The most common tags on Instagram are food-related. Food and Instagram are a match made in heaven (or in a kitchen), and it’s now common to spot diners and café goers snapping a quick photo of their food. I’ve done it on occasion, when I wanted to mark the occasion.
Chefs, food writers, and food lovers are playing along, and while some photos go horribly wrong — you’ve all seen the photos of delicious meals that resemble congealed fish chum — there are many Instagrammers taking drool-worthy photos.
Here’s my roundup of ten food Instagram accounts you’ll want to follow, if you don’t already:
If you haven’t read David Lebovitz’s book, The Sweet Life In Paris, go buy it now. Seriously, go. His account of life in the City of Lights is funny, observant, and includes recipes. Lebovitz’s Instagram account delivers the same. You’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at his life — dirty dishes and all — and some of his favourite food and travel haunts.
Follow Toronto food writer, Mardi from Eat Live Travel Write, for a look inside her cooking school for young chefs, beautiful photos of her travels, and a lot of delicious food. Not only does she share photos of what she cooks and the foods she tries, but you can also count on her Instagram mini posts to reflect her genuine opinion.
All I know about the Kaffelab feed based out of Oslo is that it’s about coffee and that makes it a necessary inclusion on this list. Funky photos, quirky humour, and did I mention coffee?
This one is pure photographic decadence, and the photos are all (or almost all) taken by her photographer husband, Oddur Thorisson. Mimi is a food blogger, the host of a televised cooking show in France, and has a book coming out in the fall of 2014. Thorisson and her family live in a large house in the countryside of the Médoc region, so fair warning, you might get lost in the photos.
Rick Poon’s feed is made up more of travel photos than food, but those two go hand in hand. Poon is a San Francisco-based photographer who is (self-proclaimed) obsessed with food, travel, and design, and his photos reflect that. They’re beautifully shot and you’ll want to jet off to wherever he’s been, sit at the same table, enjoy the view, and taste what he’s eaten.
Another Canadian, Jennifer Bartoli, is a food specialist for one of Canada’s top magazines — Canadian Living — who also writes the blog Chocolate Shavings. I like her for that name alone. Her photos show beautiful food that anyone can make at home, the trips she takes, and feature Alaska, a cat with attitude.
A nutritional therapist from Sweden who lives in Ireland, Linn Thorstensson, made changes to her lifestyle, found a career, and now shares how she’s learned to live and prepare food using simple ingredients. Her photos on Straightforward_Nutrition are soft and appealing, and the focus is on food and positive encouragement.
Careynotcarrie is the Instagram feed for food blogger Carey of Reclaiming Provincial. There’s nothing fussy about her photos or her cooking, and she shoots in beautiful light. Carey has wide-ranging culinary interests and is deeply invested in eating local, in her case, Vermont.
If beautiful landscapes and mouth-watering vegetarian dishes are your thing, then you need to follow Linda Hyldal. I drooled looking at a photo of a zucchini, feta, and rosemary pizza.
Joann Pai is a Vancouver-based food and lifestyle photographer, and I dare you not to love her Instagram feed, Slice of Pai. The colours are lush, the settings gorgeous, and yet the photos leave the viewer inspired and not overwhelmed.
Do you have a favourite food Instagram account? Let me know in the comments and stop by JackStrawLane to say hi.
Check out Melissa Gaston’s post about which professional photographers to follow on Instagram.
Are you an Instagram newbie? Telling a story with pictures is easier than you think!
Cla•fou•tis / clah – foo – tea
From the ancient French word for delicious. Actually it’s from an old French word whose definition is, to cover an area with something (like pebbles on a pathway), or in this case raspberries covered with a creamy batter, so it does mean delicious.
Clafoutis is traditionally made with cherries containing their pits, but most fruit can be substituted in for the cherries. Since raspberry season is nigh, or here, I made my version of this classic French dessert. It’s a simple recipe found in most French families, which means there are 1001 variations of it. I like to add crème fraîche to my batter because it adds a creaminess that can’t quite be duplicated using sour cream. And since it’s finally available in Canada, it’ll be crème fraîche everywhere all the time!
Clafoutis batter is not much different than a thicker version of a crêpes batter and is even easier to make. It can be whipped up as dinner is cooking and then baked while you’re enjoying your meal. Serve clafoutis warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or homemade whipped cream.
Ingredients:
Wash and gently dry the raspberries.
Butter a 23 cm (9”) square dish and preheat the oven to 205C/400F.
Combine the flour, sugar, and eggs into a large mixing bowl and stir well.
Add the vanilla, melted butter, crème fraîche, and milk. Using a hand mixer, blend until the batter is smooth.
Place the raspberries into the buttered dish and pour the batter over top.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the batter sets. Test with a skewer.
Serves 6-8
Bon appétit!
Clafoutis is also great for brunch. For other brunch options try the Nutella And Pear Crêpes or a Peach And Blueberry Crumble.
Summer comes quickly, but stays for a short time, so little things hold a larger meaning: the smell of tomatoes ripening in the garden, vegetables warmed by the morning sun on market days, kids running through sprinklers on a dusty afternoon…Canadians appreciate their summers. Many summer memories are tied to our senses and when those involve food there’s often a story associated with them.
When we moved to Canada, we bought an 1800s log cabin complete with land, and my parents planted a LARGE vegetable garden, large enough to feed the surrounding neighbourhood and us. When I say we ate a lot of vegetables, take whatever you imagine and multiply it by five. Among the dozens (it seemed to a young child) kinds of vegetables Mom planted were peppers and tomatoes, and one of her go-to recipes were stuffed peppers and tomatoes.
Enjoy Your Garden Year Round: How To Freeze Your Fruits and Vegetables
My garden vegetables are still not ripe, thanks to a late start, but the markets and produce sections of the grocery stores are overflowing with local summer vegetables. Zucchini, peppers, and tomatoes offer a variety of nutrients and flavours and are a good base for a complete meal. Serve the stuffed vegetables with a side salad of tomatoes sprinkled with feta and vinaigrette.
Ingredients:
Preheat the oven to 190C/375F.
Cut the ends off the zucchini and cut them in half. Scoop out the seeds.
Cut the tops off the tomatoes and peppers and scoop out the insides. Set aside the insides of the tomatoes.
Boil 1 cup of water to cook the quinoa. Once the water has boiled add in 1/2 cup dry quinoa and cook until water is absorbed. Stir, remove from heat, and set aside. This yields 1 cup of cooked quinoa.
Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat and begin cooking the onion. Add the meat once the onion has softened slightly.
Brown the meat, seasoning with salt, pepper, and oregano.
Add tomato sauce, the insides of the hollowed out tomatoes, crushed garlic, and the cooked quinoa and allow to simmer over low-medium heat for an additional 5 minutes.
Remove the quinoa and beef mixture from the heat and fill the vegetables. Top with grated Parmesan and bake for 30-35 minutes.
Do you plant a vegetable garden? What are your favourite veggies to grow?
Bon appétit!
For more summer produce recipes make the Spinach Feta Frittata and Peach Blueberry Crumble.
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