00:12:23.100And I even did really fun things like I had a Friday night
00:12:27.200live cooking segment where I would release the ingredients.
00:12:31.640Well, I'd release the recipe at the start of the week
00:12:33.960of what I'd be cooking and I'd encourage people to cook
00:12:37.660with me live on the Friday night at like 7pm.
00:12:40.660So I'd release the ingredients on a Tuesday so everyone
00:12:43.640can go off and get what they want like what they need and then we'd all cook it together and then
00:12:49.760it just became a really fun activity to amuse everyone on Friday but then learn a new skill so
00:12:55.880it's crazy that was back when everyone was doing Instagram lives but I think
00:13:00.520just kind of dedicating that time to something that I love just naturally became my new job
00:13:10.020because yeah it just there was such a need for people um to learn how to cook um get a bit like
00:13:19.680gain more confidence in cooking and that's just really how it just took off and now three years
00:13:25.040on I'm still doing it full-time um and it's really fun I'm still really loving it that's so good to
00:13:33.860yeah and especially because in our in our rocky year that's still going on nowadays you know
00:13:42.080we're in our 20s and so many of our friends actually this year have gone through redundancies
00:13:47.060and reject and rejections and I'm wondering did you have any advice to people who might be
00:13:53.520listening who have gone through something like that um on how to overcome such a curve curveball
00:13:59.440Yeah, absolutely. I think it's so funny how cyclical everything is because I even have very close friends who are currently going through their own job losses and redundancies because so many businesses are restructured for this current economic climate.
00:14:17.120it I'm in my 30s so I'm turning 34 this year so I was in a life stage where I'd spent
00:14:25.440the past decade um in the marketing and PR industry mainly within the beauty industry
00:14:32.900um so when I got made redundant it was really shocking and quite scary for me because I held
00:14:41.220so much of my identity to my career that I'd built but having said that because I'd
00:14:48.240had at least 10 years of experience it was a really good opportunity for me to just
00:14:55.900take a step back and reassess and figure out what I really wanted to do because
00:15:02.500honestly I was a bit over um the beauty industry and like selling lipsticks
00:15:08.880and for me it was just like okay if you don't have a job you don't have money and you don't have
00:15:16.720any other commitments like what would you do and for me it was I just want to cook
00:15:20.820and then that naturally became um my job so I think it's always yeah it's always nice to
00:15:29.760reflect on this and have hindsight but it's always like the start of change and I think it's
00:15:40.220really positive change so um I would always just see it as an opportunity to redefine who you are
00:15:49.460and where you want to go so yeah you definitely did your story reminds me of like a modern day
00:15:56.320julie and julia have you seen that movie i love that movie i actually recently re-watched it
00:16:01.620because i think i got served on like netflix and yeah yeah like you know not really particularly
00:16:07.700happy in a job but then like you love food so yeah that story reminds me of that but with instagram
00:16:12.820um i actually first came across you and your work through everyone posting about chili oil
00:16:20.220and everything during lockdown and i love chili and i was like who is this woman oh she's local
00:16:25.220melbourne person and so we wanted to know what was the story behind chili oil on everything which
00:16:31.920is your own brand of chili oil for people who aren't in the know and how did this come to be
00:16:36.460yeah so um like i said i back in 2020 i was sporadically sharing recipes so i think i
00:16:47.860i made some dumplings once and there was um i had chili oil and someone asked me oh how do you make
00:16:54.260that so I decided to release that as a recipe so I released it in February 2020 before I got
00:16:59.260made redundant so it was one of the first recipes that I had on my Instagram that was saved in a
00:17:05.380highlight it still is to this day actually if you scroll through my archives um and it because of
00:17:13.100that it became one of the most made recipes of mine especially in 2020 um and it just had this
00:17:23.880like I don't know there was so so much momentum behind it I think chili oil was having a moment
00:17:30.460just like banana bread was in 2020 as one of those cult recipes you made in lockdown and so
00:17:37.880halfway through that year I had a friend who had a apron business and she wanted to do like a fun
