Sherry Cola Used To Hide Her Mom's Cooking. Now, It's Her Love Language.
Sherry Cola is beaming. But we're not at some glitzy Hollywood party — it's 9 a.m. at an old strip mall in San Gabriel Valley and she's giving me a tour of her family's beloved order-at-the-counter restaurant. She points out each dish with pride: curry chicken, crispy pork chop, spicy bamboo shoots, wok-fried peanuts, tofu skin meatballs, the list goes on. 'Every order comes with a milk tea and seaweed soup, on the house,' she adds with a smile. Cola said she used to work the counter after school, sometimes making the milk tea for the customers. But it wasn't always like this — the food, yes, but not the pride.
'I remember bringing dumplings with extra, extra chives [to school] and feeling embarrassed they smelled,' she says. 'Embarrassed that my parents had an accent. I'm ashamed I was ashamed. It was a testament to how hard they worked despite not knowing the language. They made something from nothing — and that is the American dream. Now, I get to carry on that legacy.'
These days, Sherry isn't behind the counter as often as she was in high school — and for good reason. She's busy filming the next season of Apple TV+'s Shrinking, Netflix's Nobody Wants This, and starring alongside Keanu Reeves in Good Fortune. But she still finds ways to show love for her roots — like bringing her mom as her date to red carpet premieres, including the recent Bride Hard premiere.
In this episode of Fam Style, Sherry and I sit down over plates of nostalgic Shanghainese comfort food to talk about family, cultural identity, coming out — and why the food she once hid is now her greatest source of pride.
Fam Style spotlights Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) changemakers across entertainment, food, art, and culture. Over shared meals at AAPI-owned restaurants, we sit down with creators, artists, and innovators to talk about identity, ambition, community, and the stories that shape us. Through intimate conversations and the language of food, we highlight the nuance, joy, and resilience within the AAPI experience — one dish at a time.
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