Instagram Influencer Spotlight On: Laurence Bemelmans @Ascookedbyginger

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

Hi, I’m Laurence and I’m from Belgium. I’m married to the love of my life. I’m a social worker at a hospital where I work with patients who have cancer and patients with systemic diseases. A part from that, my biggest hobby is blogging. I’m a foodblogger passionate about healthy cooking and (not always so healthy) baking. I just love being in the kitchen experimenting with food and than being able to style the food and photograph it and last but not least, write about it.

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

In one word: Food. Cooking, baking, experimenting with new products, food styling, food photography, writing about food,… I love it all!

3) How did your Instagram name come about?

Well, as kids, my brother and I couldn’t stop watching ‘As told by Ginger’ on Nickelodeon. That, and Rocket Power, where our favorites. Many many years later, I told my brother I wanted to start blogging about food, but I was a bit scared to start, plus I didn’t have a name that sounded good yet. So he helped me with it. After an hour brainstorming ‘As cooked by Ginger’ came up (I’m a natural redhead you see) and we just thought it sounded perfect!

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

I love the VSCO app and I also use snapseed from time to time. I always use the instagram filter ‘Clarendon’. If that one disappears, I have a big problem 😀
I don’t use any photoshop programs. Maybe in the future, when I have some time to learn how to use the programs.

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

I really love Minimalist Baker, Erin Ireland and Miss Marzipan.
There’s not really one instagrammer that inspires me the most, it’s more the entire community of foodbloggers that inspires me. I love checking out everyone’s style and how everybode has it’s own thing going on. There’s some amazing food art and talent to be found on instagram.

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

One of my recipes of course 😀
No, just kidding, I really love the instastories. It gives the followers a more personal look inside your world of blogging (the cooking, going to events,…). Plus, it’s nice to see how people from all over the world live their lives.

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

Definitely the comments you get on the blog. If I get a private message from someone I don’t know saying that they made a recipe from my blog and loved it, my day has been made.

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

I think authenticity is vere important when you’re a blogger. You should work with brands that you feel comfortable with and that fit with what you want to represent. A tip for the brands. Please, don’t fill in the trap of bloggers that bought their followers and likes. They might seem influential, but they don’t have the reach you think they have.

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

Always stay true to yourself and what you want to represent. Quality over quantity. It’s more important to write good blog posts than to write a lot of them. When I just started blogging, I felt I needed to post a lot on the site, but the articles were not always as good as I wanted them to be. I quickly stopped posting daily and took my time to write good recipes and blogposts a was truly proud of.

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

Learning about new products and being able to experiment with them. Plus, getting to know new people, broadening your horizon and getting out of your comfort zone.

Topics:

• Cooking
• Food & Drink
• Photography

Country:

Belgium