We are so excited to bring our first food story for you and this is none other than Alka Jena who is an Economist by profession and a Food Blogger, Recipe Creator, Food Stylist, Photographer at www.culinaryxpress.com. Alka has been one of our regular contributors on FoodKiChat and was winner of ‘Sweets of Holi’ contest too. Truly an inspiration for many here are we are glad to share her story with you.
Recipe Dabba : Hey Alka, please help our audience to know you better.
Alka:. I have been blogging since August 2014 to drive my passion for food, travel and photography. I started blogging by posting my thoughts, my write ups and slowly grow a passion towards food photography too. I love blogging about my kitchen rendezvous which actually reflects my mind, thoughts and how I see the world. I prefer to share recipes made with locally available fresh ingredients and with less time to cook.
Recipe Dabba: What inspired you to start your blog?
Alka: Honestly speaking , I had never thought of starting a food blog. However after my son’s suddenly high school, I had lot of free time which lead me to start a blog. Initially I started blogging just to document my tried and tasted recipes which I could refer later and share with friends. Gradually blogging inspired me to come out of my comfort zone and try out various experiments in the kitchen and gave me another area to explore food photography as a whole. Infact food and photography are two things where you can learn new things all the time, which I love to do.
Recipe Dabba: How much technical knowledge you think someone needs to have if they want to become a food blogger?
Alka: You just need to have basic knowledge about internet and as you continue with it and get used to it, you will keep on learning. So according to me being tech savvy is not as important as being passionate because if you are passionate you will take the effort to learn anything.
Recipe Dabba: Is normal photography similar to food photography? Share few of your tips with our audience.
Alka: Absolutely not!! I found food photography the hardest job that I am still learning every day and experimenting with it .I am not that expert to give any tips, but I believe first you have to know your camera and the mode that you are comfortable with. Also the lights and the angles play an important role. Once you have adapted them well, you would learn very fast.
Recipe Dabba:. Do you think there is a connection between food blogging and preservation of culture?
Alka: Definitely, I think it’s the way to pay back to my community. I do share traditional recipes as it reflects my own culture. When everyone is trying to turn to the west for recipes, we tend to forget our own homemade recipes that need to be shared with the whole world to see. So I do try to promote our culture through my food because at the end of the day, they are precious memories for me which I would love to share with the world.
Recipe Dabba: Your struggles and high points in this journey?
Alka: Blogging has taught me so many things like discipline, sense of aesthetics, respect for nature and it’s ingredients, culture and the value of true friendship. In this journey, the struggles are so many, but some of the high points are when my recipes are judged for being innovative and getting back my credits for stolen photographs.
Recipe Dabba: Could you give some advice for bloggers who are starting out?
Alka Jena: The one advice which I can give is to never start a blog or website for money. Start a blog if you have a true passion for the thing you like be it food, travel, sewing, gardening, singing etc . Then follow your passion and be sincere in it. If you do this, success will come to you sooner or later. Take blogging seriously, because it has a great future. I didn’t take it seriously and now I feel I wasted my first year of blogging. Think of blogging as a profession and constantly try to improve yourself. Give genuine information to people, only then will they come to you.
We would like to thank Alka for sharing her story and hope this inspires the foodie in you. In case you know someone who too has been an inspiration please feel free to write to contact@recipedabba.com.