My Top 7 Food Instagram's to Follow
Published September 2, 2019
As a full-time digital marketer, part-time freelancer, and for-fun food blogger, my phone is an extension of my body. If I’m not taking business calls or scheduling social media posts, I’m engaging with my audience or fellow Instagrammers to see what’s going on in our communities.
Recently, one of my fellow bloggers created an appreciation post and listed four different health and lifestyle accounts that she really loved.
I liked this trend of sharing the inspiring people within our space — so I decided to do that by sharing my Top 7 Food Instagram’s to Follow.
I hope that if you haven’t heard of these accounts, that they bring you recipe, art, and food inspiration. Click their handle to learn more.
7. Enya Todd | @enya_todd
Designer and Watercolor Illustrator | Enya's art of patisserie
Enya specializes in food and floral watercolor illustrations. She creates logo commissions, wedding cake designs, magazine features, and cards.
She has created work for magazines such as:
Waitrose Food Magazine (UK)
British Airways High Life Magazine (UK)
BBC Countryfile Magazine (UK)
Metro Newspaper (UK)
Panorama magazine (Italy)
Nimm2 (German)
Wine Enthusiast magazine (US)
Papyrus greeting cards (US)
Harmless Harvest (US)
L'Odore (Saudi Arabia)
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I’m not sure how I found Enya’s Instagram account, but I love it!
I practice digital art for fun — and I cannot imagine the skill that is needed to create her food illustrations. With a brush stroke and negative space, Enya creates amazing fruit and pastry illustrations. I especially admire her use of watercolors, which is a difficult medium to work with.
As a foodie, I love the way she uses her talents to add to the food industry. Her magazine layouts are gorgeous, and I never thought of incorporating watercolor illustrations with food packaging.
Personally, I would order and display any of her artwork around my home. Her flower bouquets and patterns are just as beautiful as her food illustrations.
Enya’s Instagram account takes the seventh spot in my list of top 7 food Instagram’s to follow. You can check out her page for real-life food shots, watercolor videos, cute doodles, and amazing food illustrations.
6. Christina Tosi | @christinatosi
Pastry Chef and Founder of Milk Bar
As I mentioned when I visited Milk Bar Chelsea for the first time — Christina Tosi is a two-time James Beard Award Winner and named 40 under 40 by Fortune Magazine, MasterChef judge, Cherry Bombe Podcast guest, and all-around pastry innovator.
Milk Bar is Tosi’s chain of dessert and bakery restaurants. She has 16 stores in total, including 2 flagship locations, where foodies can try cereal-milk ice cream and her famous crack pie (as seen on Netflix's Chef's Table).
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I love Tosi’s brand because it feels genuine. Sometimes she has the polished aesthetic (like this post on her Instagram page), but most of the time you can tell her photos are candid and taken by her.
The mix of subtle promotional news for Milk Bar’s brand, paired with Tosi’s life as a foodie and aunt captures her personality and vintage style. Her Instagram gives her audience sneak peeks of new recipes and business partnerships.
Sometimes she’ll share her adventures or what she’s eating — which interests me as a food blogger. I usually try new restaurants and locations based on recommendations. If Tosi recommends a dessert spot, you know I’ll be visiting it. She takes my sixth spot for food Instagram’s to follow, for all of her sugary creations.
5. Tiny Kitchen | @tinykitchentm
Cooking Series by Tastemade
What originally started as a fun project to reuse his daughter’s dollhouse, turned into the popular YouTube channel “Tiny Kitchen.” Viewers watch as real recipes are made using dollhouse-sized cookery.
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The Tiny Kitchen videos on Instagram show the final plating or a step in the cooking process. If you’d like to watch the full recipe video, head over to their YouTube.
As a food blogger who creates recipe videos, I cannot believe how the Tastemade/Tiny Kitchen team creates these videos. You need a steady hand and a creative mind to substitute real ingredients for tiny ones. For instance, I see quail eggs used in Tiny Kitchen videos, which is both clever and adorable.
The Tiny Kitchen recipe videos speak to my childhood, when I had a giant wooden dollhouse. My favorite room to decorate and display was the kitchen. My dollhouse had a long antique dining room table, where I displayed all my decorative plastic food — with little forks, napkins, and wine glasses.
Watching the final plating of the Tiny Kitchen videos makes me nostalgic and reminds me of those moments as a kid.
Tiny Kitchen takes the fifth spot in my top 7 food Instagram’s to follow, for their amazing (edible!) creations, awesome sets, and magical recipe videos.
4. Amy Larson | @overseasoned_amy
Founder of Overseasoned
What started as a hand-produced monthly cookbook in 2016 evolved into the Overseasoned website, where readers can find recipes and learn about female entrepreneurs in the food space.
Overseasoned Founder, Amy expanded the brand following the 2017 Women’s March, where she created, "Smash the Garlic and the Patriarchy."
