Hello! Thanks so much for visiting my website. I’m Nicky, a Johannesburg-based photographer, content producer, product developer and curator behind Delicious Monster. DM has gone through a lot of changes over the past few years, especially since March 2020 (thanks to a certain Pandemic), and has evolved from a blog into a business.
My goal for Delicious Monster is to establish it as a brand with multiple portfolios, always keeping food & lifestyle at its core. I want to collaborate with like-minded brands, creating authentic content which can be shared with my community.
Food, Travel, Design, Decor, Plants & Photography
I will never work with a brand that doesn’t share the same values as me, and I won’t ever mention a brand or product which I wouldn’t necessarily use in my everyday life. Creating genuine content is something I take very seriously! You might see me sharing stuff which isn’t sponsored, but that’s because if I find something I love then it’s only natural for me to share it with others. Helping local brands and businesses grow is also important.
Early Days
I began blogging in 2015 when I moved to Shanghai and started a blog called Lotuses+Lanehouses, where I shared stories about expat life, as well as recipes and a few travel guides.
In late 2017 I left my job as Director of Content at cooking app developer, SideChef, and decided to start freelancing full-time. It was a scary transition for me because I was also going through a lot of personal changes in my then relationship, and my time living in China was coming to an end. This was the ultimate reason why I decided to rebrand to Delicious Monster and allow it to become something far more general and not tied specifically to living in China.
I moved to London in early 2018, where I remained for just under a year. In early Feb of 2019, I returned to South Africa single, out of work and living with my parents at 35 years old. It was then that I decided to put my life back together again and do my absolute best to turn Delicious Monster into something special and something that was mine.
New Beginnings
So I put myself out there again and landed a few contracts doing social media content production & management for various clients, slowly beginning to grow DM again after neglecting it for so many months.
I’d always dreamt of being able to combine my content creation, recipe development and photography into one, as well as also wanting to start an online shop. Little did I know that at the beginning of 2020, I was a couple of months away from being thrown into the deep end and would need to do just that in a minimal amount of time.
Twenty Plenty of Growth Opportunities
All of my contracts were terminated during the first two weeks of lockdown. I found myself without any paid work but once I’d gotten over the initial shock and disappointment, I needed to act quickly and figure out a way I’d keep Delicious Monster alive.
It was obvious that a lot more people were needing to cook for themselves thanks to being stuck at home, so I decided to produce and self-publish my first recipe ebook, The Isolated Kitchen. I needed to also be able to sell it online, so I started my shop and it just grew from there.
I produced two more books in 2020 and added a curated selection of beautiful products to my shop. I started doing product photography for a few brands who began selling online, found myself another social media client who I also assist with sales & marketing, and am the first South African Brand Ambassador for iconic French jar brand Le Parfait – and I’m just getting started.
