Food Blogging Can Be a Passion as Well as Career - Akhilesh Kumar

Your passion can become your career as well. Because food blogging involves similar kind of hard work and dedication that is required in any other career path. 

1. Tell us about your background and journey.

My name is Akhilesh Kumar, I belong to Lucknow and I have been raised in the same city. I completed my entire education from Lucknow itself. Because being raised in the “City of Nawabs” or “City of Tehzeeb”, whatever you might love to call it, those values and culture is inbuilt in me.

If I talk about my journey, I always wanted to be in this field, but my parents didn’t consider “cooking” a career. I always loved cooking and exploring different places for food. I wanted to do Hotel Management and was selected in IHM with a good rank, after I completed my 12th but parents thought that I might become a waiter after doing this course so they didn’t allow me for it. 

So, I dropped out that year and started my graduation the next year. It was only after graduation that I started taking more and more interest in cooking and exploring different type of cuisines and food. During that time, most of my friends started their jobs and started settling down in life, while I was still preparing for competitive exams. 

So, I found myself in middle of nowhere, and “unsettled” as compared to my friends. Also, I started exploring my creative side in cooking, and one of my very good friends from college kept motivating me and pushing me to start a page of my own. So, from there I thought of starting my own food blogs with the name “unsettled bhukkad” as I was unsettled in my career and hungry to settle down asap at the same time.


2. Which is your favourite cuisine and dish?

My favourite cuisine is Mughlai, awadhi and North Indian. Awadhi basically because I belong to Lucknow. My favourite dish is Butter Chicken, Masala Chicken and in veg I love Shahi Paneer. 

3. Should food blogging be just a passion or can it become a regular career?

Food blogging can be a passion as well as career. It depends how serious you are for it. Your passion can become your career as well. Because food blogging involves similar kind of hard work and dedication that is required in any other career path. 

One has to plan, think, collect materials, and other things are involved for this. 

If I talk about myself, then I keep at least a week’s plan ready and I have to be creative with other things also, like currently I am doing a series of “Lucknow Street Food” on my Instagram page, and I have many more things in my mind to do, to engage my audience. 

If I prepare a dish it takes up around half of my day to prepare that dish, and presentation of some dishes might take one or one and a half hour, like I have to wait for the dish to cool down or something like that.


4. Which restaurants/food joints would you recommend to food lovers?

My taste buds are built according to the place I have been born and brought up. So I would strongly recommend some of my favourite food joints or restaurants from Lucknow.

Like : Basket Chaat from Royal Cafe at Hazratganj, Dastarkhwan in Lal Bagh, The Hazelnut Factory at Aliganj, Sharma Chai at Lalbagh, Chappan Bhog at Cantt, Radhey Lal at Sapru Marg, Idrees Biryani at Chowk, Prakash Kulfi at Aminabad, Mashi Biryani at Chowk and Royal Sky at Hazratganj.

For street food I would highly recommend: Ratti lal ke khaste at Chowk, 1090 food street and Pandit ji ki chaat at Aminabad.

There are endless number of restaurants and street food that I can recommend in Lucknow right now, but then I cannot tell everything in one interview. You can Follow my page and you will get updates for the same.


5. What makes you appreciate a particular dish or a restaurant and talk about it on your blog?

First, it is the Presentation and taste that makes me appreciate a dish.
As, I had tasted some dishes which had no flavours or spices in them.
The dish should carry decent flavours. Neither too spicy nor too blunt.


6. Is there a dish you particularly associate yourself with?

Yes, I highly associate with Butter Chicken.


7. Which is your favourite book and why?

I like reading books that have shayari, and poetry like, "Chand Pagal hai mere baad" by Rahat Indori Sahab and "Safed Jungli Kabootar" by Munawar Rana Sahab and many more, the list is too long and the reason is simple, shayari and poetry are an opportunity to see and understand other person’s experience and view the world from their perspective other than your own experience. 

These beautiful creations may also offer very vivid imagery with only a few lines, creating a strong impact!

- Interview by - Suhitha Mahendran