Karthik Ganapathi shows us the Art of Eating With The Eyes

Eating with the Eyes is an art and Chennai seems to trust no one else with our perfectly golden vadais and steaming hot filter coffee. Meet Karthik Ganapathi of Eatwithyoureyes on Facebook. He’s got quite the following and you’ll see why. 

How did all of this start? Where was the spark?

It all started with a documentary I saw that showed an inventor , Yoshiro Nakamatsu taking photos of all the food he ate and analyzing which ones helped him think more creative and which ones didn’t help him throughout the day. I didn’t invent anything, but ‘the clicking food’ part appealed to me at a very young age. I’ve always been a foodie and hated sharing food with family and friends. I slowly bought a digital camera and started clicking away. All the food I ate outside, I shared the experience and photos on a blog started for close friends. Thanks to social media, my friends list grew and so did the fans. Next came the DSLR, food groups, foodie friends, food photography, photography and much more!

Wake up, ensure the kidhas his breakfast and start off with my own . Checking and updating my social media platforms starts my day . Usually I try to click street photos for my #thisischennai album. Head to work. Around 11 pm, I’m back home and I post all the day’s food related happenings and wind up around midnight. I also administer Chennai’s most happening food group now (Where Chennai Eats). It keeps me up a little while longer, but helping people find the right dish or the right restaurant is fun and satisfying!

Weekends I stick to eating out with the family and friends and schedule my photoshoots (food and otherwise) on weekends- as creative work needs more “me time” . I join walks on weekends too – food walks, photo walks and even ‘quarter’ walks. I keep the food/restaurant reviews for weekends too . It’s also the best time for food tasting sessions for my home baker friends- ranging from burgers , desserts to even pickles. Blog posts usually written around this time as well and is quite therapeutic. 

Three dishes you’re nostalgic about..

Shawarma and Cream cones in Kuwait and Tiger Prawns at Moonrakers. 

A place we’d find you dining at..

It’s difficult to find me at one as I have one go-to place in each area. A most-frequented one now is Mangalambiga in Ashok Nagar. 

Your favorite cuisine?

South Indian- loads of variety in one meal! It’s mostly a mix and match; rather than a limited number of flavours.

A quote that inspires you, something you live by..

“If you eat out , work-out!” I can switch from having junk food almost everyday, for a whole week , to drinking another to completely restricting myself to salads alone another and stop drinking for months together. It might seem a little extreme, but helps give balance to life. Surprisingly I started losing more weight after writing more about food. Some of my foodie friends go to the gym quite religiously!

The Future sees..

I hope to learn cooking and get into baking or something related to restaurants and food industry, probably even a consultant. If not, I’d plan on doing some serious photography commercials- or documentary/photo journalism.