Meet Cabagges World: #FoodTok’s Coolest Home Cooking Content Creator Couple

If you’re a permanent resident on #FoodTok, chances are you’ve come across the mouth-watering videos from Cabagges World – a food blog sharing Asian-inspired meal recipes through intimate and aesthetically-filmed videos. The culinary duo behind it? Full-time content creators and home cooks Anna Archibald and Kevin Serai. Hailing from Hawaii, the couple, who are both half-Japanese, operate from their cosy New York apartment – bringing comforting yet easy-to-make home recipes from their kitchen to yours. 

A glance at their social media pages will reveal that Anna and Kevin treat Cabagges World more like their personal visual diary than a full-time job – giving us a peek into their lives through travel vlogs, kitchen tours and more. Of course, creating soul food is what they’re all about – with Japanese-inspired recipes like Steak Au Poivre Ramen, Mille Feuille Nabe, Yaki-Imo Sundae and obviously, cabbage-laden creations (the staple that inspired their name) making their rounds online and gathering the pair over one million followers across platforms. 

Culinary genius aside, the Brooklyn-based couple design the most kitschy apparel under their alter ego Cabagges Goods – often blending quirky culinary references with playful graphic design to create the most fun, food-centric merch that show their love for food and home cooking (peep their adorable cabbage reusable bag below). 

Last weekend, they touched down in Singapore to host a one-day-only pop-up event with design boutique Tanchen Studio, where they featured a collection of limited-edition Tanchen x Cabagges World accessories, alongside their own line of Cabagges Goods. We spoke to them about their journey since starting Cabagges World in 2021, their trip in Singapore and future projects to be excited about. 

Hi Anna and Kevin! Tell us a bit about your backstory – how did both of you meet? 

Kevin: “We actually met in 2016. I had my own clothing brand and I was trying to organise a photoshoot for it. I hired a photographer friend from Hawaii – it was the first photoshoot I’d ever done – and he found a model, who ended up being Anna, who’s also from Hawaii. The three of us just spent the day together doing the shoot, and that’s how we became friends. Eventually the two of us started dating.”

What did you both do before home cooking and content creation, and what first compelled you to make the switch?

Anna: “I was working as a graphic designer before we started making videos.” 

Kevin: “And I was working in fashion marketing for a men’s brand based in New York, and also for an eyewear brand.” 

Anna: “The switch was somewhat gradual. We started doing it casually at first – just posting videos for fun. We did that for a couple of years before becoming more consistent with it. Then eventually, we both got laid off from our jobs within the same year, which really pushed us to go all in on this. We thought we’d just try it out and see what happens – make it our full-time job.”

Kevin: “That was in 2024, so going full-time was pretty recent. But we actually started posting around late 2021 – just for fun at first, and then eventually we decided to fully commit to it.” 

Where do you normally get inspiration for your recipes or food creations?

Anna: “Honestly, from all over the place. I think travel is a huge one. Coming to different cities – we’ve wanted to visit Singapore for so long – because every time we travel, we learn so much about the food, and even just the culture around eating out. All of that really teaches us a lot and gives us inspiration to play with.”

Kevin: “Also, our shared background – we’re both half Japanese – so a lot of the dishes we create or meals we make tend to have Japanese influences. It’s also about learning more about that shared culture of ours. A lot of the food we make is inspired by Hawaii as well, and that in itself has such a mix of different food cultures. So I think it’s really a combination of all those influences.” 

Anna: “We also love watching other people’s food content and videos – we get a lot of inspiration from that. We learn a lot just from observing others, especially since we both got into this as home cooks. There are just so many people who have more professional experience, so we’ve picked up a lot of skills that way.” 

In what ways has your relationship with food evolved since you started creating content?

Anna: “I think the main thing is that we have more curiosity. We’ve always loved food and exploring it, but now we’re more motivated to travel and try new things. We’re constantly seeking out new experiences.” 

Kevin: “I think another thing is that when we eat a new dish or go to a new restaurant, there’s always a moment after the first bite where we start wondering how it was made or created – the techniques behind it. We’re more aware of how food is made now. It’s interesting to try and see into the mind of the chef – understanding their point of view on the food and the message they’re trying to convey through that dish. It’s something that we didn’t think much about before. But the more you get into food, the more you see it as someone’s form of art.”

Are either of you formally trained in food, hospitality, or anything adjacent – or is everything self-taught?

Anna: “Pretty minimally. I used to work in restaurants, but as a server and bartender for several years. Working in New York’s restaurant scene made me really fall in love with hospitality, and that definitely sparked my initial interest in food and wanting to work with it. But in terms of cooking, neither of us has any formal training – it’s very much home cooking and self-taught.” 

Kevin: “We both cooked casually for ourselves before – just simple meals at home. But when  we got together, cooking became a fun date activity. I think that really unlocked something for us, especially with Japanese food, where we started learning together how to recreate dishes we loved, and it naturally became something we genuinely enjoyed doing together.” 

Tell us about your pop-up with Tanchen Studio – how did this collaboration come about?