00:17:47.420giveaway and I decided to make three jars of my chili oil and give it away as a as a prize
00:17:55.200and that just went as close to viral as it could back in the day and so it became an idea for me
00:18:04.300to say hey what if I was to make and sell this as a product and so by November 2020 I made a
00:18:15.560thousand jars of chili oil in collaboration with my friend who had an apron business and we sold
00:18:22.240through all of those over the Christmas period and it sold out really quickly so then it just
00:18:29.300became a brand and a product and for me it was one of the really rewarding projects because
00:18:39.060I was able to channel my experience in marketing PR and use that for my own brand and experiment
00:18:48.760on something that I've never done before which is food manufacturing so it was like a really fun
00:18:58.580way to just like take an idea run with it and see how it would be received and it was so well
00:19:06.320received um by my community and I still it's it's still there as a business but it is still very
00:19:15.020small batch a thousand jars made over a weekend with my parents um and I still make it in my
00:19:23.700friend's kitchen who has that apron business cargo crew it's really wholesome it's like it's a really
00:19:28.620nice hobby I just haven't made a new batch this year because um I've just got a lot of things
00:19:34.200going on including um being pregnant and having my first baby soon so yeah it's a highly physical
00:19:40.520thing you're making 250 liters of chili oil at a time and you're like hand labeling hand packing
00:19:46.520um so that's on the back burner but I just think it's a really great story on and I guess again
00:19:57.220like inspiration for people to be like you know if you have a really cool idea if you always wanted
00:20:01.980to pursue something like you can and um there's evidence in like if you can build a community
00:20:08.800around it they'll get behind it so your work is so tied in with you as a person it's recipes you
00:20:15.800love you know we're seeing so much of yourself you know popped on your different social media
00:20:21.960pages and my question is is it hard to separate work from hobby because this was only like maybe
00:20:29.640a couple months ago or something. I remember seeing on your stories, you were talking about
00:20:33.680how you purposely wanted to cook something for yourself without having to post content or the
00:20:38.820recipe. You're like, this is just for me. Yeah. So I just wanted to ask you about that.
00:20:45.100Yeah. There is always that struggle when you turn your passion or your hobby into a career,
00:20:54.040because once money is tied to it then it can feel like a burden and a pressure and then
00:21:02.780it can make you resent what you do like we all have our days we're like we're all oh I hate my
00:21:08.660job um but I've been very conscious of that um in my business because everything is really focused
00:21:17.260on cooking and recipes and sharing that with everyone and I try as much as possible not to
00:21:22.920gatekeep all of my information but at the same time in order to preserve that love for food and
00:21:32.320cooking I have those days where I make a recipe and no one sees it but it's just because I really
00:21:40.660want to and it allows me to fall back in love with the reason why I do what I do so like even
00:21:48.000this afternoon i think i'm planning to like make a really fun apple pie um but with like you know
00:21:54.300that beautiful basket weave kind of lattice oh yeah um crust topping like and then you can like
00:22:00.200make little patterns those kind of recipes where like there's a bit of creativity and expression
00:22:05.800behind it and like intricacy are the ones that i really enjoy um so i'll do stuff like that or
00:22:13.320I'll get my parents over and we'll cook a really fun Vietnamese dish that I haven't done before
00:22:19.960um that they'll show me so I think that's important in for everyone especially if you're a
00:22:26.780creative who um your hobby or your passion is your job because you do have to carve that time
00:22:35.360out to still appreciate and love it for what it is and without you know clients and jobs and
00:22:43.120work attached to it yeah I think Maggie and I can definitely relate to that being writers getting
00:22:48.700paid to write and then you know we obviously started it because we love it but yeah it's hard
00:22:53.860to like carve out that time and also not show anyone like I know with like creative writing
00:22:58.780it's like I can write something I don't have to show it to anyone but you have this like almost
00:23:02.300compulsion when you're like creating content or like getting paid for it you're like I need like
