On A Delicious Gourmet Journey – Riddhi and Shiva

Riddhi Khosla and Shiva Nangia are food bloggers known for their Instagram page ‘thefizzlinggourmets.’ The pair met in college and shared a mutual love for food. They would hang out and take pictures of the food they were eating. It wasn’t done with the purpose of blogging, but to share on their social media as a hobby. They had a few friends who pushed them to start a blog or an Instagram page to post their pictures. They started their professional page in 2018.

One of the biggest challenges they faced was the limited budget they had as students. They still managed to create content by visiting cafes nearby. Within a month, their page had acquired 1000 followers. They reached the 10k follower milestone only 9 months after they started. This motivated them to push harder. They currently have 41k followers. However, they aren’t considering making this a full-time profession. They are both pursuing an MBA and can only dedicate a limited amount of time to their page.

The paid collabs helped them earn money, which helped them as they were dependent on their parents. Their first collaboration was with Cinepolis. For paid collabs, they have worked with Zomato, PizzaHut, ZeeTV, etc. When they started the page, it was to share their pictures with friends and acquaintances. After hitting the 10k mark, they took the venture more seriously and wanted to post more engaging content for their followers.

Their parents were quite supportive when they started. However, they were more concerned when they started ordering and consuming large amounts of food for generating content. Once they started to understand the idea of growing the page, they were supportive, as long as Riddhi and Shiva focused on studies.

One major challenge they faced concerning their page was the demotivating comments regarding their love for street food. Many people found it unhealthy and unhygienic, but Riddhi and Shiva were students with very limited amounts of money, which was their most affordable option. Once they understood that they couldn’t please everyone, they focused on content. They were happy creating. Several food bloggers like Jyoti Dhingra have inspired them. They have several followers who like sending them recommendations. Followers from different regions would request them to put up pictures of their regional dishes, and the bloggers would try their best to oblige. Riddhi and Shiva love posting content that their followers love. The maximum number of views they received on a video was 4,10,000, and the maximum number of likes they received on a post was 21,000+ likes.The lockdown has affected people in every field, and food bloggers have also experienced problems since they could not step out and visit restaurants and take pictures. At the start of the lockdown, they still had pictures from past trips that they posted to keep their followers engaged. However, soon they started to cook at home and posted pictures of that. Riddhi and Shiva have been able to grow their page so well, while many cannot because they believe in consistency. They always follow whatever trend is going on, and they post at least once a day. They use several formats like IGTV, Reels, etc. Being innovative and creative also attracts people. Their message for people is to be original and take inspiration from others but never to plagiarize.