Emily's interview

Interview by Lydia

We interviewed Emily!

Visit the blog: Goutaste.

See profile page and recipes

Hello Emily, so tell us...

When did you begin your blog, and what inspired you to start it?

I started conceptualizing Goutaste about a year ago, but finally hit the web this April! I studied French and lived in Paris for a while so I was really looking for a way to connect with other foodies and Francophiles in my new city, Denver. I found that it was actually quite easy to live a more French lifestyle in Denver and created Goutaste when my friends got tired of hearing me talk about it time and time again.

Now I share my experiences with the web and get to interact with great "franco-foodies" all over the country and the world!

How many hours per week do you spend on your blog?

Because my blog launched just this year and I have a TON of content on the books, I probably spend 20-30 hours a week writing, editing, posting, and engaging with the community. When I first launched Goutaste, I was publishing 3 - 5 blog posts a week to build up a good content base. Now I publish about 1 - 2 posts a week (my subscribers are probably happier that way! ha!) but I still try to write about 3 - 4 posts to make sure I've got a good library to pull from.

Are you involved in the blogging community - how do you attract new readers?

I suppose so! I follow many great blogs and love to interact with their authors. In turn, I think they interact with my content, too. It's really a great community and often inspires me to write new posts. For example, my posts are more eating-oriented than recipe-driven, but I've started to try some recipes from other bloggers I follow and am thinking about posting about that soon!

What is your earliest food memory?

Oooh that's a tough one. I was probably about 3 years old and picking tomatoes from my grandmother's garden. I took a big bite out of one (like an apple) and as the juices dripped down my chin, I looked up at my grandmother and said, "I like tomatoes, do you like tomatoes?" It was probably the first full sentence I'd ever uttered to another person, but to me it really epitomizes the best part about food: sharing it.

Which of your recipes would you suggest to readers for a perfect meal?

Well my blog post is a bit more eating-driven than recipe driven, so I can't say I've got a knockout recipe for an entire meal on my blog.

What I do mostly is offer simple tips on how to enhance a meal, prepare something simply, or French-ify a dish. With that in mind, one of my favorite "recipes" is this simple French vinaigrette -- which is really a neat trick I learned while living in Paris. I love it because it's fast, easy, and works as a marinade or dressing - so you can really customize it and add it to a variety of foods.

You can find that recipe here: http://goutaste.com/how-to-make-french-vinaigrette/

If you could be a contestant or guest on any cooking show what show would you choose?

Can I go back in time and learn from Julia Child?

She's really been a great inspiration to me as an American trying to master the art of French eating, cooking, and lifestyle. Plus, she seemed to have the greatest sense of humor!

Is there any dish, ingredient or type of food you refuse to cook?

I will try anything once... or maybe twice... though I'll admit you probably don't want to eat my asian cooking. I've just never really mastered that genre. Where is the cheese!?

Who are your culinary idols?

Julia Child, Jacques Pepin, Christelle Brua (France's 2009 pastry chef of the year - a first for a woman!)

What are your goals for your blog? Where would you like to see it in the next year? Five years?

I definitely want to add some more recipe-driven posts while maintaining the integrity of the blog -- that is, I don't want to ignore my readers who like eating more than they like cooking!

Hopefully I continue to grow my readership, get more feedback, and tailor the content to what my readers want to read. I'm really hoping to spark that conversation with the foodie community about the genre of cuisine I adore most: French!

Anything else you would like to share?

Thank you for having me!

Thank you Emily for answering our questions and see you soon!
Published by Lydia - 07/13/2013

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