalist in the kitchen
Emi now works with numerous commercial brands, but she sees them as partners in promoting Paraguayan food and culture rather than simply advertisers.
The skills she developed as a journalist remain at the heart of her work. She knows how to communicate, listen and tell stories, only now, the stories come from her own kitchen.
According to her official accounts, Emi Báez has built a combined following of more than 3.3 million people across platforms. Her reach places her among a growing number of Paraguayans carrying the country’s cuisine beyond its borders, from chefs acting as cultural ambassadors in Europe to restaurants gaining international recognition.
Yet the heart of her work remains the same: sharing the food, language and traditions that shaped her.
A recipe still being written
Emi has several projects in mind, but she prefers not to rush them. She never expected that cooking at home during a pandemic would become her career. For now, Paraguay remains the constant thread connecting her past and present.
She began by telling other people’s stories. Today, through her recipes, she is telling the story of where she comes from, one dish, one memory and one word in Guaraní at a time. You can follow Emi Báez on Instagram.