00:23:06.900what's the point of it and you have to like remind yourself that no it's for you and your soul and
00:23:12.460your needs and stuff so definitely resonate with that absolutely I think it's even like so for
00:23:18.060example last night I was just like craving a beautiful prawn linguine so I sometimes what
00:23:25.380I'll make for dinner I'll share with people but that's just more of like um here's what I'm eating
00:23:31.320here's what I'm craving um but there's no like yeah recipe attached to it because it was like
00:23:36.700this was just me in my kitchen having fun and I was like oh I've got to share it because like
00:23:42.160I love food so much but yeah I think as long as you can have that time for yourself to still enjoy
00:23:49.380what you do then you won't resent it as much yeah when you're having a bad day yeah and also
00:23:58.360on social media you like you don't only just post about food you've posted about like fashion you've
00:24:04.440done like collabs with decor and homeware brands and travel etc but I feel like people can be very
00:24:12.140strict and rigid in what they expect from people on social media and like staying within your niche
00:24:17.400so how has it been navigating social media content creation and like not just staying
00:24:25.640within the cooking lane like it feels like you're across a lot of lifestyle niches yeah absolutely
00:24:32.020i i guess i have always treated my instagram as my page it was always my personal page that's why
00:24:42.820it's just my name um and going into it as a business my core values and like my reason for
00:24:54.480existing on a platform especially Instagram is to always add value to people so to educate or
00:25:02.220to inspire them so it's to teach them how to cook a recipe or to give them inspiration on
00:25:07.740how to throw together a menu or host people for a dinner party and I think
00:25:13.880the whole kind of strategy of me diversifying is definitely from a business sense but it's
00:25:24.140also just me personally like if I you know given my background in beauty there's times where I will
00:25:29.600share things about beauty and I will share things about fashion or travel or what I'm doing or where
00:25:34.980I'm going that's just literally my life but if I think it could add value to people and help them
00:25:42.560out then that's why I share it so yeah but then also from a content creator perspective I like
00:25:51.540to have diversity in what I do and I think again like goes back to the business where
00:25:56.380I don't always want to be sharing recipes because that that can get monotonous and boring and I'd
00:26:03.180like I like having different clients I like being able to challenge myself creatively
00:26:07.920but I think from also the perspective of people putting content creators in boxes I think that's
00:26:15.260quite reductive because we're all people who have multiple interests so and my my content
00:26:22.260definitely changes and it has changed throughout the three years that I've done I've done it as
00:26:27.920a business even now I'm starting to share some tidbits about my pregnancy journey and what I'm
00:26:33.560going through and um yeah that's my choice to share and then it's also people's choice to
00:26:40.340follow and continue to follow me so true I find it really interesting to see kind of where the
00:26:47.520social media landscape is at nowadays when it's around food because I was just thinking like a
00:26:53.240good maybe I don't know seven years ago tasty buzzfeed videos you know they're really like the
00:26:58.460the camera down the kind of um sped up videos of those like 30 second videos but all the rage like
00:27:05.600I used to be addicted to watching them on Facebook and YouTube and nowadays my TikTok
00:27:12.400has such a variety of content from people cooking with leftovers to like zero waste home cooks to
00:27:19.340dinner parties and stuff and I'm just wondering what do you think this will continue to look like
00:27:24.940in the next few years? Sorry just pop the future of an industry. No I really I know I really love
00:27:33.620But I think, I do think that the pandemic was a catalyst and an incubator to push and
00:27:46.960promote home cooks, people who didn't have any like technical knowledge or experience.0.76
00:27:56.940And that is an example of myself because I do, I do agree.
00:28:00.340like you had your BuzzFeed Tasty like food publications
00:28:05.140that was pushing out food content, you had your celebrity chefs
00:28:08.180who were either on broadcast media with like a social presence
00:28:12.720but you didn't really have food content creators
00:28:15.780and I think a lot of them rose to prominence over the last two
00:28:22.380to three years because of the lockdowns
00:28:25.540and then also because of the introduction of TikTok.