Anna: “I first connected with them on Instagram — I’d been following the brand and was a fan of everything that they were making. A few years ago, Sanchia and I connected in New York when she was in town and asked if I wanted to grab coffee, so that was the first time we met in person. Since then, we’ve stayed in touch online – I’ve always kept up with their work and continued supporting the brand – I’d even buy their pieces, like the coasters and wine bags, as gifts for my friends. Separately, we’ve also always wanted to come to Singapore – it’s always been a bucket list city for us. Since we already knew we wanted to come to Singapore, it gave us an excuse to plan a trip we always wanted to go on and also connect with people here to create something cool.” 

Kevin: “Once we decided we were coming, we thought, we have to reach out to Tanchen and make something happen. It would’ve felt like a missed opportunity not to do something fun here.” 

Anna: “The product collaboration has been a few months in the making.” 

Kevin: “We decided on the trip quite early – around late summer last year – and knew we wanted to visit Singapore in the spring. After that, we reached out to Tanchen and started discussing ideas. It developed gradually, and over the past couple of months we really focused on finalising everything and making sure it all came together smoothly.” 

What’s on your Singapore to-try list?

Anna: “We’ve tried quite a few things already – Sanchia and Amber took us on a great food tour yesterday. We had laksa, which was amazing. We also had chendol, char kway teow and carrot cake.”

Kevin: “On the first day we got here, I feel like we managed to try quite a lot. We started with kaya toast – which was really good. Then we had roti, chicken rice and quite a few different hawker dishes.” 

Anna: “We haven’t tried chilli crab yet – we’re hoping to try that tonight.” 

Kevin: “Also bak kut teh – a lot of people have recommended that to us. It matches the type of food that we love to make at home which is simple and comforting.” 

What’s a typical day like for you as food creators?

Kevin: “Everyday feels different depending on what we’re working on. There are two sides to what we do. One side involves collaborations – like this (Tanchen pop-up) – products, different events and so on. That part is quite similar to a typical job: we’re at our desks, behind a computer, designing, working on merch or graphics, or corresponding with people about collaborations or events. The other side is the food content, where we’re coming up with dishes, planning meals and videos, and doing the grocery shopping. That part is something we treat a bit more flexibly – not so planned out or regimental. We try to cook things we genuinely feel like eating, although it still requires a fair amount of planning.” 

Anna: “If we’re not filming, we still cook at home, but it’s usually something quick and simple – just easy, everyday meals.” 

Kevin: “We have a lot of go-to dishes that are very simple – that we don’t see as something worth filming or posting. But occasionally we’ll share a photo of something we made for lunch, and people really resonate with those simple at-home meals, where it’s easy to recreate.” 

Anna: “Our off days are when we usually eat out, sometimes with friends, or try new restaurants to take a break from cooking.”

What’s the least glamorous part of your work that people don’t see?

Anna: “Definitely washing the dishes. I think with food content, there’s just a lot of behind-the-scenes chores – things that are already tedious in everyday life, like grocery shopping, cleaning up, and washing dishes. There’s a lot of that.” 

Kevin: “Also in New York – maybe similar to Singapore – spaces in kitchens and apartments aren’t very big. We don’t have a dishwasher, so we’re washing dishes multiple times a day.”

Anna: “We try to design recipes so people don’t have to use too many dishes. But when you’re trying to get something to come out a certain way, or testing recipes multiple times to get things right, it can add up.” 

Your cookbook, Rabu-Rabu Recipe Zine, was wildly successful and is now sold out – is there anything both of you are working on that we can look forward to seeing in the future?

Anna: “That project was really fun. It was actually quite a small, zine-style cookbook, so we were really surprised by how excited people were about it given that it felt more like a casual, small project. We’re definitely thinking about creating a larger, more comprehensive cookbook in the future – but that will take some time, it’s more of a long-term project.” 

Kevin: “We’re in the early stages of working on a food product collaboration, something like an interesting base-type product. We also have a few recurring projects we do every year – like the sunglasses collaboration with Crap Eyewear we did last year. We’ll be doing another round with them this year which features two new different styles – that will come out sometime in summer. We’ve also released wines annually for the past few years, so we’ll be doing that again this year. And we’re working on more restaurant collaborations as well. Last year, we did a ramen collaboration – which was really fun – so we might do another iteration of that. But, TBD.”

What are some food spots around the world that people should definitely visit?

Kevin: “If you’re ever in Hawaii, there’s a restaurant on the east side called Waiahole Poi Factory. They’re known for traditional Hawaiian food, and they have a dessert there – it’s called the Sweet Lady. It’s warm kulolo, which is a sweet, coconutty, taro dessert – topped with coconut ice cream, so you get that contrast of warm and cold in one dessert. It’s really unique – quite specific to that restaurant – and it has flavours that feel very rooted in Hawaii. It’s really delicious and we try to get that every time we’re home.”

Anna: “There’s a restaurant in our neighbourhood called Leo that we love – it’s perfect for a casual date night and we always bring people over when we have friends visiting. It’s a pizza and wine bar, and they do really great Italian-style small plates.” 

Kevin: “For a date night in Brooklyn, we love this restaurant called Hart’s. It’s a really tiny, very cute restaurant, kind of tucked under a subway entrance stairwell. I’d say it has a bit of Spanish influence, but also American – perfect for a date night.”