Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Rebeca Martinez. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Rebeca thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. One of the toughest things about progressing in your creative career is that there are almost always unexpected problems that come up – problems that you often can’t read about in advance, can’t prepare for, etc. Have you had such and experience and if so, can you tell us the story of one of those unexpected problems you’ve encountered?

In 2024, in the middle of my return to my social media food Instagram page (I had taken a hiatus with the birth of my child) and a short while after I changed my handle from BYUFoodie to Becalafoodie, I got an unexpected autoimmune illness that really rocked my food world. I was unable to eat food for almost 2 months. Once I had recovered, food was such a different experience for me. A lot of the times, I had to be very careful about where I choose to eat, because certain foods negatively impacted my health. I felt like I was at a cross roads: either continue my foodie page as is and risk getting sick from various foods, or learn to integrate sharing my favorite home cooked meals with the local places I can go to. At first, I was really frightened to do so because my audience was looking for local Utah food recommendations; I felt like I was not being true to what I intended to do for my page. However, I remembered something really important: the reason I started this page in the first place. I wanted people to find positive connections to food, whether that be with other people, places, or themselves while eating and creating food. My goal to share these local places was for them to connect to those around them, and I felt like adding my own homecooked recipes would also continue that goal for connection. As I have been doing that, I have discovered a newfound passion in myself to continue to connect with local business, not only restaurants but also stores to find the best foods Utah has to offer.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I have always had a passion for food, so when the original creator of the BYUFoodie Instagram page said she wanted to “give away” her handle on Instagram, I thought to myself, “this could be something fun and new to try!” About 4 years into my foodie page, I realized that the name BYUFoodie felt limiting to all the places in Utah I had tried and I was long past my college days of being a student at BYU. That’s when I decided I would change my handle to Beca La Foodie (@becalafoodie). I felt like it represented myself as a Latina trying out all the foods and places that Utah had to offer; its actually funny because when I posted a reel about my name change, a lot of people thought I was moving to LA. Thankfully, I clarified and I have been loving my new handle.

My focus as a foodie is to tell a story: I want to tell the story of my experience with a new place and the story of the owners of the places I get invited to or choose to try. Food is such a special experience, everyone has ties to it in some way; food brings people together, and that’s why I love sharing about the delicious places I’ve had the privilege to try!

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

One of the resources I wish I knew earlier in my foodie journey is not being afraid to connect with other foodies within the community. All foodies I have met are nothing but kind and inviting; I learned a lot as a foodie early on by following their pages and bookmarking places I knew I wanted to later on that were farther away from my area. Don’t be afraid to seek advice for those that have experience in the foodie world, they have an expertise and can steer you in the right direction!

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me, connecting to new people through the places I have been invited to has been so rewarding. Getting to get an inside look at different people’s ‘why’ behind the food they share with the world is so special. Not only that, but you come to learn that there is more alike to each of us than there is different. We are all individuals trying to create something beautiful to share with the world; every single person on this planet puts beautiful things into the world with the hopes that it gets accepted and appreciated. What great privilege we have as a society to be able to enjoy some of the best culinary creations that people choose to share with the world. Gaining that perspective through the places I have tried as a foodie has been so life changing and incredible!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @becalafoodie