00:28:30.340um that's been really key and it's just been so nice to see that community grow especially
00:28:38.040because I've seen so like the presence of a lot of females in food um where it used to be quite
00:28:45.260male dominated um and I think like it would just only grow and grow and I like the fact that
00:28:54.980um it's just very much so democratized food where like anyone can kind of try or share
00:29:04.380and you don't have to be you know a culinary chef you can literally be a girl in your kitchen
00:29:13.860like me I don't know I think what I'm seeing now is um I guess a lot of people like myself
00:29:25.560they're they're moving on they're expanding so they've either got um food product lines or
00:29:31.240they've got books or they now are getting profiled and promoted on um broadcast channels
00:29:40.740like they're getting their own Netflix series or they are becoming the guest judges on food
00:29:48.420reality TV shows so I think it's really good it's shaking up the food media landscape which I think
00:29:56.820it really needed totally and hopefully yeah make it more diverse and yeah I love that term like
00:30:02.240democratization of the food industry yeah super interesting and you mentioned earlier that you
00:30:08.980are expecting a little baby congratulations thank you very excited to be a mom and you shared it in
00:30:15.880mid-June and how have you been feeling you know about 23 weeks in yeah really good I have been
00:30:24.340pretty blessed to have had a very good pregnancy so far it's been really fun because I'm so in
00:30:33.460tune with my palate and my taste so the biggest change has been noticing how I have gravitated
00:30:42.540towards food and taste so like for example before I didn't know I was pregnant I had this raging
00:30:49.380obsession with like fruit I was like eating fruit back in March like there was no tomorrow
00:30:57.780i was just like why and then i also i'm not a sweet tooth so i i didn't used to eat um desserts
00:31:10.320i didn't use to eat chocolate and then one day i just ate like a bag of chocolate at the shop
00:31:17.240like at the supermarket before i even got to like the car and i was just like who am i and then i
00:31:24.020started making desserts and I was just like why am I doing this and then I literally found and
00:31:31.100then my friends were like um you are 15 days like for your period you really need to take a test
00:31:37.000and I finally did it and then I was like okay I'm pregnant and that explains everything it's been
00:31:42.260really interesting to see how I've shifted in terms of my taste and what I'm sharing so for
00:31:48.240example I used to have a content pillow which was like a Friday cocktail segment obviously
00:31:54.080I'm not consuming alcohol anymore but in its place I've just had a massive urge to always be
00:32:01.800eating something sweet so I'm sharing recipes like I made a vanilla slice that I shared I've
00:32:09.260been baking little mini cookies that you can have with your coffee in the afternoon I want to make
00:32:16.120an apple pie this afternoon so yeah like you could just tell things are changing but um it's it's a
00:32:24.720really fun yeah it's a fun new era that I'm stepping into this year oh god I'm just so happy
00:32:32.260for you it was so funny because my boyfriend actually like we were out in public and he's like
00:32:37.560and I was like what and he's like did you see and I was like no and he like showed me his phone
00:32:43.440with your pregnancy announcement and I actually like made a noise out loud that like someone like
00:32:50.120turned around and looked at me because I'm just so happy and it's a really exciting time um0.98
00:32:56.500parasocial relationships oh my god Jess is like what the fuck this is so nuts it's still wild to0.71
00:33:04.480me when people go oh my god my boyfriend made this or like you know and he saw that you're0.95
00:33:09.440pregnant I find that just so weird because yeah I still think of myself as just who I am and not
00:33:16.680like someone with like a hundred yeah when you when you do get those anecdotes from people it's
00:33:24.860pretty wild but I'm so glad he was so happy for you I know we both are I have been sending him
00:33:31.380your recipes for so long waiting for him to make something we're still waiting out
00:33:36.460um but on the conversation of motherhood as well um you know jazz and i have talked about this a
00:33:43.560lot a lot of our friends have as well but there is this existing tension between motherhood and
00:33:48.560career and i'm just wondering was that something that you relate to that you had to kind of think
00:33:53.740through as well yeah absolutely i yeah like i said i've always been very career oriented and
00:34:01.240It was always my belief that I need to establish myself in my career before I then think about marriage and kids and all of that.
