Over winter break, I started a food Instagram (how original).
As we reach a very unwelcome first birthday for total COVID-19 lockdown, I, like many people, have tried on my fair share of creative hats. Graphic design very much was my passion. I spent a solid couple of months as a virtual architect through Animal Crossing.
However, as the vaccine rolls out and we begin to think of life beyond the days of quarantine, I have begun to think about what truly sustainable hobbies I’ve adopted. What have I gained in the past year, and what do I plan to take beyond the comfort of my apartment? I certainly will need to give up my online crossword puzzle addiction when there’s a free world again. This is where my newest venture comes in.
During the past year, I have found a renewed interest in the wonders of the kitchen. In high school, I was an avid baker, toting Tupperware containers full of snickerdoodles in my backpack to dole out at a moment’s notice. Talk about How to Make Friends and Influence People; there’s no greater feeling of power than being a baked good dealer. Food is the great equalizer, and no one can willfully deny the lure of a homemade delicacy.
As I returned to my aprons and trusty KitchenAid mixer, I experienced much of the same baking tribulations that have become synonymous with early quarantine. I tried my hand at a Claire Saffitz recipe. I cried over banana bread (twice). While I never personally adopted my own sourdough starter, on one memorable occasion I traded my boyfriend’s dad a batch of my cheesecake brownies for a perfectly crusted loaf. The days droned on, and with them, baking projects blurred together. One cupcake became five became ten.
A brief clean eating stint, attempting to detox from store-bought Betty Crocker frosting, introduced me to the world of documenting your dinner. I had long followed my fair share of food influencers, watching in awe as they traveled the world tasting to their heart’s content. With the confidence of a self-proclaimed gourmand who had spent two years in her high school’s photography club, I decided to follow in their footsteps.
If you need a case study of an oversaturated market, look no further than the world of food Instagram. Everyone and their mother has tried their hand at getting their restaurant meal pictures on the Explore page, with “camera eats first” keeping a firm place in our lexicon for years. While TikTok has quickly become home to a blossoming food community, Instagram still remains the main stage for foodstagrams. In short, I’m certainly not alone.
I have a couple of photos and a few followers. My mom likes my posts. My greatest accomplishment so far is getting a southern grandma to comment on my rendition of her corn chowder recipe. While right now I’m focusing on what I cook at home, as restaurants reopen and dining out becomes a more realistic option, I look to the future of my food page. With a number of hobbies picked up and promptly dropped during quarantine, I hope this is something I can keep up with. As someone who quite literally writes a food column, this feels like a natural outlet for me. If there’s one thing I take out of this pandemic as the end is finally on the horizon, at least it’s something delicious.
The College Gourmet is an Opinion culture column written and created by Julia Dwight ‘22 to discuss cooking tips for students, explore local restaurants available to students, and more.
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