Darpan Chordia - Following What You Are Passionate About and Taking Considerable and Logical Steps Toward Achieving Your Goals (Food Blogger From India)

 

I love baking, it is something that I am the most passionate about and I spend a huge chunk of my time experimenting with new ingredients and new recipes. I spend my evening watching reels and researching about what’s trending and binge-watch some of my favourite creators like Peter Mckinnon and Joanie Simon (Two of the best photographers). 

 

1. Tell us about your background and journey.

I am Darpan Chordia, I’m 21 and I’m from Pune. I am a Culinary student, a food blogger and a pastry chef. I have always been passionate about food, and well that’s where It all started. From making, and clicking pictures to finally eating, I love every aspect of it. I have always loved this city, Pune, and I knew that my journey had to start from here. The journey started 5 years ago, and my love towards this art of food blogging has only grown since.

 

2. When did you decide that you wanted to create content on food and how did you start?

In a world of chaos,  food came as comfort for me, The traditional and cultural values behind it, the history about how a dish came into existence and how you make it,  and learning about every aspect of food excited me. It started with my brother forcing me to do something about my passion and made an Instagram account for me. 

As time went by it later caught up to me that I actually enjoyed writing about food. From travelling all around Pune tasting food, clicking pictures and finally writing about it, It was one of my guilty pleasures now.

3. What challenges did you face while making a presence on Instagram?

So I started my Instagram blog when I was in my 11^th standard, balancing blogging and studies was a big task. Especially with 12^th boards on the tail, I had to plan a proper scheduled since I still wasn’t so sure about blogging yet. Maintaining a proper post schedule was a big task. Keeping up with what’s new, keeping up with Instagram’s constant updates like IGTV and reels was a big task for me.

4. What is your idea of a success mantra in life?

For me, success is about honesty,  It is about being true to yourself, being true to what you believe in, Following what you are passionate about and taking considerable and logical steps toward achieving your goals is success to me.

5. Is blogging and Instagram content creation a financially sustainable career?

I will say yes. If you are someone who loves writing about anything say food or fashion, and you are passionate about it, you can be a full-time blogger.  Many brands have realised the full potential of content creators now and the commercial value in the digital marketing space is only going up. If you love creating content, you can definitely be financially stable with what you get out of it.

 

6. What are your future plans as to how you want to take your food blogging to next level?

I don’t usually plan things, I like to live in the moment, but that being said there are a few things planned. The plan is to explore more, learn more about Pune and also expand out of it. I have already started exploring Mumbai as well but it is going to expand more and more. I as of now,  am running veggie Pune single handily, and I also plan to expand in terms of members so that I will be even more consistent with content. 

 

7. What does your typical day look like?

I am a morning person so it starts early for me with a 15-20 km cycling ride for me around various areas in Pune which is followed with heavy breakfast. I start off my work with making content for the day and posting it. 

I love baking, it is something that I am the most passionate about and I spend a huge chunk of my time experimenting with new ingredients and new recipes. I spend my evening watching reels and researching about what’s trending and binge-watch some of my favourite creators like Peter Mckinnon and Joanie Simon (Two of the best photographers). 

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

As a chef myself, for me more than 50 per cent of my liking is towards food rather than ambience and service when it comes to the restaurant. A dish doesn’t necessarily need to be fancy or unique for me to like it, there are just 2 key things that I look for, Presentation and taste. A dish that is as simple as soft, hot Gulab jamun can also make me sway towards liking a dish/ restaurant however the texture and presentation should be appealing as well. 

9. Any advice that you would like to give to the budding bloggers?

-My advice would be to explore and upscale. Explore what is around your area, learn what people love to eat, learn how food is made and try to understand food. When criticising about food, you need to have good knowledge about what it is that you are talking about. 

-Be true to your audience and yourself when promoting/ criticising anything.

-Be consistent with your posts.  It doesn’t have to be once or twice a day, set a pattern for your post and stick to it.

-Find inspiration. See what’s trending and rather than just copying, try to add your take on it, originality always sells.

 

10. What do you do to upskill yourself?

- Research, research and more research. We live in a time where everything moves at a high pace and as a creator, you have to match with the pace. I spend a considerate amount of time watching other creators and what’s new on my platform. 

- To upscale my editing skills, I have recently started learning to use adobe photoshop and adobe premier pro.

- As a born-on Instagram creator, I also try to attend as many expert sessions on their platform as I can to get a good insight on how to grow more organically.

 

Bio - 

I’m Darpan Rajendra Chordia, I’m 21 and I’m from Pune, Maharashtra. 

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Interviewed By - Shashank Sehgal