Sunday, November 8, 2015

Deransy Haliesya, The Force Behind Instagram’s JKTFOODBANG

If you’ve ever done research on any food place in Jakarta, then you have probably noticed the level of popularity some of them have. Not just limited to bloggers in general, but also in Instagram. One of which that came to our attention is JKTFOODBANG. In less than 2 years, the account has booked more than 140,000 followers. We contacted Deransy Haliesya, the face behind JKTFOODBANG and fired away with questions.

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Can you tell us about yourself and Jakarta Food Bang?

My name is Deransy Dinar Haliesya, the Founder and Marketing Director of JKTFOODBANG.  I also work in one of Media Companies in Jakarta.  I built JKTFOODBANG by myself and along the way my partner Iwan Kusuma helped me in managing this Food Blog.  Iwan is the Co-Founder and Business Development of JKTFOODBANG.

Besides my fascination in food, I also love to travel in and outside of Jakarta.  I don’t really like to call myself as a ‘traveler’ or a ‘food blogger’, but I do know that I have a passion in this industry.  I also have a deep curiosity in culinary, from street food to expensive dishes.

How did Jakarta Food Bang come to life? When did it start?

JKTFOODBANG was started in May 2014. At first I never really thought that it would become this big.  I love culinary but I’m not that good of a photographer, so I took baby-steps in learning some basic photography technics that will make the photographs look interesting.  Especially I’m aiming to make the photographs to look inviting to all the followers and make them want to try the food that instance.

Since then, I started to take pictures of all the food from any places that I visit and people also started to invite me to come to their restaurants to have a food testing and review.  And sometimes they send me their food for me to try and review it.  I was quite overwhelmed with their enthusiasm in having their food to be featured in JKTFOODBANG.  And then Iwan decided to help me with managing the traffic, financial and business strategy.  Working together in running JKTFOODBANG makes us realized that we are good in what we do.  We love what we do with JKTFOODBANG.  JKTFOODBANG is like our weekend job, that’s why we really enjoy doing it.

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What are your favorite places to eat in Jakarta?

Places to eat in Jakarta?  You can say that I’m the kind of person who only likes certain kind of food like Chinese/Japanese.  Japanese, I love Ditokyo Sakaba and Donburi Ichiya.  Those two places are like my favorite restaurants to be visited every now and then.

What are your favorite places to drink & hang out in Jakarta?

Frankly, I don’t really like to sit around and drink, but when I’m with my friends I really enjoy hanging out at The Goods Diner and Monolog.

Who are your followers?

As far as I know, most of our followers are young people.  Perhaps there are a few of adult and ‘mature’ people as well but not as much as the young people.  Believe it or not someone like Mr. William Wongso likes to share his food to us and we think since then also people starting to recognize JKTFOODBANG.

What’s your opinion about the number of popular Instagram foodies in Indonesia, Jakarta especially?

My opinions about them are varied, because each bloggers have their own trademark.  After meeting some of the bloggers in Jakarta, I can see that they have their own goals, for instance they make this industry as their main job, some as their part-time job and some just for the hobbies.  I found them unique and really interesting.  I’m very pleased to have the chance to meet them and get to share our thoughts about food.

Your tips for expats exploring food & drinks of Jakarta?

My tips for the expats are, if you are in Jakarta and want to know the authenticity of Jakarta’s culinary, don’t go to fancy restaurants.  They should try our traditional food market such as in Pantai Indah Kapuk, Mayestik and around Kota Tua area.

Where are you taking the Jakarta Food Bang?

Our website is in progress, for events, we surely will do more of it in the near future.  We are planning to make our own F&B event and perhaps opening our own eatery.  We do have a lot of things in mind to expanding JKTFOODBANG in the future.  Hopefully we could make it happen one step at a time with the supports from our family, friends and great followers.

 To find out more about this trending foodie account and to get updated about the latest food trends of Jakarta, check out and follow @JKTFOODBANG and prepare to build up some appetite!

 



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