#MediaMonday – Diana Brandt

Make a New Year’s resolution to stay away from sweet treats, fried everything, adult beverages and/or carbs?
Oops, after reading today’s Media Monday – a delicious one – you’re going to be hungry. Apologies in advance.
That’s because today’s spotlight is shining on Diana Brandt, better known in the media world as Arizona Foodie.
So, Diana, time to share!
What do you want to tell the blogosphere about yourself today?
People always ask me how I started Arizona Foodie. I must be honest; I never started Arizona Foodie with an idea to make it into a business. Arizona Foodie was started as an Instagram account because I love food and I love taking pictures of it! I had previously been doing food events for the World Pastry Forum and Competition and that’s what sparked my obsession of food and the people behind it. I wanted to work some local food events, too, so I helped for a season with the Arizona Taco Festival and Arizona BBQ Festival. After having my first child, I decided maybe mom and kid-centered events would be a good fit for me but I was wrong. After a year of hosting events for a local mom’s blog, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was in the wrong business and kept feeling drawn to food.
Not many people know this, but I had these grand ideas of starting a baking company. I use to bake for friends out of my house and I would get paid. During this, I was posting food pictures to my personal account but my friends would ‘jokingly’ complain about it. For that reason, I decided to create an Instagram account solely for my food pics and thus Arizona Foodie was born! I knew I wanted Arizona Foodie to be a community of food lovers. A space where I could share restaurants I was eating at and where people who loved food could share with me. From there a friend in PR mentioned that I should start a blog. I hesitated, as I don’t particularly enjoy writing but I figured, why not?!
With the blog came Facebook and all the other social media accounts.
It was exciting to see the pages grow and people become more engaged not only in the food scene but in where I was eating and what I was doing. I went with the flow and with no idea of where the blog or social media would take me. When doors opened, I went through them. I’ve met some of the best people in this industry and I’m happy to call them friends. I’ve also been able to understand food through the Chef’s perspective and to me, that’s been eye-opening. As a food eater, seeing their passion and knowing their hard work and sacrifices, I can’t even explain it with words, only that I have mad respect for these Chefs. I’ll never be a food critic; I will always be a food lover and one that wants to share what I eat with anyone that wants to listen. Arizona Foodie was built out of an idea to support the food scene, our local Chefs and in some small way, help it grow.
Through intimate popup dinners, Arizona Foodie experience dinners and the current projects that I’m working on, I hope to express my appreciation to all those people in the industry that shed blood, sweat and tears for their deep passion of food.
Have an idea or want to collaborate? Reach me at dianabrandt@outlook.com.