Life & Work with Giorgio Corda of Flagstaff and Cincinnati

Today we’d like to introduce you to Giorgio Corda.

Hi Giorgio, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born and raised in Italy. At three, I baked my first cookies with minor supervision from my mum (I never liked cookies, but my older sister was very fond of my creations). As a pre-teen and teenager, I spent a lot of time in the kitchen of my uncle and aunt’s trattoria, helping my aunt whenever I was off school. At thirteen, my mum stopped cooking when we had guests and let me do it instead. Despite all that, I never became a professional chef. Instead, I became a social worker first and a teacher later. In my thirties, I moved to London, UK, and later to the US, where I helped my spouse raise his adopted children. I left my job a few years ago to stay home and look after our grandchildren full-time. That’s when I decided to start posting food on Instagram in the hope of inspiring and supporting more people to cook at home.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Being a full-time homemaker and a creator of a food Instagram account sometimes takes its toll. When a little one gets sick, it can be difficult to maintain your motivation and meet self-imposed deadlines. The Instagram algorithm does not make it any easier and understanding how “free” presents and paid partnerships work and reporting them correctly for tax purposes can be time-consuming. Importantly, maintaining my identity and focus, instead of being pulled in different directions by various online trends, can slow my audience growth. In return, I have a more engaged group of followers or, if you want, a small community of Instafriends that contributes to my learning experience as a micro-influencer.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
As a creator of an Instagram food account, I hope to inspire followers to cook at home, experiment, and have fun in the kitchen with various ingredients. I create my recipes and execute or modify other people’s ones (always citing the source). Some are easy and quick, others more complicated. I always try to answer and offer help if someone approaches me online with questions. I have also shared some historical recipes from medieval/ancient times and am open to requests from my followers. Because of my background, my recipes often have an Italian twist, but I explore cuisines worldwide.

So, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you before we go? How can they support you?
If they like my food, they can follow me, like and comment or save posts, as well as sending me requests or ideas. I have found great online creators happy to support new accounts and answer various questions, often, groups are formed around a theme, and collaboration can result in many shared posts. Currently, I host an ongoing monthly collaboration with my Instafriend Debi @cooknigwithoutanet – under the hashtag #onebookthreerecipes. Together with a group of lovely and talented foodies, we explore cookbooks we each have at home and have not used in a while by cooking and sharing three recipes a month from them. Such work has made us realize how our cooking skills are improving and how much fun it is to challenge each other creatively.

Contact Info:

• Instagram:@cookingwithoutanet

Image Credits
Giorgio Corda