Notorious Foodie - I Think the Starting Point Is the Level of Service You Receive from the Moment You Walk Into a Restaurant (Food Blogger from London)

Food critic and blogger from London, focusing on restaurants and home cooking. Everything from the newest most exciting restaurants from casual to fine dining (in London and abroad), to recipes and home cooking tutorials.

1. Tell us about your background and journey

I’ve always taken photos of my food, whether it be out and about in restaurants or dishes I’ve cooked at home. Most of these were either to keep for memories, sending to friends for recommendations of what to order, or for inspiration to try and recreate certain dishes at home. After collecting so many food photos on my camera roll, I decided to start throwing it all onto Instagram to document the journey. That’s when I decided to create @notorious_foodie.

2.Which is your favourite cuisine and dish?

That’s a tough question. I enjoy eating and cooking so many different cuisines so it’s difficult to pick just one. That being said, I have an attachment to Italian cuisine, both cooking it and eating it. There’s something about the versatility of Italian ingredients such as pasta. You can have the most simple, elegant flavours combined to create a refined and deliciously complex dish. I also enjoy Asian cooking, including Japanese, Chinese and Indian. They all use ultra-unique and traditional ingredients and spices to create flavour combinations that you just won’t find anywhere else. Each of them is so different and delicious in its own way. 

3. Should food blogging be just a passion or can it become a regular career?

I think it can be both. Often it seems to start as a passion and then slowly becomes something that can be monetised as one following begins to grow. If you’re passionate about something, you end up pouring your energy and time into it - something which seems to resonate with any audience. It takes time and is ridiculously competitive, but consistency is key.

4. Which restaurants/food joints would you recommend to food lovers?

In London, my current favourites are Brat, Sumi, Dumpling Shack, China Tang, Lore of the Land, Popham’s Bakery, Cipriani, Quality Chop House, Kyubi, LPM and Entrecôte. To name a few. The list goes on, but you can scroll on my Instagram feed for the full list and write-ups.

5. What makes you appreciate a particular dish or a restaurant and talk about it on your blog?

There’s a number of things it comes down to. I think the starting point is the level of service you receive from the moment you walk into a restaurant. This, along with the layout of the restaurant (whether there’s an open kitchen etc) and the overall vibe, which in effect stems from the music. I’m terms of the food, I think I can speak for a lot of people in that it starts with the presentation. 

This, after all, is what goes on to the blog and often it’s your eyes that tell you something is delicious before your mouth. So presentation plays a big part, however, if a particular dish is mind-blowingly good and for whatever reason isn’t presented well, it’ll still get an appreciation post or story. I went to a great restaurant recently where three brothers host a 10-seater open kitchen counter and they cook 5 courses in front of you. 

You can see them prepping each dish and cooking every element. No hiding behind anything here. Everything out in the open from the quality of the ingredients, to the cleanliness of the kitchen and the raw skill of the three chefs. Expert execution and this got top marks. You can just see all the layers of flavour being added to each course and it’s an enjoyable thing to watch guys at the top of their game in action. It was called Evelyn's Table and is in Central London. 

6. Is there a dish you particularly associate yourself with?

Hmmm. It would have to be steak or pasta. I absolutely love all things wagyu and will try and order or cook this at home wherever possible. I also love to slow cook a traditional Italian ragu. I’ve recently started on TikTok and I’m focusing a little more on home cooking there.

Interviewed by: Palash Srivastava