Dana DeVolk, founder of the popular food blog This Silly Girl’s Kitchen, is a cookbook author, photographer, recipe developer, videographer, Johnson and Wales Culinary Arts graduate, and professional chef.
Former restaurant chef turned blogger Dana DeVolk is newly wed, a homemaker, a daughter, lover of a good book, Mama to four beautiful fur babies and a cookin’ fool!
Dana was born near Chicago, where she spent the first half of her childhood. The other half was spent in and around Durham, NC. Raised in a family that always had a passion for cooking, Dana attended Johnson and Wales University where she received her Associates Degree in Culinary Arts.
Dana worked in well known restaurants for over six years, primarily in management roles. She was transferred from North Carolina to Florida where she currently resides, just outside of Jacksonville.
Dana’s first cookbook, The Cozy Table: Comfort Food Recipes for One, Two or a Few, was published September 19th, 2017 by Countryman Press, a division of W. W. Norton.
Dana’s work has appeared in Woman’s World Magazine June 19th issue, Food Network’s The Kitchen Sink and many online publications such as Huffington Post, Country Living, BuzzFeed, Red Book Magazine and more.
Dana DeVolk Show Notes
Contact:
This Silly Girl’s Kitchen
Instagram
Facebook
Pinterest
Twitter
Books:
The Cozy Table – Dana DeVolk
The Betty Crocker Cookbook
Questions:
What did you do before you became a food blogger?
When you say you were the manager, were you telling chefs what to do?
Did you have to work a lot of hours?
How many hours did you work a week, on an average?
You said that the food blog was a hobby at first, when did you start?
Why did you pick the name of your food blog?
When you said you rebranded, did you stop having the website This Silly Girl’s Life, and get a new domain for This Silly Girl’s Kitchen?
Is it still live, or is it just a redirection?
When you first started, how many times a week did you publish a post?
How many do you publish now?
When you have the extra sponsored post, is it hard to do that extra day?
How many drafts do you have ready to be published at any given time?
And that doesn’t make you nervous?
Explain a day in the life of you as a food blogger?
Do you spend time on social media?
How many hour do you work on your blog a day?
What would you say to someone who wants to start their own blog?
Do you have anyone that helps you like a virtual assistant or any assistant?
When did you decide to get these people?
How many iterations have you had for the website?
Did you buy a pre-made theme or is she designing it for you?
Once you started, how long did it take you to start making money?
What is the hardest thing you find about blogging?
What is your favorite social media platform and why?
When you say it isn’t what it used to be, how many years back are you talking?
Did you hear about that when it was happening?
Do you have another social media platform that you really like?
Do you use any marketing tools?
Do you do your own SEO or do you have someone doing it for you?
Could you explain that a little bit more, are you key word heavy, so what is the difference for you?
Where did you learn this?
What is your biggest food failure?
So what does it look like?
What is you favorite cuisine?
What is your favorite thing to make?
What’s your favorite cookbook?
Did you do all the cooking and photography in the cookbook?
Dana is very entertaining as well, Elaine! It seems a lot of us have made the same mistakes starting out! If only you had this when I was starting out!!
Thanks Beth! I so agree!
Geez! This is awesome! I met Dana in a baking group and love that I found Dishing with Delishes. This would have been so helpful when I started about 2.5 years ago. I’m still not where I want to be but I will definitely be tuning in to learn all I can. Thank you!
Thanks so much Raquel! I really appreciate the comment!!
Great podcast Elaine It is so reassuring when you listen to other bloggers journey. You know you are not alone.
Thanks Laura! That’s how I feel too!