Vanya Insull lives in Taupō, New Zealand with her husband Mikey, two young sons Archie and Henry and her Golden Retriever, Indy. She is a passionate foodie who loves cooking, baking, sharing recipes and of course - eating! When she’s not busy in the kitchen, she loves spending time with her family, walking her dog along the lakefront, mountain biking and socialising with friends.
In November 2016, Vanya founded the VJ cooks facebook page which quickly amassed a large following. From there, Vanya set up her own website VJcooks.com which now has over 650 recipes (and counting!) with average daily views of over 35,000 from visitors across the globe. With an additional 200,000 followers on Instagram @vj_cooks and another 280,000 on Facebook, it became apparent that Vanya’s style of fuss-free, affordable, family-friendly recipes had really struck a chord with her followers.
In August 2020, as the demand for Vanya’s recipe continued to grow, Vanya founded the Cooking with VJ membership with the goal of helping home-cooks gain confidence in the kitchen. This community became so well-utilised that the team then launched the VJ Cooks Meal Planning App in early 2024. With over 2000 members and continuously growing, this remains one of Vanya’s greatest achievements to date.
In July 2022, Vanya became a published author for the first time with the release of her inaugural cookbook Everyday Favourites. This quickly became a best-seller and ultimately led to the release of her second best-selling cookbook Summer Favourites in August 2023.
Vanya is always looking for new ways to produce content for her loyal followers. In order to keep up with her ever-expanding portfolio of her work, she has built an amazing team of staff. To read more about who they are and what they do, check out the Meet the Team page.
In July 2024 Vanya was thrilled to be announced as an ambassador for Kura Kai - a national charity whose aim is to help feed families through schools and communities.
At Kura Kai we live by the value of manaakitanga (generosity and care for others) with a simple kaupapa of “Whānau cooking for Whānau”. We do this by raising funds to purchase chest freezers, which we donate to the High Schools we support. We then build a local community of volunteers who give their time, money and resources to cook nutritious family meals to help keep the freezers well stocked.
In addition to creating her own online content, Vanya has been interviewed on multiple other platforms including The Project NZ and The AM Show, sharing the inspiring story behind this successful brand. To listen to what Vanya has to say, click on any of the pictures below.
Vanya is so grateful for the ongoing support in this community. To get in touch or to work together, please email [email protected]. Or to follow Vanya on her cooking journey, simply click on any of the social media icons below. Thank you so much for being here!
