On Becoming A Food Blogger

How did you discover your passion for healthy cooking and baking?

It all started when I was 16, as I found out about my gluten intolerance. Even though I had been dairy intolerant since I was little, I had to drastically adjust my diet after the diagnosis. Back then, there were very few gluten free products in the stores and they definitely didn’t taste like they do now. Instead of seeing it as a curse, I saw it as an opportunity to try out a lot of new dishes and cuisines. Most of it was very healthy and I must say I loved it. As time went on, I cooked more and more often, until it became a real passion. I loved trying out new recipes and testing my own ideas when I had some in mind. Nothing has changed since then, I still love cooking, trying out new recipes, with the only difference that now I share them with whoever is in need for inspiration.

Your food photos look beautiful. How did you get into photography?

Both my parents have always been into photography and owned a DSLR camera. I loved playing around with it from time to time, until I took some photography workshops when I got older. I learned all the basics about light, speed, aperture and ISO on a walking tour. I remember how we made stops every few hundred meters and learned about a specific setting. I must say that learning by doing was the best way for me to get into photography, since all the theory made little sense without the practice. Regarding food photography in particular, I took an online course to learn more about composition, which was really helpful, too. The rest is practice, every single week. I love nothing more than looking back and noticing the progress, as well as watching how my personal style develops. 

What does an average day look like for you?

To be honest, I have no typical day. Everyday is different depending on what I have to do that week. However, there are two things I need every day, which are my breakfast and my afternoon coffee.
However, I do have an average week. I am a morning person and I love to get a lot done before lunch. I use the mornings to do some work for university and to prepare my lessons for that week. We do not have many contact hours in my Master program, but therefore a lot of independent studying. I love to do meal preps twice a week to stay organized and to save some time. This is usually, when I test some new recipes. If I like them, I  prepare them once or twice more and shoot them on the week-end. I also try to take one afternoon to edit the pictures I took and prepare the blog posts.

Tell me about your experience with branding.  Are there any brands you collaborated with or would like to collaborate with?

As I got my authorization to work as a freelancer only a month ago, I’m still working on building contacts and relationships with brands. I did collaborate with Ladrôme, a French brand for floral waters and essential oils, which I used in baking recipes. As you see, I also like to use rather unconventional products like essential oils in my recipes. I would love to collaborate with other brands producing healthy and gluten free products, especially small businesses. In particular, I would like to work with local brands, like NUX, which produces amazing nut butters. Other than that, I mostly reach out to brands I personally use and love, since I want my work to be real and authentic. But I’m open to any opportunity coming and would love to do freelance jobs for magazines as well.

What’s next on the agenda for you?

Now that I launched my blog (which, by the way is not what I planned to do initially, but I love it now), I want to continue growing on social media. Sharing my recipes has really become my biggest passion and it is what pushes me to continue every week. I love to see people getting inspired by my food and wanting to implement them in their weekly meal plans. I also want to show everyone that gluten free doesn’t mean not tasty, which is often the opinion people have. Especially regarding savory recipes, many ingredients I use are just naturally gluten free. 

From a business perspective, I wish to do more brand work and help them showcase their amazing products through my recipes. I will also do an internship during summer at the most famous food magazine in Luxembourg, KACHEN and I can’t wait to gain some more experience!

What’s your favorite recipe from your blog?

This is a very hard question since I love them all (obviously)! But if I had to choose, I would say that the peanut butter sea salt cookies that I shared in my “sweet snacks” ebook are my all-time favorites!

Is there anything else you would like to add?

I just want to tell other young women that no matter how old they are, they should pursue that entrepreneur spirit if they feel it within themselves. If I have listened to every opinion I ever got, I wouldn’t have my food blog running and wouldn’t aspire to eventually work as an entrepreneur one day.