Fare thee well, Mastanamma: YouTube star for her Indian cooking dies at 107
Mastanamma got her big break at age 105. After she prepared an especially delicious eggplant curry, her great-grandson suggested that he film her cooking and then post the videos on YouTube . No matter that she was more than 100 years old, suffered from cataracts, wore dentures, cooked outside on an open fire and sometimes roasted chicken inside a steaming watermelon. That was all part of the charm. Over the next two years, she became the star of a YouTube channel with an audience of more than one million subscribers. She specialized in adding flair to traditional Indian dishes, especially fish ones, but occasionally experimented with chicken pizza and chocolate cake. “She knew she was famous,” said Srinath Reddy, who helped start the channel. “She loved that.” On Sunday, Mastanamma’s family and friends announced, she died at age 107. “MISS YOU GRANNY,” the moderators of her YouTube channel, Country Foods, wrote. Mr. Reddy described her as one of a kind. Read Mor