What inspires you to create your content and recipe ideas? And which dish do you simply not dare to try? The answers to these questions (and many more) are available once a month in the Stories+ Snack, the Kitchen Stories business questionnaire.
Instagram and YouTube:
Surprise, surprise, I find applications like Instagram and Youtube great tools for not only passively consuming (or creating) content, but also finding inspiration. On both platforms I try to follow a wide variety of accounts, from content creators to cookbook authors, more traditional food publications to small creative agencies. This way, I can keep on top of what's happening in our industry while being exposed to new or upcoming trends, whether in the food industry, video production, or even art and design.
Internal search dashboards:
Thanks to our business intelligence team, we're able to look into our own data to help inform what content we publish and when. We can get a quick look at the most popular searches during any given month and we can search specific terms to see how their popularity shifts over time. These are really helpful tools when it comes to selecting from the wide range of pitches our team submits for recipes and stories.
The Kitchen Stories library:
I'm a book lover, and between the well-stocked shelves of our office library and my own selection of cookbooks, there's an endless variety of recipes, stories, and inspiration to draw from. I find flicking through a few books will almost always spark a fresh idea, whereas turning to the Internet can be a bit overwhelming and/or repetitive, so I'm a big fan of stockpiling cookbooks, food magazines, and the like.
I've been with Kitchen Stories for nearly 4 years now, and it's always been the goal of the editorial team to plan and publish our content around monthly issue themes, something that we're grateful to have been able to make happen this year! This structure allows our team to focus on key thematic stories and recipes within each month that, when viewed as a whole, offer a well-rounded, holistic experience for our users. Whether the topic at hand is breakfast, pizza, or something more abstract like “inspiration,” our main goal at the end of the day is to encourage everyday cooking — so our content always aims to teach something new, provide helpful tips, and of course, share great, foolproof recipes.
This is a tough one! Short-term trends are fun and something we always try to make some room for, but of course more classic “trends” (I'm thinking of seasonal spikes for things like asparagus and strawberries) are classics for a reason. I wouldn't say I have a favorite, I think it's important to strike a balance and offer various types of content — so trends, yes, but also new twists on classic recipes that our users might be asking us for, as well as dishes our chefs and editors are excited about and want to share.
In My Opinion, one of the most interesting things about Kitchen Stories that certainly gives us an edge in our main market (DACH) is our international team and point of view. Our Editors and Chefs come from a variety of backgrounds, and this certainly makes our content stand out amongst our competitors.
I'm pretty comfortable and outgoing in the kitchen, so there aren't many recipes that would scare me off, but I have yet to try my hand with Homad croissants. I'm a confident baker, so I know I should just go for it, but for some reason I just keep putting it off!
Thank you so much for the interview.
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