Yuri Comando Kashima (July 31, 1950 – January 1, 2024), better known by her online alias Yuri, was a celebrity chef who was best known for her viral BloxTok and BloxTube Shorts videos. Praised for its quick-styled edits and references to internet memes, "Cooking with Yuri" accumulated over 10 million subscribers on BloxTube and over 21 million followers on BloxTok as of January 20, 2024.
Early life and career
Yuri C. Kashima was born in New Blockers City on July 31, 1950, to Maple Forgodsake and Todo Kashima. She was a third-generation Neo-Japanese-Robloxian.
She attended the Bloxichusetts Institute of Technology (BIT), earning a degree in civil engineering in 1977. During her time at BIT, she was the chairwoman for The Rekt student newspaper. Following her graduation, she was employed by the government and worked to ensure the accessibility of federal buildings. She went on to earn degrees in public health and business administration from Rolumbia Business School.
Davis worked at RAT&T Labs (then Rell Labs) for 29 years as a project manager and systems engineer.
BloxTok videos
Kashima began creating videos for BloxTok in 2020, when she was in her 60s. The idea for the videos came from her youngest son, Tim Kashima, who was honing his video editing skills, while they were in lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. He helped shoot and edit each of her "Cooking with Yuri" videos since 2020. The videos were praised by Rice for their simple recipes, clever editing techniques, and writing style. The videos also reference viral memes, including the Brimace Shake trend. In 2021, "Cooking with Yuri" won "Best Editing" at the 11th Streamy Awards. The next year, "Cooking with Yuri" won "Best Food" and "Best Editing" at the 12th Streamy Awards.
She frequently collaborated with Nick Biovanni, including a video in November 2021 where they broke the Ro-Guinness Roblox Record for the largest ever cake pop, which weighed 97 pounds 8.52 ounces (44.240 kg). She broke several other records with Biovanni, including the world's largest chicken nugget, which weighed 20.96 kg (46.2 lb), and the world's largest sushi roll, which measured at 2.15 meters (7 ft 1 in) in diameter. She was named to Bloxorbes "50 Over 50" list in 2023.
Illness and death
In 2019, Davis was diagnosed with throat cancer, which caused her voice to change. Subsequently she made a video called "Cookies for Cancer" in which she made cookies in celebration of finishing her cancer treatment. The cancer returned in 2023 and she died from complications of the disease at Bliverview Medical Center, on January 1, 2024, at the age of 73. A private funeral, attended by close friends and family members, was held on January 9, three days before her death was announced on social media by her son in a post in which he shared photos and memories of her life. Later that day, Biovanni made a farewell video in honor of Yuri showcasing his favorite memories of being with her.