All You Need Is Creativity and Willingness to Experiment - Shilpa Sharma

My belief is “follow your passion with focus & perseverance and success is destined to come your way” and I am doing the same. 

1. Tell us about your background and journey.

I am Shilpa, a passionate foodie, food art admirer, food blogger on Instagram, proud & happy mommy of a 2-year old girl, an unconventional chef on a mission to help people relish their interest in food, flavors and dish authenticity in easy steps while remaining sumptuous.

Professionally I’m a Hotel management graduate who has been successfully discharging services as a Human Resource Specialist for last 8 years. My cooking is mostly inspired from My mother. The warmth and simplicity she adds in her food, makes her food even tastier.

My Journey -

I’m fond of cooking & travelling, with travelling I got to try different dishes across the globe and slowly but steadily the love for food deepened and inspired me experimenting different techniques to attain the authenticity in my food. I matured in my understanding of food, flavors, colors, presentation & palatability. 

The true realisation of my potential dawned upon me when we (my family) moved to USA and my husband being foodie can’t resist his cravings for a good Indian meal a day, with his food delights from office came home as appreciation messages and we were hosting every other weekend dinners to our friends and their families. 

As they say positive criticism is always healthy, since my husband is also a fabulous cook and his reviews to my cooking made me improve, albeit it’s hard to impress him. Lol. So in short, my interest of making food and people’s interest of having delicacies from the Eastern world became a buzz in our surroundings.

The journey of creating @Feast.fromeast on Instagram and showcasing my passion towards cooking and Photography to world started in Lock down. Its’s been 5 Months and I can’t believe my page has been liked by 7K+ amazing people and its counting.


2. Which is your favourite cuisine and dish?

I’m a versatile person in nature and love to try different cuisines. I don’t hesitate to travel even to distant places just for the sake of eating, understanding the traditional way of cooking and getting to know the flavors of the land. 

But I must say nothing tastes better than North Indian Cuisine, being a Punjabi I love Chole Bhature, Rajma Chawal and all the Parathas in the world and the list is long.


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

I’m new to this blogging field and the journey so far has been really exciting and rewarding. I feel it’s a platform to connect, share knowledge, learn from feed backs and improve; one thing I can vouch is I go to bed with a sense of achievement seeing those encouraging comments. 

It’s an addiction but one that brings happiness not just to me but all my followers and I shall not hesitate in continuing with the same as I follow a disciplined regimen, trained delivering multiple roles while maintain the right balance. My belief is “follow your passion with focus & perseverance and success is destined to come your way” and I am doing the same.


4. Can cooking be learnt at culinary schools or a natural talent is required?

As I told you earlier, I’ve graduated from a Culinary school but that really did not make any difference in my cooking, off course it gave me exposure about different cooking styles, flavors, aromas etc. but even if you’re not a culinary student and have a passion towards food, you can make it in this field. 

All you need is creativity and willingness to experiment. Schools can sharpen your skills but passion for the craft nobody can instill.


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

According to me, or what I’ve learnt in college, presentation makes anything stand out, first you eat with eyes and then you decide to actually eat it or leave it; same analogy goes well with the restaurants, good ambience, hygiene and presentation is what I look for.


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

I can associate myself with Mexican Food. As I find it similar to Indian cuisine. Chiles and pungent spices are extensively used in the cuisines of both the countries. I’m a huge fan of Enchiladas and Burrito’s from Mexican cuisine.


7. Which is your favourite book and why?

I’m not much into reading, with my busy schedule I Hardly get time to read. I ‘d rather prefer listening to Music. Anything that has Arijit Singh’s and Jubin Nautiyal’s songs help calm my nerves.

- Interviewed by - Suhitha Mahendran