Next on my “who you want to torture with questions about life” list is Mr Gilles Draps. He really took his time (let’s say a week or 5) to share his precious answers with us 🙂 But let’s be honest, Ilja and I aren’t the best time managers either so we did our very best to wait patiently.

Gilles is the guy who always saddles me with a huge craving for food via his Instagram account @eat.warm. I almost begged him to invite me over for dinner but apparently I still have to figure out how to master my female charm to the fullest 😉 (yes, Gilles… this is me begging… again!)

 

 

1. The essentials: how old are you and what’s your daily occupation?

I’m 31 years old, nearly 32 (yaiks) and a “professional foodie”. In short this means I’m both a photographer, storyteller and a gourmet fast-food supplier. An online and offline foodie to the bone.

 

2. What’s your background? What did you study? Any other important life events that made you become the person you are now?

A while ago I was pretty embarrassed to admit that I didn’t study. I started working as a sales guy right after high school and on the side I worked long hours in all kinds of restaurants during the weekend. But these experiences definitely made me become who I am right now.

I get tired of things easily so I changed jobs quite often. A major advantage is that I learned to absorb information very fast, two years ago I would have never thought I’d be a photographer right now.

3. Besides your daily occupation, do you have other special interests / hobbies we need to know about?

I have an online food platform called eat.WARM and you can find me on several social media platforms under the same name. Besides that I love hiking and I’m pretty good at skiing ;

 

4. If you could borrow my unlimited credit card and buy one thing, what would it be?

A nature resort in Alaska with a humongous chalet and a chopper that matches my ski gear! 

 

5. What makes you really really happy?

That’s an easy one, sharing food with my best friends and family.

 

6. If you could change lives with a person (he or she, from the past or present) for 1 day, who would it be? 

That would be Jamie Oliver and Chris Burkard. I couldn’t choose… sorry. 


7. If you can use my unlimited credit card a second time to book a city trip, where would you go to?

It’s not really a city trip but hey… I would go straight to Patagonia.

 

Gilles Draps


8. If there were one thing you can change about the world, what would it be?

To have a world with less consumption, we need to focus more on quality and less on quantity. Live slow, not fast!

 

9. Which advice would you give to your younger self? 

Even if you’re not sure, don’t be scared to take professional decisions early in life. The quicker you fail doing something, the more you learn.


10. Which goals would you really like to achieve in the future? Both personally and professionally! 

Having my own TV show, skiing of a mountain peak in Alaska and just being plain happy. Oh and I would put all that on film.

 

Pictures by Ilja Sura Changlor Smets