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Showcasing Chennai through its vegetarian delights, traditional recipes
For Ekta Kothari, the journey with food was a personal one. In 2016, however, she took to Instagram to find her footing in the world of food bloggers and five years later, there has been no looking back for her. The 27-year-old talks about her love for food and using it to connect with Chennaiites during the pandemic
Chennai
Tell us a bit about how you became a food bloggerÂ
I am a vegetarian and true Madrasi by heart. I used to share my experiences with food on my account — like mentioning the good eateries in the city and some of their best dishes. I had friends who would always say that it’s so difficult to find good vegetarian food in Chennai apart from the staple idli and dosa and they appreciated my posts and suggested I make them public so that others too can try them out. This motivated me to showcase Chennai through its vegetarian delights.
How did you figure out the kind of content you wanted to create?
It was very simple. Every day, I would put up a review of an eatery in the city. Talk about the kind of food they served, ambience, etc. And the feedback from my followers was amazing. I had people requesting me to recommend a place for their special days like birthdays and sometimes when people take up my recommendations and then write back to me saying how much they loved the spread and the ambience, it really makes my day. I also heard back from restaurants; they tell me that patrons show my photo to them and often ask for the exact meal that I have had there.
How has the pandemic changed your approach?
I used to talk about home-cooked food earlier, but after the pandemic struck, I have been focusing on mostly that. Even though I have roots in Rajasthan, I was born and brought up in Chennai, so during the lockdown, I tried to showcase family recipes that were cooked up here, especially, those of my mother and grandmother. I have also been experimenting with recipes for lazy cooks — basically anything that does not require too much effort. And so far it’s clicked well with my followers.
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