00:34:12.080So that is pretty reflective of my career to date where I spent, you know, 10 years in a corporate role.
00:34:18.940um but even now I think um you're always going to grapple with it because I'm in a very different
00:34:27.740circumstance these days where I run and own my own business so now the tension is about
00:34:35.040how long should I take off as a mother because I I won't get given maternity leave
00:34:43.520like other people who work in companies but I get to dictate when that is but then I also have to
00:34:49.640make a strategic decision on when that should be so yeah there's always there's always going to be0.78
00:34:57.320that issue for women but I do think it has come a long way in becoming a lot more flexible and
00:35:04.780I'm very lucky in my role that is mainly based from home that I will be able to probably straddle
00:35:12.400both um and for example um it's a really good situation for me because my husband has been
00:35:23.100approved for paternity leave so he'll be able to be present with me in the first couple of months
00:35:28.360which is going to be super special and that is not something that was available you know a couple
00:35:35.660of years ago and I even honestly don't think that was some like motherhood for me and being a very
00:35:42.320present mother but also good at my job was not something I saw I would have been able to do in
00:35:48.740my previous roles in corporate um so yeah I'm you're always going to grapple with that but
00:35:55.700I think I'm in the best position to be able to now manage it on my own terms um but yeah it's
00:36:02.980going to be a balancing and juggling act for sure yeah it is so nice to hear some like positive
00:36:09.620um associations with pregnancy and motherhood and career because it feels like at the moment
00:36:16.700there's a lot of like as it should be like these conversations are really important about like
00:36:20.880the mental load that mothers take on and like motherhood in western society etc and that I
00:36:26.360don't know it just freaks me out so much I'm like well what am I going to do so it's really nice to
00:36:30.780like hear from women a few years down the track who are like making it work and being positive
00:36:35.620because it is happy time and it is something that we should look forward to but sometimes
00:36:39.460especially on Instagram it can feel like oh my god like is it gonna ruin my life you know what
00:36:43.440I mean like no I definitely had that fear um a couple years back but I think yeah it has come
00:36:50.220a long way especially a lot of workplaces that are being a lot more flexible um about motherhood
00:36:57.220and returning to work and also um sharing that responsibility with you know the father and both
00:37:03.300parents so um it's a positive time I think for me yes and we can't wait to see that journey unfold
00:37:11.240on your Instagram even further if you choose to of course but that's a whole nother thing yeah
00:37:16.860that's a whole nother we could keep going on that conversation as well yeah 100% we sadly don't
00:37:23.160have the time to get into all that but whatever you do I'm sure we'll be fine um so every week
00:37:29.920on our podcast we give our listeners recommendations on what we've enjoyed reading
00:37:33.840listening to or watching lately and can you share a recommendation that you've been loving recently
00:37:38.740yes I can I've got two um in terms of watching I love food shows and food movies so this should
00:37:51.840really come as no surprise. But I recently saw Flaming Hot, which is a biopic of Richard Montagnez,
00:38:02.460who was an ex-janitor at Fritos. And then he rose to become a top executive. He became the
00:38:09.460multicultural marketing manager for Frito Lays and was linked to inventing the Flaming Hot Cheetos.
00:38:15.960um it's a movie that is on disney plus it's directed by eva longoria it's a great underdog
00:38:24.080story and also a great origin story for a food product if you're a big foodie and love
00:38:29.700especially spicy snacks like flaming hot cheetos but um i just thought it was very wholesome
00:38:36.400it was really inspiring um it was great representation for um the latino community
00:38:45.640and I loved that it was someone like Eva Longoria
00:38:51.180who was a director and sharing that story.
00:38:55.840So, yeah, if you love the intersection