Recipe for Success: The Food Gays

What began as a hobby in 2012 for Jeremy and Adrian quickly turned into a recipe for a successful foodscape blog. Meet The Food Gays, Jeremy and Adrian, two Vancouver men who love food and photography. Both are contributors for Martha Stewart, and contributing editors for The Feed Feed. With passion and perseverance, Jeremy has completed a Pastry Arts program and took home a Silver medal in 2014 for BC Skills Competition.

Bringing their audience a healthy collection of delicious recipes and top-notch restaurant experiences around the city, The Food Gays strive to give their readers the best experiences possible. We had the opportunity to interview these creative consultants on their interests, motivations, and future plans.

Who were you before you became The Food Gays? Tell us about your interests and where you come from.

We’re both from British Columbia, and met about six years ago at a random house party. Neither of us knew too many people there, and from that night we never really stopped hanging out together. The Food Gays began three years ago as a hobby, and since then Jeremy has graduated from pastry school, and we now run a social media business together.

Describe the moment in which you first had the idea to form The Food Gays. What did you set out to create?

Honestly, we had no preconceived notions of what it would become. Food was something we both had in common, and we just enjoyed cooking and eating together. We thought it would be a fun thing to do, really, and looking back on it now, everything feels meant to be. Food is our whole world now.

What do you do when you’re not working on something for The Food Gays? Any achievements you’re particularly proud of?

We’re working hard on building The Food Gays into a full scale business. We just photographed the 2016 charity calendar for the Canadian Cancer Society, and also became recipe contributors for Martha Stewart. We’re also excited to soon be blogging for The Province, one of Canada’s most widely read news outlets.

Blogs, by nature, require the creators to infuse a little personality into the content. What are the challenges of managing two different skill sets and contributing personalities? In what ways are you grateful for one another?

It’s great having two people, for a variety of obvious reasons, but most of all because it keeps it fun and interesting. Blogging can be a lot of work, from recipe development, testing, photography, and writing… There’s much more entailed than some may think. We help balance each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and have a mutual respect for the other’s ideas. It’s worked out quite nicely so far!

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How do you go about creating a recipe or planning a photo? What happens when one of you has an idea?

It really depends. Sometimes it’s a specific seasonal ingredient we’d like to highlight, and we’ll start brainstorming ideas. Other times we’re simply throwing together a meal to eat, and it turns out to be something really interesting that we’d like to share with our audience. If we’re working with a brand or to promote a specific product, the client may have ideas or input on the direction of the recipe. It’s different every time.

 In the Photo: Jeremy and Adrian, The Food Gays Photo Credit: The Food Gays

What have you learned about food, blogging, or each other by working on The Food Gays together?

We’ve learned that the more we think we know, the more there is to learn. Things are constantly evolving with our business, and so, we’ve learned to go with the flow. Not to worry about predicting the outcome too much. Whatever will happen, will happen.

How do you envision the future impact of The Food Gays on the world?

That’s a big question! Hopefully we’ll leave some kind of impact on people – whether it be a really great recipe or eye-catching photo. We love sharing our love of food with others, so most of all, we’d like people to see that we are passionate and genuine about what we’re doing.