Creative of the Week: Kaluhi Adagala

Kaluhi Adagala (@kaluhiskitchen) is a 25 year old girl who is a relentless chaser of positivity and laughter, resolute pursuer of her dreams and lover of all things delicious. She is the owner, author and photographer of celebrated Kenyan food blog Kaluhi’s Kitchen (www.kaluhiskitchen.com). She tells stories through her food and hopes to make your meal preparation less burdensome and your eating experience a full blown dance of the senses.

1. Did you always know you wanted to be a food blogger?

Never in a million years did I ever imagine food blogging would be my bread and butter. I studied BCom, Finance Major, in University. I loved school! I enjoyed my studies so much especially seeing how much of what we learned was visible in the real world. After graduation in 2014, I started my blog simply as a way of keeping busy as I waited to get employed. I also found sharing of recipes fun but I thought that three months later I would lose interest and move on. I eventually got employed and still kept food blogging as a hobby since I enjoyed it all the while juggling my 9 to 5. As time went on, I found more fulfilment in my food blogging as opposed to the routine of my then job. After seeing how fast my brand was growing, I decided to leave employment and take on food blogging full time. It was an enormous risk, but I believe success never follows the timid. It is a risk I do not regret taking and one that has fully paid off. I have had many milestones since, but my key milestones have been winning Best Kenyan food blog 2016 at the BAKE awards and being recognized by CNN International as one of the top African Food blogs.

2. What is your creative process like?

It always starts with inspiration, like most creatives. Inspiration may come from different sources; it could be the smell of a certain spice, or the crunch of a certain ingredient, color/texture of a fruit and often, nostalgic memories of conversations with my family and loved ones during mealtimes. From that, I then write down what I would like to create based on the specific thing that has been triggered by the inspiration. This may result into 2 or 3 different recipe posts, so I spread them out in my content calendar. I then look at each individual recipe and conceptualize exactly how I am going to prepare it, and which creative and unique twist I will add to it. I then go ahead and create the recipe. I often land on the perfect ingredient mix on the first try, but when I don’t, I make necessary adjustments and try again. After the recipe is perfected and photography done, I then go into image processing, publishing and finally sharing of the recipe. On those days I make more than one recipe, I schedule them for a future date and often have posts ready one month in advance.

3. Who are your favourite food bloggers and why?

My favourite international food bloggers are Sally McKenney of sallysbakingaddiction.com and Angela Davis of thekitchenistadiaries.com. Their work has such exceptional quality and their recipes are so unique and speak to who they are as individuals. Just like me, they do not have culinary training, yet have managed to build colossal food brands and they too gave up their careers in finance and accounting respectively, to focus of what sets their hearts on fire.

Locally, we have very many food blogs many of which I love (and stalk a lot too). My favourite ones are Kathy’s Kitchen by Karen Lucas, Leo Tunapika? by Jesca Gatwiri, Pendo La Mama by Aika-Grace Wangwe, African Kaya by Wangeci Wandere, Sheena’s Kitchen by Sheena Amario, Jay Take A Pic by Jayson Mbogo, Foods n Foodies by Mohammed Abdulrahman and Crazy Delicious by Sheila Rabala. These blogs are run by extremely talented and gifted Kenyans who I admire and hope fellow Kenyans are learning plenty from them as well.

4. What are your thoughts on blogging in Kenya especially food blogging, what challenges have you faced as a blogger and how do you think we can improve on the craft?

Our society, for some reason I am yet to understand, only accepts four careers as the go to choice for everyone (Doctor, Lawyer, Pilot, Engineer). And if you do not want those four, settle for anything in a mathematical or scientific field. Any artistic career or creative career such as blogging, is thought of as inferior. When I tell people I left Finance for food blogging, they get so shocked almost as though that was the biggest sacrilege anyone could ever commit! At the moment, blogging in Kenya is still young and is not considered a ‘proper’ career, but that is slowly changing. Food blogging in Kenya has been there for quite some time, but has only caught on recently and is becoming a source of income for quite a number individuals. The main challenge I have faced, especially in my earlier years was not knowing my worth. With the help of fellow Kenyan food bloggers, I learnt how to confidently stand up for what I deserve, assert myself and not allowing any brand to exploit me for their benefit.

