Taupō author Vanya Insull has released Everyday Comfort Food, her third cookbook. Photo / Supplied
Taupō author Vanya Insull has released Everyday Comfort Food, her third cookbook. Photo / Supplied
Taupō author Vanya Insull has released her third cookbook Everyday Comfort Food.
She is going on a North Island book tour to celebrate the release, hosting events in Tauranga and Rotorua.
Insull is an ambassador for Kura Kai - a charity that provides meals to whānau in need.
Vanya Insull has created a cooking “empire”.
From posting recipes online as VJ Cooks to amassing hundreds of thousands of followers, the mother-of-two has just released her third cookbook - a “wintry” collection of wholesome, hearty recipes such as slow-cooked meals and soups.
Everyday Comfort Food follows her first cookbook Everyday Favourites and second, Summer Favourites.
Some of Insull’s favourite recipes in her latest cookbook include slow-cooked lamb with homemade flatbread, country chicken bake topped with potatoes, and chicken noodle soup, she told the Rotorua Daily Post.
Insull will host her Rotorua book tour event at the Agrodome on April 10, including a “behind-the-scenes” peek at how a cookbook comes together, a talk about how she got into food blogging, and sharing some childhood photos.
“I worked there and just spent my whole childhood there, so it’s quite funny coming back.”
Insull was also hosting an event at Tauranga’s Historic Village on April 9.
Vanya Insull pictured as a child with her father Paul Bowen at the Agrodome in Rotorua. Photo / Supplied
How it started
Insull first started posting recipes online in 2016 when she was on maternity leave.
The former magazine designer and her family had moved from Auckland to Taupō where there were “no magazine jobs”.
She made a Facebook page called VJ Cooks and started sharing videos, some of which went viral.
Insull made weekly videos, and it grew from there.
She started getting some sponsored posts and built a website.
Taupō author Vanya Insull is going on a book tour to Tauranga and Rotorua to celebrate her latest book. Photo / Supplied
Insull approached a publisher a few years ago because followers were asking when she was going to release a cookbook.
After the first book sold “really well”, she was signed up for two more.
“Even though some of the recipes they’ve seen before, they love having it in a book so they don’t have to go online to find them.”
Insull said she had 208,000 followers on Instagram, 340,000 on Facebook, and more than 100,000 on TikTok.
She also had a meal planning app, and a team of five part-time contractors.
Insull said she did sponsored posts and was a Countdown ambassador for about four years.
“Now it’s like a big empire.”
The brand ambassador for Kura Kai – a charity founded by Pāpāmoa resident Makaia Carr in 2020 which provides meals to whānau in need – recently cooked at her former school, Western Heights High School.
