On a trip to San Francisco in 2010. I used this picture as one of my first for Gourmet Gab when I started writing the blog.

Last weekend I spent time back in Phoenix showing my two girlfriends from Indianapolis a taste of the place I call home. While we were touring downtown, I drove them past the Arizona State campus, the journalism school and the dorm I lived in freshman year. When we drove past the dorms, it struck me that six years ago I was sitting at my tiny desk creating a WordPress account and writing my first Gourmet Gab blog post.

On August 31, 2010 I published the first post on Gourmet Gab called, “Doesn’t Everyone Take Pictures of their Food?” Back then I didn’t have an Instagram or Snapchat, I was just taking pictures of my food with my camera and wanted to be able to share. I wanted to be able to merge my love of writing with my love of food, plus I thought this thing called “blogging” sounded pretty cool.

For the last six years, I’ve been taking pictures of my food and writing about it almost every week. My freshman year hobby turned into a personal brand and now I cannot imagine my life without Gourmet Gab. It is amazing to go back and read old posts, to look at pictures and watch videos made in our dorm building’s kitchen.

The blogging world is crazy — there are so many blogs out there! There are so many people who are dedicating hours to creating amazing content for their readers. There are millions of recipes, millions of viewpoints and endless hours of video to watch. To be honest, every once in a while I wonder if I should stop. Do I need to share all these pictures of food and drinks? Are my recipes actually different than what’s being offered? Are people really even reading the blog?

The reason I keep coming back is because of how much joy I find in the kitchen and how happy it makes me to hear others are discovering this same joy. When people tell me they read the latest post, watched a video and learned something new about food I literally get giddy. When you reply to a Snapchat story, message me about your dinner success, email me about your dreams of interning at the Food Network, too, or tell me you bought a new ingredient at the grocery store to give it a try I feel so genuinely happy.

Six years ago I don’t think everyone took pictures of their food. Today, things are a little different. Whether you’re Snapping or ‘Gramming your food, there’s a good chance you’ve taken a picture of something delicious. This trend may be phasing out soon, but I hope you keep discovering and capturing the beauty of your food in everyday life. For me, capturing the food that I make and sharing it with you is engrained in my everyday life. Whether you learned a new recipe or simply just read about something new, I hope Gourmet Gab has played a tiny part in your food journey.

Thank you for reading and following Gourmet Gab. Let’s cheers to another six years (and more)! For your entertainment, here is my first ever video blog, my first cooking segment in our dorm kitchen and an interview I did sophomore year of college talking about starting the blog.

Love food. Love self. Love life.
Gabriela