First, I made food.

Tayla Made Food began during a long period of unemployment. With more uncertainty than direction, cooking and creating became somewhere to place my energy, and eventually blossomed into something much bigger.

I used the final salary from my previous job to buy equipment, ingredients and a small collection of props, then taught myself the foundations of food photography through YouTube tutorials. Armed with nothing more than my cellphone, I started shooting, and I haven’t stopped since.

The page had just begun gaining momentum when COVID-19 brought the world to a standstill. During lockdown, my mother and I were in Johannesburg caring for my uncle, who was ill at the time. I cooked almost every day, photographing each recipe on my phone against broken tiles I had turned into makeshift backdrops.

In a season defined by uncertainty and fragile mental health, creating gave me something steady. It gave my days structure, kept my imagination moving and allowed Tayla Made Food to continue growing when almost everything else had paused.

To date, every photograph featured on Tayla Made Food has been taken on an iPhone 11 Pro Max, styled and photographed in my parents’ lounge using two pieces of polystyrene as styling boards. No studio. No professional camera. Just resourcefulness, patience and an obsession with getting every detail right.

I have always believed that people eat with their eyes first. That belief shaped my approach to food: it had to be genuinely delicious, beautiful enough to spark an appetite and approachable enough for someone to recreate in their own kitchen.

What began as a creative outlet during unemployment has since grown into a platform for recipes, food photography and collaborations with food, drink and lifestyle brand, but the philosophy remains the same: good food should taste incredible, look irresistible and still feel possible.