Blogger Spotlight: Andrea Soranidis, The Petite Cook

Originally from Italy, Andrea Soranidis is a twenty-something foodie and world traveller based in London. A former marketing manager, Andrea swapped SEO, analytics, marketing strategies and PR work for food processors, oven gloves and cookbooks. Using her own camera, Andrea captures her food adventures in beautiful photographs that are proudly displayed on The Petite Cook. In this spotlight, Andrea chats to us about the importance of promoting a wholesome lifestyle, why she loves working with PRs on tailored projects and why she’ll be focusing on her vlogging career this year.

If you could describe your blog in three words what would it be? Food. Travel. Inspiration.

How did you get into blogging about food? I started The Petite Cook in 2014. Before that, I used to be the marketing manager of a recipe app, where I had fun contributing with my own wholesome recipes whenever I had time. When the app project was closed I wanted to create my own personal space where I could store all my recipes- and share them with the world, and that’s when The Petite Cook was born.

What are the biggest challenges and greatest rewards of being a food blogger? I take my job/passion as a food blogger with great responsibility, so one of my biggest challenges is making sure that I promote a wholesome lifestyle, suggesting organic produce as much as possible and easy made-from-scratch alternatives to processed food. Also, I want to make sure recipes are achievable and easy to recreate, but not boring. The biggest reward is definitely when someone tells me they made a recipe from the blog and they loved it!

What’s your favourite recipe? Grilled Shriracha King Prawns with Mango Salsa. I love the ingredients combo of this dish, it’s refreshing, crunchy, a bit sweet with a nice spicy kick. Plus it’s very elegant and super easy to make (If you want to give it a try the recipe is of course on the blog!)

Name one ingredient that you can’t live without? Sweet Potatoes! They’re super healthy, versatile and fulfilling. The best part? You can make all sorts of savoury and sweet recipes.

Where do you draw your cooking inspiration from? I often recreate recipes from my home country, Italy. But most of my cooking inspiration comes from my travels around the world.

Who would you consider a culinary icon? Heston Blumenthal and Massimo Bottura. Both really respect their ingredients and culinary culture, they have an infinite curiosity about food, and they ultimately managed to revolutionize the restaurant experience.

What do you think is going to be the next big thing in the food industry? We’re luckily becoming more conscious about our environment and the other living beings of our planet, so I think “lab-grown meat & chicken” is definitely going to be the next big thing, alongside a rise of a plant-based diet.

How do you like to work with PRs? And how can they improve their blogger outreach? I love establishing long-term relationships and work close with PRs on tailored projects. Most of the time they give me all possible freedom of expression, and this results in unique, interesting content that makes both sides (brand & audience) very happy. I’m often inundated with offers that don’t match with my blog at all, so I feel PRs should take a little more time to read my blog before reaching out, so they could write more personal and targeted collaboration requests.

What’s one piece of cooking advice you’d like to share with our readers? Get to know your ingredients and don’t stop trying new ones. Make sure to learn their nutritional information, history, usage and seasonality, they’re all really valuable info.

You’re a popular food blogger, but are there any food blogs that you follow? Of course! I’m a massive fan of Laura & Nora from ourfoodstories.com and David & Luise from greenkitchenstories.com.

What’s next in your career as a food blogger? I’m working more and more on video content, so my next step will definitely be vlogging my kitchen & travel adventures.