Why She’s Interesting: Schafer has even the most casual social media user starving for more content. In 2013, she started posting pictures of food dishes she’d made on an Instagram account dubbed @foodsofjane. The Cleveland-based food photographer, recipe master and blogger has since grown her audience to more than 110,000 followers, attracting the likes of celebrities such as Chrissy Teigen and Drew Barrymore. Today, she continues to cook and offer instructional presentations and classes alongside her long-haired dachshund, Basil.
Self Starter: After graduating from Cleveland State University in 2015, Schafer broke into the professional social media scene when she landed a job with Destination Cleveland as a social media specialist. Last year, she stepped down to a smaller social media contractor role for the organization so she could focus more on Foods of Jane. “I would come home from working all day at Destination Cleveland, and then I would start cooking, and I would cook until I went to bed.”
Dinner Receipts: Schafer says she really got a boost from using the same hashtags as larger food networks and having those outlets share her posts. In 2015, Buzzfeed Food, which had around one million followers at the time compared to Schafer’s 1,000, retweeted a picture she took from Melt Bar and Grilled. “I remember I printed off a picture of the repost and I showed it during my interviews at Destination Cleveland. That was the big, impressive thing on my resume at the time.”
Live Wire: Schafer recently swung a sweet deal with the owner of Stir Studio Kitchen in Ohio City: In exchange for promoting the studio, she’s able to teach dumpling cooking classes. Her first class for 10 students sold out within a couple hours in October. “The point behind it was to connect my followers in another way besides through my Instagram channel.”
Branching Out: Local chain Zoup! bought out the rights to one of Schafer’s many tasty concoctions, a flavorful dish she called “Janey’s Spicy Noodle Soup” in 2015. Zoup! then tweaked the recipe by making it vegetarian-friendly and rechristening it as the Dragonfly Noodle Bowl. “The whole point of my blog is to share recipes and local restaurants. So to become part of that is really rewarding for me.”
Interesting Fact:
To celebrate reaching 10,000 followers, Schafer shared a picture of her taking a bath in ramen noodles, which ended up on Michael Symon’s The Chew.
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Most Interesting People 2020: Janey Schafer
The 29-year-old food photographer and blogger behind Foods of Jane continues to churn out delicious content.
