Meet Our Guest 'Grammer of the Week: @Gilliehouston

Are you as obsessed with Instagram #foodporn as we are? Love to document all of your #eeeeeats? Every week we’re teaming up with a popular food-stagrammer who will be taking over our feed to fill it with some of their own delicious pics. Head over to @YahooFood, give us a follow, and check out the #TastyTakeovers tag to watch their foodie adventures unfold all weekend long.

For our inaugural #TastyTakeovers week, we turned to one of our own. Gillie Houston, a popular food Instagrammer with more than 25,000 followers, recently started working with our team, so it only seemed natural to pick her brain on all things Instagram and food. Check out the Q&A below!

Name/Instagram handle: Gillie Houston, @gilliehouston

Yahoo Food: Tell us a bit about yourself!

Gillie Houston: I was born in California, grew up in Colorado, and moved to New York for school a few years ago, so I’m kind of a mixed bag. I just graduated from Hofstra University with double majors in journalism and creative writing and currently work as a freelance writer and social media manager, which allows me to meet a ton of fun, cool people and eat a ton of fun, cool food! Besides eating — which I do a lot of — I’m a huge bookworm (I always love a good recommendation, btw!) and theater/music nerd. I love performing on stage, going to concerts and shows.

(All photos courtesy of Gillie Houston)

What first got you interested in food and photography? Where do you draw inspiration from?

I decided a few years ago I wanted to teach myself how to cook, especially things that appeared really decadent but were actually pretty healthy. I’ve always loved the aesthetic of beautiful food, and when I started cooking more and more, I started sharing those photos on Insta and getting a really great response. At first my friends gave me a lot of heat about it but now they think it’s cool that I’ve been able to connect to so many people through food. I get inspiration from all over the place — I love reading cookbooks and food publications — but I also get TONS of inspiration from other Instagrammers and their weird/wild/#foodporn-y creations.

How do you take your photos — with a camera or phone? Any photo editing tools recommendations or tips?

I take all of my photos with my iPhone 5c and I love, love, love VSCO, which is a photo editing app that I use on every post. I also really like Snapseed, another editing app with a ton of capabilities, and will use that a lot to fine tune/tweak certain parts of photos after I edit in VSCO. The main tip I have is to use natural light whenever humanly possible. I think every food Instagrammer I know would also say that natural light is the single most important tool for capturing awesome shots. Also — flash is the devil! A cool trick if you’re in a dark restaurant is to have your friend shine their iPhone flashlight through a white napkin to light your shot.

Who are three of your favorite Instagrammers? What do you like about them?

This question is the hardest since there are so many accounts I love, but some of my current favorite feeds are:

• @Wrightkitchen makes these epic ombre food creations, and taking things like carrots, citrus, and burnt toast and turning them into seriously stunning food rainbows. It’s hard to pick a favorite feed, but her’s just might be mine. 
  

• @Acupofkeen? has crazy gorgeous photos of food, interiors, architecture, and NYC, AND writes the most beautiful, evocative captions that really make you want to go  live in her dreamy world.
  

• @Chicagofoodauthority makes me frequently consider packing up tomorrow and moving to Chicago. I’m pretty convinced we’d be BFFs if we lived in the same city. Her photos are fun, bright, colorful, and I kind of swoon over them every time. 
  

BONUS: @wolfgang2242: This guy owns eight adorable rescued shelter dogs and a pet pig named. @Bikini: It’s just freakin’ awesome.  

If you could throw a dream dinner party for any three people — living or dead — who would they be?

This is another hard one! The first would probably be John Steinbeck. I don’t necessarily think he’d be the most fun dude to hang out with, but he’s my favorite author of all time and it would just feel wrong to miss the chance to revive him for the evening. The second (even though he’s living) would have to be Anthony Bourdain, because — as my friends could tell you — I’m kinda obsessed with Anthony Bourdain. And the third would be Julia Child because I just think she’d know how to really party foodie style. As for the food … honestly, if Julia Child’s coming over for dinner, I won’t be the one doing the cooking!

What’s the best dish you’ve ever made or the dish that you’re known for?

I’d say the dish(es) I’m known for on Instagram are my pancake stacks. I love experimenting with new ways to make pancakes (usually with healthier ingredients) and everyone loves a truly spectacular towering pancake stack. However, my favorite thing to make is this avocado pesto sauce that is really easy and healthy and I would eat every day if I could.  

What does the new food revolution mean to you?

To me “the new food revolution” is all about sustainability, locality, and exploring new, healthy, innovative options for food. I always try to be as environmentally conscious as possible in all aspects of my life, and I think buying sustainably grown, local foods that you know the source of is very important. I also love supporting small businesses, family-owned farms, and locally run and sourced restaurants, which I think are so important to our communities! Spreading the word about buying more consciously when it comes to food is of paramount importance — especially to the younger generations — and hopefully the wave of support for that movement will be the “new food revolution” we all need.

And last but not least — what’s your favorite food (if you had to pick one)?

Hands down, pistachios! No joke — I am positive pistachios are the perfect food in every way.

More food for thought:

How much water really goes into making that?

Meet the farmer who’s helping Chipotle go organic

Will Ben and Jerry’s help improve conditions for dairy farmers?