In an interview with FoodtoEat, Amy says, "I believe [the slogan] brings power to cooking because it gives [women] control over their selves and their kitchen. And for others, I think it’s just a fun way for them to send a message...I want more female chefs to be recognized and celebrated through food. I don’t want the success of men to be the only thing the food industry honors. But I also want it to represent creating a more balanced home kitchen where men feel empowered to support women and get into the kitchen as well.”
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Amy’s Instagram is authentic while staying on brand. I love that the “Smash the Garlic” clothing features real people (including men!). I bought my own burgundy sweatshirt last year and it’s one of my favorite pieces.
Since Overseasoned started as a cookbook, I like that Amy continues to post delicious looking dishes in between her promotional content.
Amy’s Instagram takes the fourth spot on my list for its mission and vision. Overseasoned’s most recent addition to the clothing line, “I scream for reproductive rights” — is so well done. The marketer in me wants to buy every one of her products. They are clever, engaging, and make a statement.
3. Leyla Kazim | @thecutlerychronicles
London-Based Content Creator
Having majored in Astrophysics and worked in a software company, Leyla now travels the world, writing about travel and food. She's worked on Lonely Planet's book, "The Ultimate Eatlist,” was a 2019 judge for the BBC Food and Farming Awards, and a judge on the TV series, Beat the Chef.
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Leyla’s Instagram is serious #TravelGoals.
I love how much time she spends writing the captions on her photos. Her posts usually share the historical and cultural background of the location and food that she posts. I enjoy this as I can easily learn an interesting fact or cooking method from any of her posts or stories. (Plus, she has a gorgeous accent. I wonder if she has a podcast?)
Leyla often shares behind-the-scene views of restaurant kitchens, wine cellars, and other foodie destinations you normally wouldn’t have access to.
I selected this post to share — as Leyla has a similar perspective that I aspire to as a traveler. I was motivated to take my first trip abroad to Amsterdam and Italy with a similar mindset. I follow Leyla to see what other cities and foodie destinations await!
Her honest, educational, and beautiful content has made it into the top 3 Instagram accounts to follow on my list.
2. Amanda Rettke | @iambaker
Baker, Blogger, Founder of iambaker.net
Amanda started her blog in 2010 to show readers that everyone is a baker. Since then, she's become a best-selling author of Surprise-Inside Cakes: Amazing Cakes for Every Occasion – With a Little Something Extra Inside and featured in the major foodie publications. She has a separate website where she blogs about her homestead in Minnesota, where you can also find recipes.
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I’ve been following Amanda for a few months now. I don’t know how I found her Instagram but I’m glad that I did!
Her desserts are to die for. I haven’t made any of them yet, but I’ve bookmarked my favorites. I am not a baker — so I’ll be interested to see how easy her recipes are to follow.
I love her Instagram (not only for the bright, professionally photographed desserts) — but because her captions are hilarious. Amanda has a clear brand-voice and it’s filled with humor and sarcasm.
Recently, she has shared some personal news about her family, which she was nervous to share with her followers. I personally enjoy blending brand with real life (as you can see from the accounts who’ve made it into this list).
As a follower, when you engage with a brand, product, entrepreneur, or fellow Instagrammer, you become part of the community. Getting to see those personal aspects of someone’s life can create an environment of support and positive energy.
Amanda takes the second spot in my top 7 food Instagram’s to follow, for her authenticity, honesty, and resiliency.
1. Marcela Valladolid | @chefmarcela
Most people know Marcela from her 2010 Food Network series, Mexican Made Easy, or her several cook books published between 2009 and 2017. Marcela also spent time as a co-host on The Kitchen and judge on Best Baker in America.
She has her own website and blog, where you can find recipes and more in-depth details of what you see on Instagram. When she’s not producing a new cookbook or speaking at a cooking event, she holds fundraisers, travels, and spends time with her family.
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I adore Chef Marcela’s Instagram. Like Leyla, she shares her most recent travel photos. Her captions are also paragraphs of content, which is written in her voice — which is what captures me the most. As she’s said herself, she’s not trying to tell anyone how to live their life. But she is sharing what she’s experienced and learned. Chef Marcela encourages her community to follow their passions (for instance, as seen in her caption above).
You’ll find photos of her children and family on Instagram. Chef Marcela loves hosting family dinners — and she’ll give her community explanations of how she designed the table settings, the best ingredients to use in a dish, and how to prep for the meal.
She also has her own gardens — where she’ll feature her children gobbling fresh fruits and veggies. For the same reason that I grow a garden, Chef Marcela believes that we can each do something to contribute to a better environment, be more sustainable, and improve our health.
This blog is #NotSpons, but I love the foodie community so much, and Chef Marcela is so amazing. Both as a female entrepreneur, chef, parent, and advocate. I love her pride in her heritage and how she shares her language and culture whenever possible.
I could write a novel and analyze her Instagram posts — which is why she is my number one food Instagram account to follow.
Looking for More Foodie Inspiration?
Check out my recommended 7 movies for foodies.
