A couple of years ago, Joy Huang started her Instagram account (@joyosity) to share photos of her culinary creations and travel explorations. Last year, she challenged herself to post one recipe photo a day. Since then, her audience has grown and she now has over 6,000 followers.
She says joining cooking clubs on Facebook (like the Food52 cookbook club and baking club) gave her a lot of inspiration for what to make. Occasionally some of her posts would be picked up by other larger accounts like @Food52, @marthastewart, @thekitchn, @foodandwine, and @thefeedfeed which brought a lot more exposure to her account. One unique aspect of her Instagram photos is that they are all taken and edited with her iPhone.
A clinical research associate for a large pharmaceutical firm, Joy says cooking reminds her of her days as a chemistry student working in a lab. She refers to herself as a “home cook” rather than an aspiring chef.
“Whenever people say I should start a restaurant I tell them that's the last thing I'd want to do," she says. "Why would I want to take something that I enjoy doing so much and make it tiring and stressful?”
Joy has been a loyal Boston Organics customer for nine years, and she tags us on Instagram whenever she cooks something using ingredients that we sent her. We asked her to contribute a recipe to share with our customers, and she suggested this scalloped hasselback potato gratin which may look complicated but she insists is actually quite simple to make as long as you have a mandoline.
Here’s some more about Joy:
Where did you learn to cook?
I first learned how to cook from my mom, who made amazing Taiwanese food just about every day for us. I picked up some fundamentals during a semester of Introduction to Culinary Arts at Cornell, but the rest has been self-taught from cooking blogs, cookbooks, and lots and lots of practice.
What are your favorite things to cook?
I love making pork and cabbage dumplings because I use my mom's recipe, and I can probably fold them blindfolded now from muscle memory! I also really like making tarts and ice creams.
Do you think cooking is important?
I'm not sure I'd say it's important. I have the privilege of having the time and resources to be able to cook a lot, and I consider it something relaxing and fun. But I have plenty of friends who struggle to cook a lot, and that's perfectly fine. We're lucky enough to be able to feed ourselves and our families in a multitude of ways, which is more than a lot of other people in this world can say.
Why did you sign up for Boston Organics?
I started my Boston Organics subscription 9 years ago this month partly to try to eat more fruits and veggies and partly as a challenge to figure out how to use said fruits and veggies.
What’s your favorite thing to get in your Boston Organics box?
I don't think I can limit it to one thing! I love that the produce is delivered year round, that I can choose what I *don't* want, and that I can postpone a delivery if I need to, which is great for me because I travel a lot for work.
