Meet Neha Gupta, famous food vlogger & YouTuber – interview by Apurva Sharma

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So, while trying to learn cooking through high-end YouTube, I stumbled upon this wonderful Australian resident Indian YouTuber who runs her a year old Food Channel Tips and tricks of my kitchen – A house of delicious Indian recipes with more than 89 thousand+ subscribers and 11,643,906 views.

#Lifefastlane, #StoriesInGeneral and iDiya present an inspiring story of Neha Gupta, a passionate chef and Youtuber, settled in Australia with her Husband and daughter. Being a full-time working professional in the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and YouTuber along with full-time mother is surely a very time consuming task, but for Neha Gupta, it’s all about passion and smart work.

I was awestruck with our conversation which started with very basic questions on her journey so far. I couldn’t imagine someone so passionate for cooking along with the daily hassles of using a dialysis machine for 12 hours to live and run her body. She is a cancer survivor who turned all the negative thoughts into very positive and successful thoughts.

Let’s start her adventurous story. Happy reading, Happy cooking and healthy eating…

Apurva Sharma: What motivated you to start a food channel?
Neha Gupta: Well, cooking has always been my forte. I started taking interest in cooking from an early age of eight years and fortunately, I had my graduation (BSc) in hospitality from IHM, Shimla. My inspiration is my mother who also loves cooking and serving family with love and affection. However, as per my mundane routine with being stuck to dialysis machine, I became frustrated and it started taking toll on my social life as well as my personal life. Then, my husband encouraged me to start a food channel looking at my forte. Finally, on 24th August 2016, we started a food channel. Though I always host it, it wouldn’t have been possible without his help. It has been a year and we have learnt a lot from our experiences.

Apurva: How do you manage your food channel?
Neha: My day to day life is pretty packed with time divided for each activity. Once I am back from office, I make sure to spend some time with my daughter, then move towards channel.. ensure to read comments, follows up for recipes, check required ingredients and start planning for the shoot. Initially, we tried posting a recipe per day, which actually didn’t go well with my work-life balance and later, we made a mutual decision to shoot 3-4 recipes on weekends so that they can be posted on weekdays. Pretty much, this is our schedule now. Apart from few miss here and there due to other commitments, we make sure that food channel and viewers requests are considered on high priority.

Apurva: What strategy do you follow in regard to running the successful food channel?
Neha: As per the statistics of my YouTube channel, more than 90% viewers are from India and rest 10% from another part of the world. And, we all know India is a land of festivities all around the year and has amalgamation of varied cultures. I research about upcoming festivals, dishes prepared during those days and choose the best and get the work started. Me and my husband have divided our work gracefully to ensure things go smoothly. The most difficult part is EDITING of the shoot videos which is handled by my husband. Reviewing the comments, replying to the queries, analyzing the comments and introspecting the planning stage is handled by me. I believe, the time when you upload a video plays a very crucial role in your channel and its videos.

Apurva: Oh! Great. How do you handle negative feedback as not all the time things are positive on a video?
Neha: Yes, I do reply to the comments. I always take things in a positive stride. Those feedbacks are constructive feedbacks for me, I do learn a lot from them and consider them as a building block for my success. However, if I get any vulgar comment or offensive comment, I do report it YouTube or mark it spam.

Apurva: Who are your favourite Youtuber(s)?
Neha: My all time favourite You Tuber are BB ki Vines and The Shokeens. I just love to watch their videos. They do rib tickling comedy.

Apurva: Who is your favourite Chef/You Tuber in the category of food recipes.
Neha: The one and only, Sanjeev Kapur. He is like a food champion to me. I adore his presentation, creative and familiar concepts he talks about. It is like watching a family show.

Apurva: Would you like to take YouTube as your full time profession?
Neha: Of course, why not. But, this thing would surely happen when I have over 1 million subscribers and views reaching skies with dedicated teammates. High hopes.

Apurva: Your three quick suggestions/advices to budding YouTubers or somebody who is interested in starting a YouTube Channel.

Neha: 

  1. Don’t ever mix your professional and personal life. Keep things sorted and clear.
  2. Be Genuine
  3. Make sure you connect with your viewers. And, most importantly, be patient. Great things take time to come at right time at right place.

Apurva: With such a busy schedule, how do you ensure giving time to your family?
Neha: Well, I can’t stop putting emphasis on the fact that my family and its support play an important role in running my work-life balance. While coming from the office,  I pick my daughter from her school and on the way back, it’s mostly mother-daughter time. I do help her with her studies. During dinner time, we all sit together, share each other’s day and spend cozily. It’s a family fun time before bedtime.

Apurva: As a home chef and working professional at the same time, do you go out for dinning?
Neha: I would say 98% of the time, we all prefer home-cooked food and its just 2% when we decide to go out. It is generally our daughter who loves eating outside. She has some taste for Australian cuisines. And there are times when she comes up and demands some dish to be prepared. If the dish comes out good and liked by all, I present it out for my channel also.


“It’s not about time, it’s all about MAKING time”… LifeFastLane and StoriesInGeneral is glad to pen down such a courageous journey of a woman who doubles and triples up as a mother, wife and daughter in the family.

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