1. Tell us about your background and journey.
I am the blogger and recipe developer behind, an award-winning food and health blog.
I am a Certified Nutritionist and Health Coach. I have professional certification in nutrition, sports medicine, and meal planning.
I started blogging in 2008 a that got very popular in the parenting space. I won multiple accolades for this blog.
I started my second blog, Rachna Cooks, in 2013 to document my recipes and passion for cooking. It was at the behest of my young sons that I started this blog.
Over the years I worked in the field of content doing both writing and Editing. I have worked with multiple clients in India and abroad.
I learned cooking from my mother who was a skilled home cook. She made pretty much everything from scratch. After she passed away shortly after my wedding, cooking made me feel closer to her.
I was living in the US back then. Watching Food Network on television and experimenting with produce and spices from various cuisines and cultures in my home kitchen honed my cooking skills.
I kept a small journal in which I wrote my recipes back then. Later, I published some of those recipes on the blog.
Being a Chemistry Major, I have always been fascinated by how cooking works at the level of chemical reactions. I am also an MBA in Marketing.
I have published 3 on Amazon.
You will also find a small section on fitness and health on my blog that stems from my passion for workout and motivation to stay fit.
2. Which is your favorite cuisine and dish?
Difficult to point at one favorite cuisine. But if I really have to, it will be Indian. Homecooked healthy Indian food is my favorite.
3. Should food blogging be just a passion or can it become a regular career?
Food blogging must always stem from a passion. To turn it into a career is a lot of hard work. There is a fair bit of technicality involved in terms of running a blog, SEO, photographing recipes, recipe testing, and so on.
The competition is cutthroat in food blogging. So, it will definitely be daunting, but it can be done.
4. Does one's approach change when cooking professionally and at home?
Cooking professionally for me is recipe testing for my blog and readers.
I test each recipe out a few times and tweak it to taste perfect as well as look good. Food photography and taking videos are also very important parts of food blogging these days. Hence, I have to hone my skills in those areas as well.
Cooking at home is more relaxed. It is mostly also recipes that I have cooked many times and love a lot.
5. What makes you appreciate a particular dish or a restaurant and talk about it?
I don’t really talk about restaurants on my blog. But I do share Google reviews with pictures and appreciate places that put effort into their food and service.
6. How important is social media to food blogging?
Social media presence is an integral part of food blogging. Apart from my food blog, I am there on Instagram, and YouTube, have a Facebook page, and also run my own Facebook group. It is all about reaching out to your audience on various platforms.
Brief Bio:
Rachna Parmar
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