Chaitali Chougule is a Vegetarian food blogger from Pune. She creates great content on food, hotel guide and reviews related. We had a great time while Interview with Chaitali Chougule.
Amar Ajnalkar: Tell our readers about yourself?
Chaitali Chougule: Hello, I am Chaitali, a vegetarian food blogger from Pune. A graduate in Product design, I am currently working as a User Experience Designer with an MNC in Pune.
Amar Ajnalkar: How did you come up with the name for your Instagram account?
Chaitali Chougule: As a vegetarian, I have often been teased by my friends that “all you eat is Paneer and Ghas-Phus”. This inspired me to showcase and promote vegetarian food as glamorous and delicious. So during a brainstorming session with my friend from college, we came up with the name – “eat.veg.repeat”
Amar Ajnalkar: What is the best thing about being an influencer?
Chaitali Chougule: I get the freedom to show my creativity through my feed. It can be through a good photograph to a recipe video. Being an influencer, it has connected me with other influencers and food lovers. There is no greater joy than meeting people with a similar passion for food. One of the best experiences was when I visited Bhimthadi Jatra in Pune. A granny was preparing ‘Manda’(traditional Maharashtrian dish). She was so excited to see me click her photos, she posed in many angles and even asked me to put it on the internet (she didn’t know the concept of Instagram, but she knew that Internet could display her talent and make her famous) I still cherish that memory where she felt empowered with a single photo.
Amar Ajnalkar: How many hours a day do you work and hows your daily schedule?
Chaitali Chougule: Being a full time working professional, I work for 9-10 hours a day and used to spend 1-2 hours travelling. But the lockdown and work-from-home have been a blessing in disguise because I can utilize the travel time in cooking and as a part-time blogger in content creation and blogging.
Amar Ajnalkar: Is the influencer profession affected your family life? if yes then how?
Chaitali Chougule: Oh yes, in a very positive way! My parents are very supportive and more excited about the food page(maybe, even more than me :D). My mom has even started using Youtube and she shares links of different recipes in our WhatsApp family group. Most of the videos on my page are shot by my dad. Cooking is a brilliant stress buster. During these uncertain COVID times, this page has helped our family to be occupied with different dishes and new recipes.
Amar Ajnalkar: What motivates you in life?
Chaitali Chougule: Exploring and learning something new keeps me motivated. Even in food blogging, every single day I discover something new, like a new way of presenting food, techniques of photography and different styles of shooting videos. I take these as an inspiration to keep creating content.
Amar Ajnalkar: What are your favourite books or movies related to your niche?
Chaitali Chougule: ’The Lunchbox’, ’Stanley ka dabba’ and ‘Ratatouille’ are some of my favourite movies!
Amar Ajnalkar: What surprising lessons have you learned while influencing?
Chaitali Chougule: When I had just started food blogging, I received advice from an experienced blogger that the magic trick to be a good blogger is- Content, learn and grow with every post. If you truly love your content, the viewers will love it too.
Amar Ajnalkar: Top 3 skills required to become a successful influencer.
Chaitali Chougule: Being honest with your viewers and sharing true experiences. (Creating perfect Modaks after three failed attempts, is something I would tell my viewers)
Creating engaging content.
Connecting with fellow bloggers and growing together.
Amar Ajnalkar: Hows your experience with Amar Ajnalkar?
Chaitali Chougule: I would like to thank Amar for giving me this opportunity to share my food journey with everyone. It has been a wonderful experience!
Amar Ajnalkar: Two lines for our reader.
Chaitali Chougule: Truly love what you do. Also, eat-veg-repeat!
