NOW more than ever chefs and restaurant workers need our support. With the seemingly endless weeks of lockdown and now strict social distancing guidelines taking a bite out of profits, the service industries are having to work harder than ever to keep afloat.

It’s no wonder that chefs are increasingly enhancing the power of Instagram to showcase their mouthwatering masterpieces.

Harry Lumsden, head chef at the historic Royal Hotel in Southend and all-round food master, is one of them. Harry has a popular Instagram site (chefharrylumsdon) where he shares his culinary creations. Harry believes social media has a big part to play in bringing people from all sides of the food industry together- from foodies to suppliers themselves

He said: “I believe my greatest love of food on Instagram from a professional point of view is how it attracts small independent local suppliers to get involved with your food. It helps create supplier relationships that grow and flourish to help both parties.”

Echo:

Top notch - Chris Laurie began as a junior at The Grove in Leigh

Harry knew from a young age that he was going to become a chef. It was while working as a young kitchen helper at the age of 15 that he found his calling to the church of all thing culinary. And that was that.

He explained: "My eldest brother was a chef and they needed a kitchen porter one weekend. On my first day I saw a chef confit chicken legs, braise ham hocks and butcher pigeons. My mind was made up that day that I wanted to be a chef and I’ve not looked back since."

Harry has achieved a remarkable amount career-wise for someone who is still aged only 24. He won the prestigious ‘Young Great British MasterChef of the Year’ award in 2016, has worked in several prestigious restaurants. One thing to remember, he stresses, is that the food itself is more interesting than the photo – in other words it should never be a case of style over substance.

“I think people can get caught up a bit with the whole instafood craze as you have to remember food is predominantly about flavour and that can’t always be captured through a lens ( look at many French peasant classics). I feel that fine dining food was the way to go a few years back but now street food ’dirty’ food is taking the limelight and most recently and something very close to my heart the sourdough FAD that has occurred,” he said.

“My sourdough bread and recipes attracted a lot of attention from professionals and amateurs which is a great thing to see the whole world coming together for two ingredients flour and water what more can a chef ask for?

" I believe Instagram is becoming part of most chefs daily prep list as it is so prolific in driving up a new customer base... for me though chefs need to remember substance over style when it comes to food do not sacrifice flavour for a picture!”

Fellow chef Chris Laurie began as a junior at The Grove in Leigh-On-Sea, working his way up to Senior Sous Chef. After that he worked in prestigious venues such as the Pip of Port and Royal Hotel, both in Southend..

During the Coronavirus pandemic, Chris was furloughed due to restaurant closures. This turned out to be a turning point in his career, realising that he could create restaurant quality dishes for friends and family, all from his own kitchen. He has now made the decision to leave restaurant life, and focus on expanding this idea, offering bespoke dinners and tasting menus for people to eat in their own home.

Chris also believes Instagram has changed the way we see and experience food forever.

“Putting pictures of food on menus has always been considered old fashioned, but social media has wiped the slate clean as far as this is concerned. It allows customers to see the food before they have even made their choice of dish,” he said. “It is almost irrelevant the text that you put on the image, as the picture of the food seems to do all the talking you need.

“ As far as the route I am taking, people tend to have preconceived ideas about how food looks when you get it delivered to your door, so it is really important for me to show that it can look as impressive as a restaurant without being compromised because it is eaten at home.

Vegan and vegetarian meals have been the most well received on my personal Instagram. On a menu, these dishes can sometimes appear uninteresting and be difficult to picture what the finished dish will be like, a photo on Instagram therefore rectifies this.”

Instagram- essexcookingman