Jackie Gebel has been obsessed with food for just about as long as she can remember. Still, when she launched her food- and drink-obsessed No Leftovers Instagram account 13 years ago, she had no idea it would blossom into a full-time job with nearly 350K followers and counting.
Users can’t get enough of Gebel’s insatiable enthusiasm for food and travel, with the hungry adventurer offering inspiration on how to more meaningfully engage with the world—and the kitchen—one bite at a time. Today, the New Jersey native and former PR pro splits her time between food havens Los Angeles and New York in between globe-trotting quests to uncover bold flavors and get inspired for her next recipe.
We recently caught up with Gebel, who chatted with us about her social media journey, offered insightful travel tips, and made us incredibly hungry as she talked sausage, grilling, and what she loves to cook at home.
When did you fall in love with food?
When I was a kid, my best friend’s mom was a huge baker and every day she’d make chocolate ganache cake after school. She really piqued my interest in food and cooking. And my mom cooked dinner every night—she’s Puerto Rican and she would make mashups of Puerto Rican and Jewish cuisine.
You’ve been in the food world since before “food influencer” was a job title. How did you get started?
After I graduated college, I was really big on Foursquare and had a huge network of friends. I was able to see people checking into different restaurants, so I developed this insane restaurant list. It was basically like an Excel spreadsheet blog with hundreds of restaurants. It would get hundreds of thousands of opens every month. I was doing it before social media was what it is now… I was just so genuinely in love with food and talking about where I was eating.
I started posting my food finds right about when Instagram came out. I was posting a lot of photos on Instagram, a lot of recipes and healthy food and cool ingredients I learned about while living in Israel. And then fast forward—I traveled the world, so I knew about ingredients. I did it for so long and I loved it. It was so genuine and organic. I really love that I was able to create this little career for myself out of it.
What do you want people to take away from No Leftovers?
I’ve always wanted to inspire people to see the world through the lens of food. It starts in the kitchen, the way you travel, the way you eat when you travel, and then you don’t want to stop. (For example) every time I go to a new country, I try to take a cooking class. There’s always a new skill or ingredient I haven’t heard of, and there’s something so special about going off the beaten path. I want to inspire people to try something different, whether it’s cooking or the way they travel.
For people who want to expand their palates but don’t know where to start, what do you suggest?
I think as far as introducing new ingredients into your kitchen… whether it’s a hot sauce or a spice you’re not familiar with, start slowly and take it from there. Especially with all the seasonality, you can really find so many different types of produce and ingredients.
What food is having a moment?
I feel that, weirdly, matcha is having the biggest moment. It’s wild. And protein additions are having a moment, too.
And what do you think deserves more love?
Beans. They’re so cheap, easy, and healthy. You can put them in dessert, like black bean brownies. I grew up with beans a lot—my mom’s Puerto Rican, so she would always have beans in the fridge.
Ok, you knew this was coming: Let’s talk sausage. Are you team spicy or mild?
Spicy! I tend toward spicy things in general.
You recently posted a video of the spiral sausage "glizzy hack." Any other tricks you love?
One of my favorite things to do for an appetizer is get a big sausage and put it in the oven and then slice it hasselback-style. I just think experimenting with sausages versus just hot dogs in summer is really fun. I also love the "corn on the cob cut with the bundt pan" hack.
Do you have a go-to chicken sausage recipe for weeknight dinners?
I made this bell pepper and chicken sausage pizza that was really good. Also, I’m a huge burrito person, and I make a breakfast chicken sausage burrito. It goes so well with eggs.
Do you ever cook in an air fryer?
I’m obsessed with the air fryer. I use it for everything. I make hard boiled eggs there. A go-to is probably sweet potato fries and salmon. I like to cook healthy when I’m home, but sometimes I also bake cookies in the air fryer too.
It’s summertime. Are you into grilling?
I love grilling. I love taking fresh things and using only salt and pepper to make something great. I also really love grilling stone fruit in the summer: Grilled peaches are my favorite. Watermelon and feta salad—I eat that every day in the summer.
Do you have any advice to help people step up their grill game?
There's something really beautiful about using a salt block or a cedar plank to grill. Looking into different surfaces you could add to your grill is always really fun. I cook salmon cedar planks all the time in the summer.
What do you make when you really don’t feel like cooking?
One thing that I literally make everyday is fried rice. I have it every day. I recently had leftover salmon and threw it in with fried rice. I also make breakfast burritos or wraps every day.