Today we’d like to introduce you to Nina Cereno.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Nina. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
First, I’ll explain what Saiko means. The name “Saiko” is actually saikou in Japanese which means the best or supreme but when you use it in a feeling expression, it’s saying something is superb or awesome, which I use for food.
Which leads me to starting Saiko Food in 2017 because I wanted to show my love for food (but also to save space on my phone–since I occupied my gallery of all the food pictures). I think I had a deep desire to really do content creation and social media. I went to an arts high school where I studied acting, so I’ve always enjoyed telling stories and being able to express myself through creativity. When I moved into college, I pursued a business degree where I started evolving how I can be more efficient with my passions. I’ve had several internships for digital marketing and graphic design where I learned how to run big niche accounts, make campaigns, and use search engine optimization to my advantage.
In college, I got my first DSLR camera, my baby Canon 80D. This is where I started exploring photography. I sought out restaurants and major food festivals to tackle two birds with one stone, eating fun food and improving my photography skills. I started getting noticed by vendors at my favorite foodie festivals, the 626 and OC Night Market. Then the stream of invites came along which pushed me to food blog more. I began a Youtube Channel to document my experiences because I was so happy and excited to meet new restaurants to learn more of their stories and learn how they make their food. This only fueled me to create more and more.
In comes COVID-19 which actually pushed me to use my skills from my work experience into my blog. I actually talked with one of my mentors before who got mad at me because I didn’t show my face on my food account. I’ve learned all these back end parts of digital marketing, but as an influencer, people didn’t know who I was because I only post food. If I want people to know who I am and relate to me, they need to know who I am. So I started sharing my life with my community and now have become friends with a lot of foodies around me. I started collaborating with them for videos on my YT channel and attending media events with other like-minded friends. I think this broke me into the community even more because I felt so comfortable with people who understand the food blogger process of taking pictures, working with restaurants, and actually reviewing food with words more than just “delicious.” Meeting all these foodies really made me happy but I’ve also seen how much this community has grown since when I started in 2017.
Has it been a smooth road?
I think the constant struggle is keeping consistency. Some people don’t realize that food blogging is a lot of work. To me, this is basically a side hustle. You are working with restaurants to schedule collabs, you are taking pictures and videos for 30 minutes to an hour, editing content, writing captions or reviews, engaging with other foodies, and posting often enough that people remember you are still alive. It’s a lot of work and I really give kudos to all influencers for the amount of effort they do to grow. It’s truly an endless cycle and I even get burnt out especially because I’m still going to school and almost tackling a new career.
The foodie community has become quite large and I think now a lot of foodies are feeling pressured because it’s become a very saturated niche, especially if you are in SoCal. So it’s easy to get lost in all these pictures of food. But what I really try to do is remember my reason why I created Saiko Food, which is to tell stories. I wanted some more substance so I can bring even more of a story. I remembered one of the things I’ve always wanted to do from even my acting days was to have my own show. This gave birth to my new web series, Neighborhood Nams. Here I interview with restaurant owners, go behind the kitchen and watch them cook, and review their food in a little mukbang. I’m really looking for the story and quality of the people who made food for me to explore. I feel like this was my way of also giving back to restaurants too. Especially now during the pandemic, these businesses are having such a hard time reaching customers and establishing an online presence. Speaking with owners, it’s really because they don’t have the money to do it now or they don’t know how to reach a bigger food enthusiast community. So in efforts to support them, I try to take as much content as I can with pictures, videos, reviews or other things so they can use it for their own platforms and keep building. We are all growing so it’s only right to support one another.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Saiko Food – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
Saiko Food has truly become my passion to create content centered around food. I post a lot of pictures and I think my photography has really improved over the years. What makes me different from other similar bloggers is that I create videos. I create short promo videos for restaurants, unboxing videos of food products, eating mukbangs, live streams, and interviews through my Neighborhood Nams series. I usually collaborate a lot with others in my videos too, because it’s always more fun to eat with someone!
I think the proudest part of my personal brand is really me. I’m proud that I can share my story with others or be part of other stories as well. My account has been growing a lot and I know it’s because of the countless hours I spend creating content. I watch a lot of videos on how to improve and how I can be better for Youtube, Instagram, or even in mind. I’m also proud of myself for learning how to use all those skills I’ve learned from my work experiences for my blog. My mentors have helped me so much to reach my potential and now I want to do the same for others.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I’m based in Orange County but I do visit Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley a few times every month. Overall I love being in SoCal in general because the food scene is truly growing. We have so many stories from small vendors to big chain restaurants on how they become successful in their industry. I think what’s unique about both OC and LA County is that we have big events. We have pop up shops everywhere, food halls, farmers markets, food trucks, and food festivals everywhere which is really my favorite areas to explore and try new food. I also love our area because there’s so many foodies here. I’ve made a lot of great friends because we are a bigger county.
As for the aspects of our area that I don’t preferably like is the distance. I do love driving but I don’t like struggling for parking. I have this habit of asking all my foodie friends who have been to a restaurant before me of what the parking situation is like. I don’t like paying for parking and I’m lucky that I know how to park in reverse (WITH NO BACK CAMERA) for parallel parking. I wish taking the train was more common or that there were more stations within walking distance.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVPHlt0E1Ld6TkCnjBRI-mg
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saikofood/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ninacsaiko
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=s62Cf73z-UvlG2Lgan3Gdg
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nina-cereno-a893aa149
Image Credit:
All images are my own. Credit: Nina Cereno aka Saiko Food
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