Photo app fast-track to food success
Two years ago, Adelaide university student Phoebe Conway started posting photos of her food on Instagram. She now has more than 100,000 followers, numerous requests for product endorsements and a recipe book on the way.
Phoebe Conway's Quinoa Bubbles. Photo: Phoebe Conway
Conway’s brand, Pheeb’s Foods, has even caught the eye of activewear designer and healthy lifestyle advocate Lorna Jane Clarkson, whose team published an interview with Conway last year on its Move.Nourish.Believe website. She has also contributed recipes to the Lorna Jane e-book Sweet Like Chocolate.
Drake Supermarkets has used Conway’s recipes to develop a range of juice packs, and this month in Adelaide she was asked to speak and design a recipe for a national product launch.
As an unassuming 23-year-old student, Conway has achieved an enormous amount of recognition and success in a short time for her vibrant, self-styled images of the raw and vegan dishes and the recipes she creates.
“My Instagram followers have grown so quickly because my photos are a little bit different,” she says.
“After I left school I did an advanced diploma of photography at TAFE, so I take all my photos with an SLR camera and edit them before loading to Instagram.”
On completing her diploma, she wanted to become a fashion photographer and began photographing weddings.
“At that time I started an Instagram account and started posting pictures of food, which led to an interest in changing my diet.
“I have always loved food and learnt to cook by cooking every day. When you are making healthy and raw food, you are using ingredients that aren’t commonly used and you have to experiment.
“I am now also in my final year of Health Sciences with a Nutrition major.”
Conway says that when she creates a new recipe and posts a photo, her followers are directed to her Pheeb’s Foods blog to find the recipe.
“I get also get loads of brands who want to advertise their products, which I then try out.
“I’ll use their product in a smoothie or a breakfast and if I like it I’ll tag them and mention them in my Instagram page so they get additional followers through me.
“I try to be picky about which products I include; too many sponsored posts isn’t good for authenticity.”
In a few weeks she will have compiled a selection of her recipes to include in an e-book that will be available from her blog.
“The book will feature more than 50 of my raw, vegan and vegetarian breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and dessert recipes,” says Conway.
“It will also include information on shopping – what to buy, where to shop and growing your own.”
Here Conway gives us a taste of her new book by sharing her breakfast recipe for Quinoa Bubbles (pictured top).
“Vegan and raw food is really in fashion at the moment. It can potentially be higher in calories than some foods, but it’s a whole lot healthier.”
Phoebe Conway.
Quinoa Bubbles
Ingredients
3 cups puffed quinoa
¼ cup maple syrup
¼ cup coconut oil
1/3 cup cacao powder
Pinch salt
½ tsp vanilla
1 tsp instant coffee (optional)
Method
Pre-heat oven to 160°C and line a baking tray with baking paper.
Place maple, coconut oil, cacao, vanilla, coffee and salt in a small saucepan and melt over a low heat.
Place puffed quinoa in a large bowl and pour over melted coconut oil mixture.
Stir to cover all grains of quinoa well.
Pour into baking tray and bake for 10 minutes, stir and then bake another 10, watching to ensure it doesn’t burn.
Store in an airtight container.
