She chased me down the street saying, "I need some flakes".
For some time now, I have been testing a hypothesis; "What makes consumers come back for more food?" This has led me down the rabbit hole of recipe product design. Along the way, I learned that flavour goes beyond taste. Chewy and airy textures are felt very differently. And flavour is infinite.
One of our goals for these flakes is that consumers should be able to chew as much as they desire without feeling pain in their jaws.
So far so good. We have sold 313 units, even though we deliberately ensured we kept the touchpoints narrow so we can test repeat requests.
Apart from flavour, I have also learned some painful truths about this business.
It's a new year, and this year we will be learning more about flavours and branding. ✌🏼
Italian Tagatelli elevated with our Nigerian deep Smokey Jollof sauce.
@cookwithchynnie who won 2nd place out of thousands of students in the Home2Pro by Hilda due to her grit and persistence showed that patience as the fried the base of this jollof sauce.
For the shot, this is my first attempt in layering and I also used the triangle composition.
👩🍳 @cookwithchynnie
🎨 @culinary_tech_guy
📸 @culinary_tech_guy
Tangerine is no longer accessible to the masses.
While we were growing up, we always loved the tangerine season where it’s sold dirt cheap. These days tangerine is now a luxury fruit.
When was the last time you took a bite?
Shot technical details: attempted macro shot with a telescope lens.
I can't wait to make money so that I can hire a chef. Until then, here is my quick fix instead of noodles; Pepper sauce and white rice.
I had shredded pork and panla in the freezer, so I whipped it out along with the base, which is a bunch of peppers and veggies. And it came out nice. Though it was a little dry.
Nothing worth doing, nothing large enough can be achieved at one large shot. It has to be broken down into smaller micro goals, each attempted multiple times and perfected from failures. The sum of all of these trials is what would lead to the big success.
Don’t swipe right. That is how I feel. But you can swipe it anyway and see the f**ck up that I did.
This shot was my second attempt to style a burger. And I still messed it up.
That was over a month ago. An assignment I did in the @foodstylist.ng program.
One thing is for sure. I am going to try again and again and again, until I get it right.
I’ve always made tasty pasta. But in the @foodstylist.ng program, I quickly learned that I’ve been making soggy pasta all along. I was also called out by @inemswitcheeks for breaking my pasta during a presentation.
A few days ago I took it upon myself to cook a pasta that was good on both counts. That is not broken and cooked al dente. Everything seemed to be going well. I was able to twist the pasta into the pot and it didn’t break. Sadly the pasta finally got broken while I was stir-frying. Later, I learnt that I wasn’t supposed to stir the pasta. The irony!!
After cooking, it was time to style and shoot 😁. For styling, I chose a simple horizontal plating. Then I added a few sauteed tomatoes to add color contrast to the greens from the pepper and parsley.
What do you think I should have done better?
Dear Food Vendor,
Two reasons why you shouldn’t try to target everyone:
1. It waters down your message. You end up saying something generic like, “Hello there, buy our tasty meal.” But if you choose a specific audience, for example, people trying to lose weight, you could say, “Check out our meal specifically created for those looking to lose weight fast.” This message is more direct, useful and believable.
2. You can create more effective products that solve a specific problem. For example, a tailored diet plan that helps people shed weight. This way, you become an expert in that product instead of trying to create something more subjective like “the most tasty meal.”
Remember, as a small business, if you try to chase everyone, you’ll never be the one for anyone.
Getting off work to cook is always a hassle for someone whose job is mostly to write code, you don’t want to get off “the zone”. But as I continue my culinary journey, I keep discovering new fast food.
This dish is a simple noodles with a “sprinkle” of corned beef and egg. Of course it has two types of peppers as a proper Naija food. The style of cooking beef is a new discovery for me. I simply cut it into thin strips, a bit fatter than suya, then marinate it with spices, olive oil and let it dry in the oven.
For the photo composition, I used a diagonal line but couldn’t get the focus on the beef without getting my lunch to be cold. 😂
Anyway, would you pay 7k for this meal?
This images are from one of my first attempts in styling in the @foodstylist.ng program.
The first design is a simple traditional plating style. But with the Nigerian reality of eating smaller protein.
The second style is an attempt to create a circle but as you can see it’s far from perfect.
These images were shot with my phone camera and edited in Lightroom.
The first image was shot with natural light but was polluted by my chandeliers creating an unwanted color cast. The second image, that is the chicken curry light set up was still from my chandelier but, it was all white chandelier with no natural light so the light is much cleaner.
At the end of the day, I learnt from my mistakes. 😅
Stay tuned as I post more pictures while I keep learning the ropes.
You’ve probably heard a thousand times that all you need is consistency. But here’s the truth; consistency alone isn’t enough if you’re not learning, adapting, and improving.
So, the next time you don’t see progress in what you do despite showing up consistently, ask yourself: “What do I need to improve on?” That’s where real growth happens.
