A London man who makes a living from taking pictures of his breakfast every morning has revealed how his hobby turned into a lucrative career.

Michael Zee, 30, from Hackney, began taking pictures of the lovingly-prepared breakfasts he made for his boyfriend Mark in 2013, and almost three years later he has a new career, a book deal and an Instagram following of more than half a million.

In fact, as the brains behind cult Instagram page Symmetry Breakfast he has recently quit his job as an educational officer at a museum to pursue his newfound passion full-time.

Michael Zee, left, initially began posting photos of breakfast he had made for his boyfriend Mark Van Beek, right, in their home in Hackney, London. It has now turned into an Instagram account with 500,000 followers

Sweet and savoury: Michael's homemade Hong Kong egg waffles, left, and salmon and scrambled eggs, right

Michael, who is originally from Runcorn, Cheshire, told FEMAIL that it all started when he moved in with Mark, 30, a menswear designer, in April 2013.

The former teacher, who had worked as a waiter in between jobs while growing up, says: 'I'm naturally a morning person, so I would get up early and cook breakfast for us both.'

He enjoyed making an elaborate breakfast for the pair of them before getting up for work. While the first breakfast he snapped was some plane food on the way back from a holiday in Venice, when he posted a photo of an omelette with some salami and an avocado one day - laid out on the table perfectly symmetrically - he was inundated with comments and likes from his friends.

After that, Michael decided to snap a photo of their breakfast together every day. It proved so popular that, by November that year, he stopped using his own Instagram account and created @SymmetryBreakfast, with the tagline: 'For me and my boyfriend.'

A photograph of Michael's buckwheat pikelets with bacon and avocado drew in more than 16,000 likes

Michael celebrates hitting 500,000 followers with Cornflakes and sparkling wine (plus a mandatory coffee)

When the number of followers began to climb, so too did the pressure for Michael to create a new and exciting breakfast for the pair of them every morning. He now regularly draws in more than 17,000 likes for a single post.

'In the beginning, I was spending between £70 and £100 per week on breakfast ingredients alone,' he said. 'I'd get up at 4am some mornings to create something elaborate because I didn't want to let my followers down.'

Now, he still cooks and snaps their breakfast on his iPhone 5s each morning around 8am. But Michael - who still makes everything from scratch - says he won't beat himself up about using the same ingredient twice in one week any more, and if he's doing something particularly arduous - like proving pastry or bread - he'll simply prepare it the night before.

Michael now has more than 500,000 followers and his posts regularly draw in over 17,000 likes a day

One of Michael's most recent offerings: homemade banana bread, which garnered almost 15,000 likes

Michael's 'NYC style' bagels with salmon, cream cheese and avocado, left, and crepes with ricotta, right

'If I'm going out on a Saturday night, I won't post at 8am the night day,' he admitted. 'I'll sometimes leave it until midday.'

But he never misses a snap, and Mark never misses a breakfast.

'Mark is amazed by it all,' he said, insisting that despite his success, he is not doing it for the money. 'I think the reason people connect to it is that it's a selfless act that's driven by love. I was doing this before I had an Instagram following, and I'd still do it if I didn't have a book offer.

Baked kale eggs, coffe, orange juice and petit pain: just one of hundreds of breakfasts Michael has made

Mouthwatering: Michael's 'everything pie' with a side of yoghurt, left, and homemade cinnamon pancakes, right

Incredibly Michael never made any money from his famous Instagram account for the first two years, continuing his job as an educational officer at the Victoria & Albert Museum.

But last October, he finally quit his job after signing a lucrative book deal with Transworld, which he says is worth more than he used to make 'in a year' in his old job.

Now, he is focusing on writing his book, SymmetryBreakfast: Cook-Love-Share, which comes out in August and will feature 80 recipes, a mixture of old and new.

'I'm more of a natural cook so I don't measure my ingredients,' he said. 'So writing the book means I have to go back and do everything again from scratch.'

One of Michael's recent creations: Norweigan waffles with yoghurt, a green smoothie and a caffe latte

Michael's beetroot pancakes with sour cream, maple syrup and and berries, left, and Mexican chilaquiles, right

Reflecting on his success, he said: 'My life has become more uncertain in a way. Before, I had my future all mapped out but now I don't know what I'll be doing next year. The book could be a bestseller or it could be a flop.

'I'm putting my heart and soul into it so hopefully people will like it.'

'My other fear is, how long will Instagram be around for? Social media changes so quickly. Who remembers MySpace? Anything could happen. It will be interesting to see how what I do translates into a book.'

'My first-ever Instagram picture was a grainy photo of the Shard at London Bridge,' he said. 'It makes me cringe now.'