Instagram Influencer Spotlight On: Drew Josef @Mr_kareo

1) Tell us a little about yourself. What are you doing now and where do you come from?

Currently a personal chef and designer living in Montreal. I grew up in Toronto and was a man of many lives before becoming a chef. During high school I was a fairly well rebound graffiti artist and graphic designer, before later turning to music production DJing and going to university for architectural design. At some point during this process I wound up working at some of the best restaurants in the city and made the conscious decision to pursue the culinary arts and take it more seriously.

2) What are your topics of interest? What do you post on Instagram the most?

I still love graffiti culture, art and architecture but I find I’m mostly on Instagram to share new dishes and creations that I’ve come up with. I love to see people taking an interest in creative expression and spreading the love.

3) How did your Instagram name come about?

My Instagram name (Mr_Kareo) came from my old DJ and production name before I started really taking cooking seriously. Then everyone who knew me through Instagram just started calling me Kareo (and my page started blowing up) so I ran with it.

4) What are some apps you use to edit your photos? Share with us your photo-editing routine!

I love Enlight. It’s a great photo editing software that’s simple enough to do on-phone editing jobs. I used to export them to photoshop because I found it the most comfortable, but doing it all in one device is a godsend when you’re busy and on the go. As for routines, I always just crop it down, draw the image to a focal point and make sure the lighting is proper. Other than that, standard artistic principles apply.

5) Any Instagrammers whom you really like? Which Instagrammer inspires you the most?

@royalebrat is a big inspiration to me. Not sure how long it takes him to plate the dishes he posts but they are simply gorgeous from an artistic standpoint. Besides that, I always loved @chefjaqueslamerde for an element of comedic relief and @chefdannysmiles for being a genuine cool ass dude when I arrived to mtl and didn’t know anyone. I should also shout out @tuckshopmtl for employing me over the last few months.. haha and if you want a great meme based follow @nochill makes me laugh on the daily.

6) If there’s one thing your fellow Instagrammers just gotta try now, what’s it gonna be?

Next time you go out for dinner and you get a really beautiful, delicious dish, ask your server if you can pop in to the kitchen quickly and thank the chef for all of his effort and time and energy he put in to making sure you had a great experience. I’ve worked in the industry for 8 years now and I will say it’s often times very thankless work for how much of your heart and soul you put in to it. Too many of these modern day ‘food bloggers’ are quick to go into a restaurant and take photos for their own gains without realizing that’s someone’s life abd livelyhood, often times their home and heart represented on a plate, too few pay that the respect it deserves in my opinion.

7) What’s your favorite part about being an influencer?

I love putting people on to new ingredients and dishes, new styles and trends. Creative expression is important and if I can help people break out of their traditional comfort zones a bit and try something new, or realize they can do it for themselves when it may have otherwise seemed daunting and intimidating, I’m happy.

8) What are some of your top tips to brands for running campaigns? How do you maintain authenticity?

Illd say give more leeway for creatives to create. Give the artists and chefs and alike your brand as a tool to enhance what they’re already doing rather than making them conform to some sort of standard. Nothing I hate more than a talented individual posting meiodcre s#!t that compromises their style just for the pay check. In an ideal scenario it’s a collaboration more than a straight up sponsorship, like the way a lot of modern sneaker companies have started working with musicians an artists for example.

9) What would your advice be on the importance of quality and original content?

Quality is key, wayyyy too many people are quick to post crappy content these days. Or over saturate feeds because they feel like posting 15 Instagram photos back to back. Nobody wants to see 15 photos of your sneakers no matter how nice they are…. sometimes (actually a lot of the time) less is more, while I’m sure that your audience and fans want to see what you’re up to, there is such a thing as overkill.

10) What do you like best about partnering with brands?

Like I mentioned, Collaboration is key. I would never associate myself with a brand without it being a mutual collaborative effort. If their image fits what I’m doing, and vise-versa than all the better. I’m happy to put my name behind something that I genuinely support any day and I’m always down for a brand or company challenging me to break out of my proverbial box a little bit.

Topics:

• Architecture
• Art
• Cooking

Country:

Canada