By Ernabel Demillo

Host Asian American Life

Are you one of those people who likes to post photos of your food on Instagram? Well, you are not alone. The top Instagram hashtag in 2016 was #food with 182 million posts. That’s a lot of pizza, cascading noodles, melting ice cream and dumplings.

While most of us post food snaps for fun, there are a select few who have turned their food photos into a lifestyle and career. It’s also a space where you’ll find plenty of successful Asian American bloggers. Some of the most popular food instagrammers with thousands of followers include Mike Chau, the dad behind @foodbabny, Ben Hon of @StuffBenEats and Christine Yi of @CY_Eats.

In fact, Yi has been dubbed “elite foodstragrammer” by the website Thrillist. That means you have more than 100K followers. At last count, Yi has 172K and counting.

“I have about 2 million impressions a week and I reach about 750,000 unique accounts every day,” she said.

Not bad for a Johns Hopkins graduate who decided to leave her job in finance.

“I quit my job, I also got a divorce. And my girlfriend was said, ‘what are you going to do?” Yi replied, “I just want to be happy, eat well. She said, ‘You should Instagram!”

Little did Yi know that was the moment that would change the trajectory of her life. She is now a full-time Instagrammer who travels the world eating and posting food photos and videos. She lives in New York full-time, but last month she could count on one hand how many days she spent at home.

Yi and Hon, both said restaurants do not pay them to post food photos. Most food Instagrammers get paid by advertisements on their profiles. And they have a lot of influence.

Restaurants – new and old – are now bypassing traditional marketing and enticing influencers like Yi and Hon to come in for a meal. That’s because their photos can be worth an instant thousand likes and one photo can draw in hundreds of new customers. Both say their in-boxes are full of invitations to restaurant openings and events. But not every meal makes the cut, according to Hon.

“I never post anything I don’t like and there have been situations where I haven’t posted from a restaurant but I will tell the manager or the owner why I didn’t like the dishes and I think that’s important and I think the restaurants do appreciate that the constructive criticism, so that they can improve,” Hon said.

For more on Ben Hon and Christine Yi and what it takes to be a food instagrammer, watch our segment:

Watch our entire July show, featuring rising jazz artist Grace Kelly; how poke, the traditional Hawaiian dish has taken over the mainland; and the history behind Indian Americans owning motels across the country. The reason may surprise you!

Asian American Life, a 5-time Emmy nominated magazine show is produced by CUNY-TV in New York. AAL premieres monthly on CUNY-TV, Channel 75 and 25.3 in New York and can now be seen in syndication at PBS stations across the country. Check your local listing for details.

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