Episode #061: Following Food Trends And Video Inspiration With Billy Parisi

Blog Title: Billy Parisi

Social Media:

IG: Chef Billy Parisi on Instagram

FB: Chef Billy Parisi on Facebook

About: I’m a culinary school grad that spent 15 years in the restaurant industry as a line cook, sous chef and executive chef. In addition I have a degree in video production from the University of Missouri so obviously i married my two passions and now I write recipes, take pictures of ’em, shoot some video, occasionally hosting on TV, checking out the latest fashion, hangin’ with my wife and daughter and watching a whole bunch of college sports. Hope you enjoy my twists on classics as well as new innovations!

Notes from Episode #061: Food Trends & Video Inspiration

• Fun fact: Billy is into fashion and sports, two very different worlds! 

• Billy has family roots from Sicily and enjoyed learning about food from an early age. His mom has a degree in architectural design and Billy had gone to art camps as a young kid and started to see food as art as it was plated by family who owned a restaurant. He went to Culinary school right out of high school then worked in trendy restaurants and became an executive chef at age 21.

• Then Billy felt ready to leave the food industry, so he went to school again for videography and was bounced back into the food industry again working for money on the side. He just continued with keeping his foot in the water in the food blogging industry and then his passion grew again, turning into a food blogger. 

• Food Trends 

  • You want to stay ahead of the trend but also keep people coming back.

  • Recipe staples are definitely important but you have to push the envelope on food trends. 

  • Visiting Yelp is helpful to see what’s growing into a trend. 

  • You’ll start to see trends start in the restaurant industry and then leap into the food blogging world. But we can’t keep up with these demands on trends that need crazier and harder to make food. 

  • Plant Based Diets – this is a fast paced growing trend. Restaurants are popping up and instead of making one food to be “like” another, instead they are just using fresh plant products and coming up with fresh takes on how to serve it deliciously.  

  • Simplicity – classic dishes simplified with fresh ingredients. Easy, simple foods that our grandparents shared with us. Add your own twist but keep it easy for families. Don’t use complicated or too many ingredients.

  • Cooking techniques are getting popular again. Check out Youtube for help on learning techniques! Food bloggers can learn and then share with your audience. (Braise, knife cuts, omelets, etc)

  • Appliance trends – big pieces of meat need time to break down so Billy isn’t into the IP and other appliances as much, nor does his audience seek that from him, but he knows that others love that it delivers quick meals. Billy said that he doesn’t see these appliances going away. Air Fryers can really brown up food nicely without oil. Slow Cookers aren’t going away even with the addition of these new appliances. They are a tried and true appliance that helps people achieve a meal when they’re gone all day and are still popular. 

• Scope out trends on your own

  • Magazines used to set the trends back in the day by working with chefs and they would tell you about gadgets. Now we have Google and Pinterest to get inspiration as well as Instagram. 

  • Italian and French cookbooks offer a lot of inspiration. 

  • Google Trends – this helps you search intent of your audience and spurs on creativity from those ideas – if they like this, then they’ll like this.

  • The Food Bible or Culinary Artistry are two books Billy recommends. These are staples that are not changing in an ever changing field.

• You always want to leave space for emerging trends in your editorial calendar. Billy shoots at a max two weeks out for videos. He does two videos a week and then has options to add in a recipe idea that pops up that interests him. 

• Top down videos kill Billy’s creative spirit. He thinks we need to explore other ways to get the recipe to our audience. We get into a Follow The Leader mentality in food blogging and we need to try to break free from that mold. Push the envelope and just find new styles and creativity for yourself!

• The two things that separate amateurs and professionals from each other are lighting and audio. This goes along with your brand too. You want your video to look like your pictures.

  • Video and photography should emulate each other. If you do light in your photos, do that in both methods. If you do dark videos, continue that in both. Don’t lose your sense of style. It’s the same scene, just ones moving.

  • It’s ok to have imperfections if you shoot in daylight. Nuances are a beautiful part of the creative style.

  • Audio has come a long way. Check out Rode mics, they can be a great option. They also have an app. 

• Billy’s favorite quote: Thomas Keller, a chef, said something that has always stuck with Billy. “Enjoy every single process of cooking.” We get stuck on monetization but don’t lose that original passion of cooking. The end result is a smile when you enjoy a meal.