“Food has the power to turn a bad day into a good one,” says Vrinda Gothi, student of FLAME University. Why are we talking to her about food? Well, because with over 26,000 followers, her Instagram handle @thehungrychasmish has brought her the food influencer status. Her posts about all things food, garner huge traction and there’s more to come. We talk to her about her passion for food and secret to success on the dynamic but fickle social media and her plans for the Insta handle, which go beyond “insta”nt gains and look at long term goals.

Getting a handle on it

For Vrinda, the love for food and books began at home with her parents being foodies and avid readers. When she started to analyze food, her love for food, reading and writing combined to give birth to a blogging account with her friend Abhishek Dhawan. “We first started the page to reach out to people who share similar interests, and share reviews about food we actually love. When we started with Instagram, The Hungry Chashmish was the first handle we thought of, but Hungry Monkeys would have been our second choice,” she quips.

Hungry for more

What started with a post on Loaded Fries has grown into a handle with professional precision. In fact, renowned food professionals like Pooja Dhingra of Le 15 Patisserie share Vrinda’s posts about their creations. She speaks of the highlights of her journey so far, “One time-lapse video of mini pancakes we posted was very satisfying and got us over 35,000 impressions. I think the biggest milestone was when we reached 25,000 followers and conducted a weekend giveaway. The plan is to scale it to a level where we have multiple deals with restaurant owners to promote their joints on a larger scale, when we hit 50,000.”

The recipe for Insta success

Vrinda’s ‘omg-never-going-to-say-no food’ is Sushi but her Instagram handle takes you on a gastronomical journey about all kinds of food. And they seem to have figured out the way to their followers’ heart with the content. “I don’t think you can achieve momentum on social media without good and honest content. Our strategy was to stay authentic and candid, which got us a lot of traction. Amazing visuals, creative content and regularity in posting are the key. I have gone for 6 days without posting and don’t have more than 2 posts a day,” she reveals her secret.

The Flame Connect

Since Vrinda is from Mumbai, her account earlier focused on new joints in the Metropolis. But since she joined FLAME, she has started making it Pune-centric. There is inspiration all around, from Dal Bati Churma in the canteen to recommendations from food loving friends on the campus. When put in a spot she admits with a cheeky grin, “Yes, I end up posting on Instagram from the classroom at least once a week. Thankfully I haven’t been caught yet, but I have a feeling it will happen after teachers read this.” We’ll wait for the next update!