From Cook/Designer to Culinary Researcher
Working on your Personal Branding to get out of a four wall of a kitchen and share your knowledge with the world!
Valentina – Author | Cook | Explorer:
After a career as Designer, Valentina worked in a kitchen for many years as a cook. Today, she’s an author and culinary researcher. She lives in Amsterdam but works on international projects related to the food industry and has published two cookbooks.
“I attended Giulia’s Rethinking Instagram course, and it immediately opened me up to a new vision. Something clicked and I felt the need to personally be guided by Giulia to go in the right direction in the most strategic way.”
“I was in an in-between phase, after my career as Designer, I had become a Brigade cook but was leaving the kitchen to focus on my second book. Actually I didn’t have a profession at that time, but a lot of unexpressed potential, with no clear idea of how to portray myself online. “
When I met Valentina, her story reminded me of a movie plot – this is the story of an eclectic professional, brave enough to follow her passions, she lets them flow, listens to them and throws herself into them.
Valentina went from being an international Designer to becoming a cook working in the kitchen of an important Italian restaurant in Amsterdam. After few years as a cook she realized her dream was not to be locked up in a kitchen all day! She longed to keep experimenting, researching, traveling and exploring. Goals that aligned very little with her job as a cook!
Valentina wanted to build her online presence to attract clients, brands and collaborations but the question was “ How do I go about doing this? Shall I position myself as a cook? A food blogger maybe? Hmmm…” It was clear that we had to work on differentiation: the culinary market especially in Italy is extremely saturated, and what we had to do was creating for her a totally new outfit, that was comfortable for her and attractive for her potential clients.
“ I had a website that only showcased old projects and an Instagram profile that I used in a very confused way! ”
“I had pictures of my travel adventures next to a picture of my kitten and then a recipe... I did not have a clear vision of how to tell my story online. I had to find clarity and understand where to start from to build around my skills and my new profession, this is why I asked Giulia to work together!”
This was quite the challenge… In a time when the food industry is becoming one of female empowerment building around Valentina a Personal branding strategy that set her apart was not easy. But the answer was written in her background, her creativity as a Designer, the pragmatism learnt being part of a kitchen brigade and the storytelling developed writing two books could all create this new precious identity, the one of the culinary researcher.
In a saturated market like the culinary one is, Valentina represents something new and innovative because the lens through which she shows us food is a true research, study and storytelling process… and this is what we focused on!
“With Giulia we did a lot of work to really understand my identity and then on how we could bring this into my online presence. She helped me clean up my socials and she also helped me stop wasting my time and energy in what doesn’t truly matter, but rather focus on editorial pillars that could help me show my skills and share what I am knowledgeable about. Thanks to the work done with Giulia today I have a clear vision of how to position myself in such a crowded market, I know how to add value to my clients and this is why they get in touch with me. Giulia taught me to always keep in mind who I am talking to, who my target it, what they need from me and this was groundbreaking to me.
My feed now reflects my identity and I am not the only one who notices it (luckily! ☺ ) Nowadays I get contacted often for collaborations that I never used to before. Giulia gave me the trust I was missing to believe in my capabilities and gave me a clear structure to work on myself and evolve step by step!”
This was an incredible journey that brought to some amazing results.
When I met Valentina I asked her during our first session what her dream was, I still remember her answer, she said “Perhaps one day I’d like to be on Cook Corriere as one of the women who are shaping the culinary scene”.
This is what Valentina wrote to me:
“Around 8 months after our initial conversation, my dream came true. In May 2021 I launched my first collaboration with Cook Corriere where I presented a research and enhancement project about food scraps in a 7-course menu. But not just this. The past few months I started working with more great names in the food industry in Europe and every day I continue to work on my research project, to keep sharing and build what is now my new Mission”.
