ADVERTISEMENT
site_logo
  • Campus
  • Happening
  • Opinion
  • People
  • News
  • #BeInspired
  • Careers
  • 40 under 40
  • Exams
  • What The FAQ
  • Videos
    • Straight Up
    • Odisha Literary Festival 2020
    • Campus Convo
    • Careers After Corona
    • Express Expressions
    • Q&A With Prabhu Chawla
    • ThinkEdu Awards 2020
  • edex_worksEDEXWORKS
ADVERTISEMENT
Food

Published: 27th August 2019     

Here's how these engg students are taking the city's food scene by storm with their popular blog 'Chennai Food Trails'

Chennai Food Trails, which has close to 25,000 followers on Instagram, is your ultimate guide to the latest trends in dining out

Aathira Ayyappan
Edex Live
f_icon t_icon i_icon l_icon koo_icon whatsapp_icon email_icon

Share Via Email

IMG_20190827_114336

Sandeep Sekar and Saran Avinash

Like any pair of friends, Saran Avinash and Sandeep Sekar had many things in common – they liked watching movies, reading books and hanging out with their gang. But what really brought them together was a mutual love for food. “We would get really excited whenever a new restaurant opened in town. And even if we had an exam or any important event that day, we would make sure to visit it. Our friends would often say ‘You guys live to eat and not eat to live'. And we’d agree, that’s kind of our motto,” laughs Saran. Last year, they had been sitting in a restaurant and chatting with their friends when one of them took a photo of Saran posing with the dishes. “He posted that photo on his food blog and the response was great. When he told me about this, it got me thinking – why not do something on these lines? And that’s how Sandeep and I decided to come up with an Instagram page, Chennai Food Trails, dedicated to food and food alone,” recalls Saran, who was born and raised in Chennai, like Sandeep.

 

So yummy: One of their most-liked posts, displaying mouth-watering, Tamilian non-veg fare

 

Their first Insta post was a restaurant review, with a detailed critique of the food, ambience, service and the price. It garnered around hundred likes within hours of posting and soon, the duo realised that this was their calling. It has only been a little over a year since Chennai Food Trails was born, but the account has more than 24,000 followers already and has become one of the top social media handles for food blogging in the city. “We thrive on networking and relationship-building. When we go to a new restaurant, we make connections there and make sure that they call us if a new menu is being introduced or an offer is going live. This way, we are able to maintain a database which has information pertaining to almost all restaurants and food joints in the city. We also follow other food influencers so that we are aware of new trends emerging in the Chennai food scene,” says Saran, adding, “I think our USP is that we post only honest reviews. If food tastes bad, then it tastes bad. We believe in calling a spade a spade. But at the same time, we believe in only constructive criticism. We do not want to tarnish the image of any restaurant as we know the amount of hard work that goes into setting up one.” 

 

Irresistibly delectable: They focus on making food the centre of attention 

 

However, Saran and Sandeep do not consider themselves to be professional food critics who possess technical knowledge, but rather hard-core foodies who have their own assessment system to rate the restaurants. “I think the ambience is most important, followed by authenticity and flavour of the food. Since we have been frequenting restaurants all around the city for some time now, we know what boxes to tick and what to cross. All in all, we look at whether the culinary experience as a whole was enriching or not,” Saran points out. The duo has achieved so much in such a short period of time (they even do regular giveaways for their followers – the recent one being a OnePlus 7 Pro giveaway) that it is hard to believe that they’re both pursuing BTech at SRM University!  So how do they balance studies and their blog? “Honestly, it is not hard at all! If you are passionate about something, you will find a way to do it. And it won’t feel like work at all,” smiles Saran.

telegram
TAGS
Food

O
P
E
N

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
telegram
ADVERTISEMENT
Write to us!

If you have campus news, views, works of art, photos or just want to reach out to us, just drop us a line.

newsletter_icon
Mailbox
edexlive@gmail.com
fb_icon
Facebook
twitter_icon
Twitter
insta_icon
Instagram
ADVERTISEMENT
Facebook
ADVERTISEMENT
Tweets by Xpress_edex
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

FOLLOW US

Copyright - edexlive.com 2021

The New Indian Express | Dinamani | Kannada Prabha | Samakalika Malayalam | Indulgexpress | Cinema Express | Event Xpress

Contact Us | About Us | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Advertise With Us

Home | Live Now | Live Story | Campus Trip | Coach Calling | Live Take