Emma Wu dishes out food-influenced media content within Westwood and beyond
Pictured are Emma Wu (left) and her mother Suzanna (right) filming a video at the Goobne Chicken Media event in Koreatown, California. Wu started her journey with taking pictures of food at UCLA dining halls. (Courtesy of Emma Wu)
By Jeannie Kim
Oct. 23, 2024 11:27 p.m.
Emma Wu is making her journey around the world – one bite at a time.
The second-year statistics and data science student said she would take pictures of her meals at the top-ranked student dining halls and send them to her parents during her first quarter at UCLA. The routine of sending these photos to her family soon evolved into creating the account @eatingwuu on Instagram – where Wu would post pictures of food she ate on campus. Though it started as a way to document her food journey through college, the food creator said her account opened doors to novel experiences, such as learning more about the background of the food she ate.
“It allowed me to learn more about what I was eating or the history behind it,” Wu said. “The insight that I get to have in just seeing how the food is made and the story behind it is super, super cool.”
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Wu’s journey as a food creator first started with posting pictures of her meals from the dining halls, food trucks or restaurants around Westwood – with the addition of doodles for a personal twist. Expanding the range of content she produced, Wu said she later experimented with videos, filming her experiences at themed dinners at establishments near campus. Arnav Roy, a second-year computer science student and a friend of Wu’s, said he particularly appreciates the Reels that Wu posts because they give a dynamic perspective to the dishes, which static pictures can lack. On a similar note, Hannah He, a second-year human biology and society student and another friend of Wu’s, said her favorite aspects of Wu’s account include the illustrations that enhance the appearance of the dishes.
As Wu has continued to build her account, she said she had the opportunities to work with vendors around Southern California, including some of her favorite restaurants. Wu added that the restaurants eventually began to reach out to her, asking if she would be willing to try their new dishes and make a video featuring their menus. Through these collaborations, Wu said she was able to not only discover new food spots – some of which would later become her favorites – but also form deeper connections with the restaurants that she already loved.
“When I work with cafes, specifically, since they usually offer small bites, or they’ll give you a drink or something, … I just think it’s cool just to try so many different things,” Wu said. “I’ve tried the corn lattes, … the einspanners, a ton of matcha.”
As someone who likes sharing positive experiences with others, Wu said she enjoys bringing her friends along when she goes on her food adventures. Roy, who has accompanied Wu on some of her trips in Los Angeles, said it has been a fascinating experience to watch the behind-the-scenes work of Wu’s food creator account.
“It’s cool to see the process of documenting the whole thing and what needs to be done in order to make the final product,” Roy said. “It’s cool to see the interaction between the restaurant owner and Emma and how they treat each other – and the interaction, how the food gets served.”
But for Wu, running her creator account was not always full of delicious treats and enjoyable meals. As someone who takes ample shots and videos for each of her visits, Wu said she has struggled with managing storage on her devices. Wu added that editing her content – whether it be cutting down her footage to 30-second videos or adding doodles to her pictures – before posting them to her account has also been a challenge, given that the process takes a long period of time.
In overcoming such challenges, Wu said she often reminds herself of why she started her food creator journey. As a statistics and data science student, her hobby of sharing her passion and love for food with others with her account serves as a distraction from her academic workload, she added. From the perspective of Wu’s friend, He said she finds it interesting that Wu is able to balance the demands of being a food creator while pursuing a career that has little overlap with her hobby.
Though the centric theme of Wu’s account revolves around food, Wu has diversified her content to include insight into her college life, ranging from attending UCLA sports games to concerts in LA to decorating her dorm room to her trips abroad. For instance, Wu said she continued her food creator journey in Japan, documenting her experiences with indulging in the foreign cuisine.
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Wu said posting about her food experiences has not only been a fun way for her to record her college memories but also to provide insight into the cuisine – and student life – at UCLA. Reflecting back on her own process of researching colleges prior to enrolling at UCLA, Wu added that it would be interesting for a prospective student to consider applying to UCLA based on Wu’s posts and account. But in the end, Wu said she hopes her account can act as a platform for her to share the pleasant experiences of her collegiate journey with others.
“I don’t want to gatekeep things that make me happy,” Wu said. “I just want to share it with people, and then hopefully it makes them happy as well. So that’s (the) legacy I want to leave behind, just to make people happy and have things to look forward to.”