Blondelish.com Founder Mihaela Metaxa-Albu: An Exclusive Interview

Blondelish is a website founded by Mihaela Metaxa-Albu, a food blogger, recipe developer, and photographer. The website features a variety of recipes, from healthy to indulgent, and includes lifestyle and travel content.

Blondelish aims to inspire people to cook and explore new flavors, while also offering helpful tips and advice for a healthier and happier lifestyle. The website has gained a large following and features collaborations with various brands and partners.

In this Interview, Mihaela Metaxa-Albu shares that her favorite ingredients to work with are shrimp, and she loves to create salads that are healthy and universal. She balances flavors and textures through experience and feedback from her team and family.

The blog uses Asana and Facebook’s Creator Studio to plan and publish content. Her future plan is to post more recipes, reach a wider audience, and continue to inspire people to cook at home.

Read our exclusive interview with Mihaela Metaxa-Albu now!

What follows is an interesting interview with the Cooking influencer.

1. Please Tell Us a Little About Yourself and How You Got Into Cooking.

I’ve always been an artsy kind of person. I can create my way from point A to point B with whatever I have on hand.

But honestly, I started cooking to impress a boy. Cheesy, right? I love cheese by the way and even wrote a recipe book about it.

For some reason, he really loved my food (we both agree it wasn’t that good back then), and we built from that. I got into the culinary arts school at Southgate College in London, which I guess gave him no choice but to propose to me. 13 years later and here we are, husband, wife, and our little man George, eating the best food and growing together.

This is just a short story. See the long version on my website.

2. What Are Your Favorite Types of Recipes to Create and Share, and Why?

I love to make all kinds of salads. Cold, warm, high protein, or loaded with veggies, fruits, or pasta. I absolutely love them all!

First, because I just love to eat salads (even for breakfast!), and when it’s something you like a lot, you’ll always find it easy to share and make it sparkle among others.

Veggies are healthy and affordable, and you can find your type of salad and tweak it all year round. Let’s say you add cooked pasta to it in winter to make it more filling, grilled chicken in summer, or both)

3. What is Your Favorite Ingredient to Work With and Why?

This is a great question and a hard one because there are just so many, I’m afraid if I pick one favorite I would hurt the others’ feelings. 

But I would say it’s shrimp.

Shrimp is that one ingredient that you can cook in just 3-4 minutes, it looks and tastes amazing! And best of all, it’s incredibly versatile. It can be boiled, grilled, baked, or just served raw in a ceviche. I always have frozen shrimp in my freezer, just in case I want a quick meal.

4. What is Your Favorite Kitchen Tool or Gadget?

I love my spiralizer because it helps me trick the pasta noodles.

On a quick healthy note: I always do half spaghetti half zucchini noodles. This means half the calories, the same amazing taste & texture.

5. Can You Share Any of Your Favorite Cookbooks or Online Resources for Recipe Inspiration?

Sami Tamimi’s cookbook Falastin is such a distinct one. Carpathia – food from the heart of Romania, my native country. But also you can’t say no to charismatic Jamie’s 15-minute meals. 30-Minute Keto and I Heart Cheese are also my favorite cookbooks because I really put in the work for each and every recipe in them.

I know I know, I’m bragging but what can I say? I’m an artist, I love my work.

Also, I follow ALL food bloggers, really! It’s nice to keep in touch and stay abreast of the cooking world. And there are so many great ones out there.

Just a few examples include Natashaskitchen.com, cleanfoodcrush.com, pinchofyum.com, halfbakedharvest.com, and healthyfitnessmeals.com

6. Can You Walk Us Through Your Cooking Process, From Selecting Ingredients to Plating the Finished Dish?

It all starts with creating the recipe based on trends or seasonal ingredients. 

Next, I purchase the ingredients. I often order them from them online, but whenever I have more time I love going to a market and choosing the best seasonal ingredients. A stroll through the market gives me so much inspiration!

Then, I get to my kitchen studio and put on my favorite music to hype me up.

I carefully prep the ingredients and put them aside to be ready for the cooking process.

Cooking is so fun when you create a nice environment with good music, your favorite cup of coffee or a glass of wine, and maybe some friends/family that are willing to give a hand.

After cooking comes styling. This is one of the most tricky parts as it requires both skill and science. You gotta match the props, and the colors, and create an image that has meaning, it expresses something. And most importantly, it has to be in tune with the seasonal trend.

Once everything is set up the way I want it, I shoot the final dish.

The last part, and the best, our team sits together at the table and digs into the goodies I cook.

Actually, that’s not the last part, there’s one more, which nobody likes. The after cleaning.

7. What Advice Would You Give to Someone Who Wants to Improve Their Cooking Skills?

Start with what you are already good at, it could be as little as an omelet. Experiment and build from that. Include different ingredients. Cook it with ghee, and add chives, herbs, or sauteed veggies, shrimp, or deli meat. 

Food videos like the ones I make are a good help, as you can see the entire cooking process, that way we can cook together.

Don’t be afraid to err, especially when you’re just starting out. It’s a creative process so trial and error are an inherent component.

And make sure you pay attention to what most seasoned chefs do. Learn from them. Once you master the basics, you can stand on your own feet and put your imagination to work. But very important, to master the basics first.

8. How Do You Manage to Balance the Flavors and Textures in Your Recipes, Particularly When Working With Gluten-free Ingredients?

Working in some of the best restaurants helped me develop some seriously skilled tastebuds that help me tremendously throughout my career. I learned from great chefs what balance in flavors and texture really means.

When you taste great foods, your taste buds learn and will remember what the balance between flavors is.

I guess it all comes down to experience and a natural bias toward improving my skills. The more I cook, the better I get at recognizing the perfect balance between flavors.

I now just give it a taste and know if anything else is needed. 

In general, you want your food to be rich and multi-sensorial. So if you have, say a cream soup, pair it with something hard like a crusty baguette or crispy roasted pumpkin seeds.

Oh yeah, feedback from my team and family also helps.

9. What Do You Hope People Take Away From Your Blog, and How Do You Want to Inspire Them in the Kitchen?

Such a lovely question! I wish foodies would find my website as a collection of fail-proof recipes. The one that you always turn to when you need a quick dinner or a fancy but easy-to-make dish to impress.

I want to inspire through my effortless way of cooking, and I want to reach even those people who think cooking at home is a time-consuming task. It’s not. It’s easy, delicious, more affordable, and definitely healthier than most restaurants. Cooking can be like that and I have my recipe videos to prove it!

10. How Do You Plan and Organize Your Content, and What Tools Do You Use to Stay on Track?

I use Asana for project management and general organization of our small team, including content planning.

And I use Facebook’s Creator Studio to plan and publish my posts.

11. Can You Talk About Any Future Plans or Projects for Blondelish.com, and Where You See Your Blog Going in the Future?

The plan is to post as many easy and delicious recipes as I can and reach as large of an audience as possible.

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At Blondelish, Mihaela Metaxa-Albu believes that cooking should be fun, easy, and delicious. That’s why she has created a website that’s packed with recipes, tips, and inspiration to help you become a better cook.

Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just starting out, our recipes are designed to be accessible to everyone. From healthy options to indulgent treats, she’s got something for every taste and occasion.

We also offer lifestyle and travel content to help you live your best life. So why not join us on this culinary journey and discover the joy of cooking?

Where you can find me…

Website: https://www.blondelish.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theblondelish
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blondelish
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/blondelish