We can improve on the craft by improving our standard. Even if you are blogging about Kenyan food, and to a dominantly Kenyan audience, we need to understand once your work is on the internet, you are broadcasting to the entire world. Standards must be global, and we need to show off what our country has to offer in the best light. I usually ask myself ,“If Jamie Oliver stumbled on my site, will he love what he sees?” “If Food Network bosses read my blog, will it intrigue them to want to learn more about what Kenyan food has to offer?” “If Siba Mtongana read my blog, will she give it a thumbs up?” Only by reaching for the highest standard will we grow the industry and leave our mark in the international market.

And by the way, when Siba Mtongana was in Nairobi in August 2016, she told me she reads my blog and loves my content! I almost fainted when she said that! That was very validating and made me very very happy!

5. You have an ebook, ‘In My Kitchen’ out. What was the process of putting that together and how has it been received?

I published my ebook in May of 2016 and all I can say is that it was it was a labour of love. I began working on it in January of the same year. Making new recipes for the book while churning out different ones for the blog was very intense. I wanted my ebook to have a clean, professional look and feel, hence I used Adobe InDesign as opposed to an ordinary Word document. Than meant I had to learn how to use InDesign. Like most Adobe products, learning them at first is usually an uphill task but once you know their ins and outs, it gets easier. I gave myself a month to compile everything, verify all measurements, get my cover, get my ISBN code and everything in between. I finished within my deadline (April) and it has since been received well! I however, have to point out the consumption is much wider with my international audience than with Kenyans. I attribute that to people outside the country having more curiosity to learning more about what Kenya’s food is about. The support from my international audience has been positively overwhelming.

6. You’ve been jetting around the world over the past year and endorsed various brands. What has the experience been like and what have you learned?

2016 had been a year of abundance for me. I was first in Lamu for the annual Lamu Food Festival that happens every April. Several Kenyan food bloggers including myself had the chance to experience Swahili cuisine as prepared by the people of Lamu and appreciate the cultural and historical ties to it. In October I was flown over to The United Kingdom, Liverpool by the Diageo Group, more specifically Guinness brand. In Liverpool, they shot a promo for the brand which Carol Radull was heavily involved in and I got to watch my first live match (Liverpool vs Manchester United). Guinness also rewarded some of their fans with the same experience late last year. We then went to Dublin, Ireland where we visited the Guinness Store house. We learnt the ins and outs of how beer is made, how different ingredients result in a different result and various recipes that can be made with Guinness beer. That opened up my mind to so much and made me become a lot more experimental in the kitchen with beer as a core ingredient.

And my favourite trip of 2016 was with Google Africa, where top influencers from Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa were flown over to Johannesburg to experience the culture and history tied to the city all the while informing our audience about Google product features that are available, but not fully exploited.

I learnt that travel opens up your mind to so much, sharpens and refines your craft. By seeing the amazing things other people are doing, you get challenged and motivated to improve on your own. Also, opportunities to grow you will always come to you once you decide to continually improve on your craft and add value to society.

7. What advice would you give an aspiring food blogger that you wish you had gotten when you were starting out?

To any aspiring food blogger, it takes time before you can live off food blogging as a source of income. I kinda always knew it would some take time before I started making a decent amount of money from it, but in my mind, I thought I was special (LOL) and it would take a shorter amount of time. It takes time to build a solid brand. No exceptions! No shortcuts! It takes time to perfect your craft. It takes time to learn new skills e.g photography if you are not planning on hiring a photographer. It takes time. Trust the process. Do not rush the process.

My next point is not a lesson I wish I knew but rather a general misconception that is widely believed that skews the thoughts of those who want to start blogging: the belief that blogging is easy and is an easy way to make money. First of all, never get into something because of money. Money is a good thing and we all want plenty of it, but let it be a result of your exceptional work and not the reason for getting into something. Just like everything in life, blogging takes hard work. You get out of it what you put in it. Anyone can start a blog, but very few can sustain it past 6 months. You need dedication, drive and the urge to constantly push yourself beyond previous best.

8. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Let me leave that unanswered and let the plans roll out as we go along. *suspense* I am absolutely terrified of how big the things I want to achieve are, but I also know if God put that dream in my heart, He will bring it to pass. It shall be well!

9. If you could travel and cook in any location in the world based on the food culture, where  would that be and why?

Morocco! It is one of my dream culinary destinations. Their food has such layered processes which in turn results in mind blowing food. They also have a deep appreciation for spices, both in their whole and crushed form which is something that greatly appeals to me.

Check out Kaluhi’s profile and work here:

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/kaluhiskitchen/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kaluhiskitchen/

Website: https://www.kaluhiskitchen.com

You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/kaluhiskitchen