Pretty plating
For food influencers that use their online platforms to recommend the best of Connecticut’s food scene, one of the most important aspects is getting the perfect setting for their photos.
But when the pandemic closed indoor dining for months, getting the best shot and supporting the local restaurants got difficult.
For Tiffany Tu, creator of @_foodiewithabooty, it meant going from featuring snapshots of well-lit dishes in front of the restaurant’s background to tables set with takeout cardboard boxes.
“I mostly highlighted restaurants or businesses that were doing either curbside pickup or delivery, just to help them stay afloat,” said Tu, a Stamford native who has more than seven thousand followers on Instagram.
For Stephanie Webster, founder of the blog CTBites, the COVID-19 pandemic was a time to support the industry that she had been writing about for more than 10 years.
“As somebody who is entrenched in this industry, it was our job to help support the industry during the pandemic,” said Webster whose Connecticut food blog has more than 40,000 followers on Instagram.
This was also the case for Raenah Farina, creator of the Instagram account @stamfordfoodie.
“Even when everything was closed down, I was doing takeout food and making sure it all looked very nice and good. I was getting takeout almost every night for a while when everything was going pretty bad for restaurants,” said Farina, whose account has more than 18,000 followers.
For other food influencers, this time also meant a growth in collaborations with local brands and restaurants. Eesha Dave, the vegetarian food influencer behind @foodieeshh, said she saw more interest from brands that wanted to reach their customers online.
“I felt like a lot of brands were interested in partnering just because they
FROM WELL-LIT DISHES TO TAKEOUT BOXES, CT’S FOOD INFLUENCERS ADAPTED TO THE PANDEMIC
wanted different ways to be able to reach an audience,” said Dave who was born in Glastonbury. Dave has partnered with local brands such as West Hartford’s Eat Bare Life and Unbakeables.
And even though food content creators do not sell any products, they want to support the industry they love.
“We did the best we could
CT Food influencers
Here are 10 Connecticut food influencer accounts that you might want to check out. @_foodiewithabooty @CT Bites @Stamfordfoodie @foodieeshh @Kaykayblondiee @thedamgram @max_and_emme @whatsupfairfield @ctfoodgirly @the.brunching.blonde
to tell our readers about all the ways to support these restaurants,” Webster said. “’Forget about cooking at home, go in and order out every single night, order out from a different restaurant’.”
As the social media app TikTok saw a spike in users, accounts highlighting local cuisine like @tasteofconnecticut and @max_and_emme have grown.
Emme Zhou, one the Yale students behind the viral account @max_and_emme, said she started the account featuring Yale’s dining services to showcase the behindthe-scenes work that goes into feeding the college’s student body.
“It makes me really grateful and happy to have this platform to be able to promote all the amazing things that our staff and our chefs are able to put out for us each day,” Zhou said.
And while the pandemic has not ended and neither have the challenges facing the food industry, food content creators are doing their best to continue to highlight local Connecticut cuisine, according to Webster.
“I love my job so much. It’s the people. It’s the chefs, and the bakers and the whole community,” she said.