Year 4 MBChB student Claudia Chan talks food and photography, aka foodstagramming.
Edifoodstagram started back in first year where I used Instagram to upload some food pictures for the purpose of photo storage with the added bonus of having a nice photo gallery layout, but it eventually turned into a ‘food instagram’ and started to grow a following. Things have definitely changed a lot since then – I now have close to 1500 followers and have even had some sponsorship deals with restaurants.
Most of the time I post a lot of my bakings, dinner party spreads, food photography and food from my travels. I’ve also started to put up recipes on my own website recently since people have started to ask for them. It’s definitely not as formal as a food blog but I like to keep it as a casual cooking feed with the purpose of sharing cooking ideas and inspiration.
Not always keen on cooking
I never really had an interest in food or cooking until towards the end of high school when I knew I had to step up to the self-catered life at uni. I started to cook for various groups of friends in first year halls, particularly those who only were stuck with the JMCC (John McIntyre Conference Centre) at Pollock and needed a change/escape.
I have certainly seen improvement in my cooking throughout the years, edifoodstagram has pushed me to keep practising and improving my recipes in order to share my progress on the platform.
Come dine with me
Dinner parties are a great way of getting people together and spending quality time as a group, especially when it gets increasingly difficult to see each other everyday due to placement and busy schedules. I’ve hosted a few dinners and potlucks for my intercalation group last year and we’re still going strong to this day and meet up regularly.
I always cater my menus to the group I’m hosting, so this allows me to try out different recipes, cuisines and create a few inventions of my own too. The platform has also given me opportunities for sponsorships and restaurant promotions through direct message. These gifted invites are always very exciting as I can take some of my friends along to try out new food in exchange for a promotional post or story on the Instagram. I’m very grateful for these opportunities and being able to meet other people with similar interests from the platform through these events.
A break from medicine
It’s important to take time out for other hobbies since medicine can be quite intense at times. Some people may find cooking stressful but it certainly has a therapeutic element to it too and I encourage everyone to give it a go.
Moving forwards, I’m hoping to keep up with my regular dinners even though it’s only going to get harder during placement and continue to improve my skills. For my next project I am hoping to explore fine-dining cuisine and supper club concepts with a Masterchef vibe, so keep an eye out!
>>Follow Claudia on Instagram @edifoodstagram
>>Visit the edifoodstagram website for Claudia’s recipes
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