Name: FoodNerd (Rachel)
Age: 26
Location: Bristol
Blog URL: Food Nerd
What is your blog about?
All things food! I love trying out recipes, eating at all sorts of restaurants and travelling for food. All around being greedy and sharing my adventures with equally excitable people.
Is this your first blog?
Yep, it’s evolved over the years from a free google blogger site to what it is today. I still have lot to learn about the whole blogging world but still enjoy putting in the hours.
When did you start your current blog?
Back in January 2012 and it’s nice to see how it’s grown over the last couple of years.
What made you do it?
It was a part of my New Year’s resolutions and started it more as a record of the recipes I tried out. I also work as a Food Product Developer and mainly work in savoury food. I was missing making sweet treats so thought this would be a good excuse to get back baking.
What was your first blog post about?
My first post was a nerdy welcome to everyone, more a test post than anything but my first proper post was a recipe for homemade pastrami that I made for the first time for Christmas. It’s never great photographing hunks of meat!
What do you think is the most useful tool to you as a blogger?
Imagination and a sense of humour. I think when you’ve been cooking all day that when your macarons have stuck then you have to laugh it off than cry then come up with a recipe for the broken ones!
Do people in your real life know about your blog?
Yes
If yes, has your blog helped you career wise?
They do, I kind of regret the name now when I have to tell them it! But now learnt to embrace it. I don’t mention where I work just to have some privacy so it hasn’t helped my career wise but making blogging a full time job would be great.
What has been the one thing (blog post, project, etc) that you have been really proud of?
Being apart of a community. I hosted a Virtual Bake Sale for Macmillan Cancer Support last September, where bloggers could share one of their recipes on my page with others and donate the cost of the ingredients for that recipe to the great cause. We raised a lot of money for patients and families dealing with cancer as well as making new blog friends. I plan on hosting the Bake Sale again this year, only bigger and better.
Where do you see your blog in a year?
Hopefully still going with more readers and more fun projects for others to get involved with.
What do you wish you knew when starting your blog?
That getting it self hosted straight away will prevent a lot of hair pulling later down the line. Just pay for things straight away!
What do you wish you know more about now?
I want to improve my photography skills as you eat with your eyes first and all my favourite recipe books have plenty of pictures with each recipe.
How do you keep motivated to post?
To be honest it comes in waves, there are times when after work you just want to curl up with a glass of wine and some ice cream and not think. So I schedule my post so that I know if it’s a particularly busy day I can still post something regularly. Also food is always changing and that gets me excited!
