Do y’all remember way back before Instagram was really even a thing, when Jessica Simpson shared about slutty brownies on Leno? Well, that recipe developer was none other than one of today’s most popular food bloggers, What’s Gaby Cooking. At the time, Gaby worked as Jessica’s private chef, calling the entire experience a “dream”. And no, she never cooked her Chicken From The Sea…. “It was a thing for when I was not there,” Gaby laughs thinking about it. She does note that they did share a similar palate, loving mostly healthy foods with Tex-Mex influence.

Rewind a few years & Gaby was living off of grilled cheese & pasta. “I was the pickiest eater growing up. When I got to college I wanted to be able to cook for my roommates & teammates so I quickly learned how to make things,” Gaby explains. Upon graduation, she took a job in another field, but when the entire company folded during the height of the recession, Gaby decided to opt out of taking another job & instead go to culinary school. While she doesn’t think it’s necessary to attend if you’re starting a food blog, Gaby credits culinary school for her ability to look at a recipe & determine if it’s going to work just based on the science & ratios she learned. “If the butter to flour to sugar ratio is off in someone’s cookie recipe I’m not going to bother making it,” she explains. That standard ratio is: 1 cup butter to 2 cups sugar to 2 1/2 cups flour plus all the other dry ingredients. However, if there are a number of alterations to the recipe, such as incorporating flax egg or date paste, Gaby notes that will throw the rule off.

Now flash forward & Gaby has one of the top food blogs in the entire world with her own line at Williams-Sonoma. “I called Williams-Sonoma & said this is what I want to do,” she explains about how she landed the collaboration. Clearly someone knows how to go after what they want. However Gaby does laugh thinking back about how it wasn’t a quick yes from their team. “They had me come cook for their entire team & it was awesome. Then I didn’t hear from them for months & I was like f***,” making her easily the most relatable “influencer” of all time. A few months later, the phone call was returned when they let her know they wanted her to launch her own salsa line exclusively with Williams-Sonoma. Now with a line of salsas, olive oil, spices & even a cheese board, it’s safe to say this collaboration will keep on growing. Gaby even calls them her “partners for life.” She hopes one day to have her own line of tableware such as serving bowls & utensils. Speaking of projects in the works, Gaby’s second cookbook, which comes out Spring of next year, will focus more on entertaining than her previous one which was a major bestseller. Of course it has her signature California girl flare in each & every recipe. What’s even more than that? While she plans to take a much deserved break in between this book that’s coming out & a future one, she does note she’d love to write a book that brings all of her favorite meals from travels into the home. Think about that incredible, yet wildly complicated dinner you had in Morocco made in 30 minutes in the comfort of your own home. Selfishly, we hope that break isn’t too long….

With all that experience & success under her belt, it comes as no surprise that Gaby has done the near impossible: made a smoothie that isn’t loaded with sugar or unhealthy additives, that you not only want to make, you crave it. It all makes sense as to why she’s the leader in the food & blogging worlds, she makes real food, good food.

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