Today’s answer to yesterday’s food blogs, Instagram is now used by many (the ABS reports 5 million per month in Australia alone, to be exact) to unearth new food haunts, buzzy trends and culinary happenings. It’s where you most likely first learned about Nutella doughnut shakes, loaded fries or maple bacon-anything.
First, we see a photo of a dish we like. It might be something our palates wouldn’t usually gravitate towards, but then, who are we to disagree with 1000-plus folks? Then we hunt down its website or Facebook page for more details, or better yet, a menu. If the image has a geo-tag, it’s time to tag our dining mate, type it into Google Maps and schlep over to try it out in the flesh – after we’ve taken our own photo of it, of course, climbing up onto chairs for the perfect aerial shot or transferring it over to the window for better lighting where needed.
While some chefs aren’t happy about it, or , others have embraced the phenomenon.
“If we don’t post something before 11am each day, people usually ring us,” tells Sarah Robbins, head chef and co-owner of and Sydney.
“Our Blame Canada burger was originally just a weekly special, but from the feedback and buzz we had on Facebook, we decided to keep it on. People almost started a petition to make us run it a second week and when we went to take it off again, the same thing happened.”
Jammed with all the hallmarks of an online winner (sweet, crisp maple bacon; poutine fries and maple aioli), it’s not surprising the Blame Canada hit a social media home run. They’ve since released its dessert equivalent, the Blame Canada ice-cream and the Blame FriesCream.
For St Kilda’s , it’s a similar story. A vegan café built solely around the green tea powder craze (mushroom lattes, breakfast bowls, Wiz Kale-Leafa smoothies) with its digital climax undoubtedly the Instagram-happy Matcha pancakes, Australia’s first Matcha café reached the viral heights, now perched at over 30.2K followers.
“We’ve adapted dishes based on Insta feedback,” tells co-founder Sarah Holloway. “Once we see something popping up so often that it saturates everyone’s feeds, i.e., the green burger, we respond by bringing out something new, like the black burger.”
Even the copy used on their menu takes its cues from the digital world; there’s a section titled #SOCIALINFLUENCERS, and for their Vegan Eggs, they write: “the taste is sweeter but more compassionate, insert emoji with heart eyes”.
One Sydney restaurant has taken it a step further. The menu at Bondi’s reads like an Instagram greatest hits compilation. Serving up burgers, freakshakes, loaded fries, and their lauded Churro Bowl: a crowd-pleasing medley of soft serve, Nutella, crushed nuts and caramel – piled in a bowl made from a cinnamon sugar-doused churro – it’s no wonder the burger and dessert bar was sitting at almost 6000 likes before even opening its doors last month. Their churro cones went just as nuts.
So the next time you’ve got a hankering for something particular, no matter how zany, take it up with your favourite chefs online. Stranger things have happened.
Photograph by BL Burgers.
BL Burgers post their weekly special on Facebook each Monday at 11am.
The Blame Canada FriesCream is an evolution of their Blame Canada Ice-Cream.
