I’ve had my food instagram since 2015 and created it as an escape from the real world. In that time, I’ve posted nearly 250 times, learned how to use a DSLR camera, and met so many other foodies in the US and across the world. I already spend so much time creating content and managing my instagram, so why create a blog on top of what I was already doing?

For the past few months, I’ve been feeling very apathetic with my food instagram. Although I found joy in taking pictures and posting about restaurants I love, I felt like what I was producing didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Outside of the platform, I consider myself a person who cares about income inequality, racial disparities, migrant issues, and more, but I found it difficult to speak up about these topics on a platform that prioritizes aesthetics and not social injustices.

This idea of a blog has been living in my mind for the past two years – how do I combine my real world passions and my escapist hobby? Instagram doesn’t allow me the opportunity to explore food topics in-depth, and baby, there’s lots of issues with the food and restaurant industry. As much as I love food, I do feel guilty upholding problematic structures within this world – issues like the lack of chefs of color in fine-dining restaurants, the underappreciation of “hole-in-the-wall” places, the overall low wages in this field, and more. 

While I’ll continue to use Instagram as a way to spotlight restaurants and food that I think are worthy of noting, I want my blog to be a place where I can share my long-form musings about the food world. My blog where I can talk about problems within the food and restaurant industry, have discussions with people who think differently from me, share the recipes I’ve developed and most importantly, continue to highlight some damn good food. I’m excited to finally breathe life into this idea and can’t wait to show everyone a new side to Rudefoodpics.