How Feedfeed Grew To Dominate The Instagram Food Scene

Welcome to The Tastemakers, a series in which we ask top culinary talents a few questions about the world of food and drink.

When Julie and Dan Resnick moved their three young children to Amagansett, Long Island, six years ago, they were simultaneously inspired and limited by their newfound commitment to local foods and seasonal ingredients. After cooking squash "probably 40 times" during the cold winter months, Julie turned to Instagram for fresh dinner inspiration. From there, their feedfeed community began to grow.

More than 600,000 Instagram followers later, their giant network of home cooks, chefs and bloggers provides an inexhaustible recipe resource for the Resnicks (and many other families) for any meal, like when their son insists on celebrating Taco Tuesday.

We chatted with Julie about the ingredients she loves, the Instagram accounts she follows and the family recipes she turns to again and again.

What made you realize you wanted to create feedfeed?

"I've always loved to cook, and I was constantly seeking inspiration when using local and seasonal ingredients to feed my family. I started looking for people on Instagram who had a similar cooking style and philosophy to my own, and saw all of the great ideas that were available to me. I kept thinking, This content is so valuable and inspirational—it would be really nice to have a repository that would allow people to search for what they want to make, see all these amazing posts of it from Instagram and get links to different recipes or ideas. And that's how feedfeed was born.

Now I work on feedfeed full time, and Dan is almost full time, along with a team who assist us and almost 90 community editors from all over the world who help us curate content."

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What are a few items that are always in your fridge?

"I always have fresh eggs from a farm down the street where my kids will go and pick them themselves. And I always have whatever vegetable or fruit is in season, so right now I have Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, carrots, squash and pumpkins. And then I actually have a ton of stuff in the freezer. I'm really into vacuum sealing, so during the summer, we froze big bags of Swiss chard and spinach and green beans, so we can pull them out as we need them during the cold months."

What are some of your favorite Instagram accounts?

"This is a tough one. There are so many amazing cooks out there who take beautiful photos of their delicious food who we follow on Instagram. I would have to say, aside from our volunteer community editors who help us curate our website, we do have some additional favorites:

@andreabemis is a farmer and blogger whose cooking style, philosophy and approach is very similar to mine: local, seasonal and mostly veggies and eggs with a bit of fish and meat. I really like the sauces, vinaigrettes and spreads she comes up with as well, like her sweet-and-spicy butternut harissa hummus with pomegranate molasses.

@iwillnoteatoysters, aka Danielle, is chef and owner of Moo Milk Bar in Toronto and author of the cookbook Modern Israeli Cooking. Her food is always creative, inspiring and thought provoking. I love her schnitzel sandwich with sumac slaw.

@gabepllrn is one of those cooks who is always making innovative and unique meals. She pairs ingredients and flavors in ways no one else would have thought of, but when you see it, you realize the genius, like this egg sandwich with fried avocado.

@meganleevoigt makes the best desserts on Instagram, and her photos are amazing! One of my favorites is her chocolate graham cracker and toasted marshmallow fluff s'mores cake."

Are there any dishes or ingredients you can't stand?

"No, I like everything! I can't think of one thing that I don't like to cook with, honestly."

What's the most exciting thing you've done in the last year?

"We took the kids to Nicaragua, which was really an adventure. We have friends there who have been really instrumental in helping to get their village electricity, so we got to attend a party for them in the village while we were there. It was a great, unique experience for us to have with the kids."

Do you have a favorite family recipe?

"I make these root vegetables in a Thai coconut curry, usually with cubed squash and Swiss chard, served over rice or soba noodles. The kids love it, because we actually serve it with banana slices—which I know is a little weird—but it's just a really comforting cold-night recipe."

What do you cook for yourself when you don't feel like cooking anything?

"A frittata or an omelet is usually my go-to, but, recently, my kids have been really into Taco Tuesday. My son calls it a holiday and asks every week if we're going to be celebrating it! It takes the guesswork out of deciding what to make for dinner at least one night a week."

Who would you consider to be your culinary influences?

"Yotam Ottolenghi, Dan Barber, Nigella Lawson and Mark Bittman."

What were some of the best meals you had in the past year?

"Actually, I made a recipe from Tasting Table that I really liked—the fish stew with aioli. In the summers, we participate in an event called Dock to Dish at this community-supported fishery, so we try to feature recipes that utilize fresh fish. We have a local white fish that I knew would be perfect with that TT recipe, especially with that sauce and some grilled garlic bread for dipping. It turned out really well.

There's also a restaurant that I love in the city called Almond Tribeca. Last Easter, we had this salt-baked leg of lamb with pickled mustard seed and Chinese broccoli by chef Jason Weiner that we loved. His commitment to local and seasonal food is as strong as mine."

What are you most excited about in the coming year?

"We have a bunch of trips planned in the early part of this year that we're really excited about. Until now, we've always kind of been that family with the crying kids on the plane, so we would only take maybe one trip a year. But on a recent trip, we realized that everyone could actually roll their own carry-on. We could walk onto a plane without having to carry a kid or a stroller! Now we're excited to plan more trips and show them more of the world."