The cleanliness of the place and the attitude of the staff matters to me the most. The food needs to be good too, but if the place is not clean or the staff is rude, that is the deal-breaker for me.
1. Tell us about your background and journey
I was born and brought up in New Delhi. I remember in school I used to eat the tiffin of all my friends and still I was hungry and looking for more. People always asked me how do I eat so much and still manage to be hungry even after that. I still haven't figured that out.
The travel time from my house to college and back was 3 hours each day. So while returning I used to be hungry and I used to look at Zomato menu of various outlets. I used to save money to visit the outlets and order the best deals over there which I had already figured out via Zomato.
So, one day I was immensely depressed and I just posted the picture of pizza onto an account which I created randomly. After that, I just became even more passionate about food than I had ever been. Initially, I posted pictures because that is what everyone did.
But I realised after 1 year that I like creating videos and not pictures so that is what I do now. I am grateful for the immense support of a special friend who makes my videos and helps me so much in this journey.
By profession I am an engineer, I just gave my last exam yesterday. I will be starting with my job pretty soon. I have also started my youtube channel by the name Aishwarya Gupta. It's a mix of makeup, food and lifestyle. I am very passionate about makeup and all other things in life so I wanted to mix things up on YouTube.
2. Which is your favourite cuisine and dish?
I have no particular cuisine which is my favourite as I just love it all. I love Indo-Chinese, Italian, South Indian, Mexican, etc in no particular order. I just love all the cuisines. One favourite dish that I can have all the time has to be Rajma Chawal. Pizza and Nachos come next when I think of food. But food is love. All of it.
3. Should food blogging be just a passion or can it become a regular career?
Food blogging can definitely become a career if you are passionate about it. If you are here just for money or food, then you will get bored and tired of it because you won't really be earning anything for initial 1/1.5 year.
The content creation requires a lot of time and skills as well. I would suggest you know the basic picture and video editing before starting. Rest everything will fall into place automatically.
The place has become saturated now but if you maintain your own personality and touch to it, you have a long way to go. I have been doing it part-time since the past 3.5 years and I feel the part-time thing maintains my passion for trying out food and make videos out of it as well.
4. Which restaurant/food joints would you recommend to food lovers?
If you love food and you don't want to break the bank too, go for Echoes, Dum Maaro Dum, Duty-free, Band Baaja Baarat, The Rolling Joint, Ki Hangla. These places offer exceptionally delectable food at affordable prices. Echoes, Dum Maaro Dum and Duty-free are some really budget-friendly places for a date too.
If you want to have a luxurious experience do visit World Art Dining, Plum, La Roca, Feel Alive. The experience is just worth the hype. And the food is also good too.
5. What makes you appreciate a particular dish or a restaurant and talk about it on your blog?
Talking about food, it needs to be piquant and not average. I give an unbiased opinion or rating without sugarcoating anything on my page.
But I sometimes skip on showcasing the food which I didn't love only because I do understand that my tastebuds won't like everything. And a lot of hard work is put into the dish by the chef and the restaurant.
The cleanliness of the place and the attitude of the staff matters to me the most. The food needs to be good too, but if the place is not clean or the staff is rude, that is the deal-breaker for me.
6. Is there a dish you particularly associate yourself with?
I associate myself with pizza. It is also the first picture I posted on my page. I feel like it's my first love when it comes to food. The authentic pizza chains make the best pizzas in my opinion. Now, I feel that even some restaurants are coming up with amazing pizzas to offer.
Aishwarya Gupta - Food Blogger
Interview by - Soumya Jain
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