The Company We Keep: Laleh Mohmedi – Jacob’s Food Diaries

The Company We Keep is a column on the CN&CO blog that profiles some of the most interesting people in our networks. Here we share the details of the lives of people we know, showcasing the extraordinary diversity of our society and proving that people truly are at the heart of everything we do.

Last year September as I’m sure most of you know, the team and myself travelled to Club Med Bintan Island in Indonesia breaking away from our daily routine and spending some time bonding as a team in a different setting.

Being the typical Mediterranean that I am, I spent most of my time poolside. A little girl with big brown eyes and curly hair with a sass second to none happened to run up to my pool chair sporting a little mermaid bathing suit and the biggest grin on her face. Her family happened to be sitting next to me and being the talkative person that I am, I struck up a conversation with her wonderful mom, founder of Jacob’s Food Diaries, Laleh.

After a few conversations over the course of the week, I got to learn more about Laleh, what brought her to Bintan and what she does for a living.

It’s safe to say that I was simply blown away by Jacob’s Food Diaries, a business started by Laleh in her kitchen at home cooking for her son, Jacob where she turned his pancakes into a lion. Within one month her creations went viral gaining worldwide media attention including CBS, ABC, The  Today Show (USA, Australia), Sunrise, Ellen DeGeneres, Martha Stewart and many more. With all her creations made from healthy food produce, Jacob’s Food Diaries is a platform for parents and children to inspire them to make healthy food fun!I was simply blown away by Laleh’s authenticity and caring nature. Jacob’s Food Diaries now has over 141K followers on Instagram and collaborates with some of the biggest food and entertainment networks in the world: Disney, Universal, Food Network, Nickelodeon, 20th Century Fox, Jamie Oliver, FC Barcelona and Kellogs to name a few.

I was completely fascinated by Laleh’s business and thought she’d be the perfect person for our “The Company We Keep” series. Here’s a little bit more about Laleh and her incredibly successful and utterly unique business, which I’m sure you’ll enjoy learning more about Jacob’s Food Diary as much as I did.

Would you like to tell us a little bit about yourself ?

My name is Laleh, 35 years old. I was born in Iran but migrated to Melbourne Australia when I was 4. My husband Raki is 36, Half Indonesian, half Australia and is an Executive Chef at Rochford Winery. I have two children, Jacob is 6 years and Charlie is 17 months old (going on 21 years! haha)

How did Jacob’s Food Diaries come about?

May 2015 I turned Jacob’s spelt pancakes into a lion for a bit of fun – he absolutely loved it so we started making them regularly. I posted them on my personal Facebook page and my mummy friends kept telling me to open an Instagram account. So in June I opened an account and had no idea how to use it! Within a month we went viral and Jacob’s Food Diaries was born!

If I’m not mistaken Jacob’s Food Diaries is named after your son, speaking of your special children, how do you balance your work with being a mother?

Yes it was named after Jacob and unfortunately as we had so much media attention I am stuck with the name! haha! Balancing work and motherhood is extremely hard and challenging but I am so blessed to have the most beautiful mother (who literally lives down the road from me) who is able to help look after them whilst I work 🙂

What is your best advice for working mothers on balance and still achieving their dreams and aspirations?

My advice would be to follow your dreams – just because you are a mother and have responsibilities does not mean that you can’t follow and do what you love! Never give up- hard work and determination pay off! I was so lucky to have fallen into this, and to be honest it is an absolute dream job!

You have collaborated with some incredible brands – what are some of the best things you have done?

We have honestly been so lucky to have worked with some amazing brands, from Disney to Barcelona FC to workshops in Dubai! To be honest I don’t have a favourite- they have all been awesome in their own way!

What upcoming projects do you have planned?  

We are working on some really exciting projects at the moment- but you will have to wait and see 😉 My goal this year is create a Food Art book – just waiting on the publishers to come knocking at my door! haha!

Could you tell me a little bit about how your travel and lifestyle blog? Is this separate to Jacob’s food diary?

Over the last few years we have been collaborated and travelled to some amazing countries to showcase all the fun things to do as a family including food which ties into Jacob’s Food Diaries. We are hoping to do more of that in the upcoming years and showcase some amazing countries – maybe South Africa next! 😉

What is your best part of what you do?

I just love what I do – the best part would have to be the emails/messages I get from mothers with picky eaters who have been inspired by our page to try food art and it has worked for them! That for me is so amazing!

Half way across the world, living world’s apart, who would’ve thought that I would meet such a profound human being sitting sunbathing at a pool. Being a lifestyle business driven by people and relationships, I am so grateful to have met Laleh. I am certainly looking so forward to seeing what lies ahead for Jacob’s Food Diaries. Keep your eyes peeled on Jacob’s Food Diary’s Instagram and Facebook to see all Laleh’s newest creations – I am certainly mesmerised every time and I’m certain you will be too!