If you are a committed foodie, then you may have thought of taking your passion to a whole another level beyond tasting recipes at home or eating out.
The world of food is a diverse one – chances are you are just getting started on a long exciting journey.
But, Can Food Be a Hobby?
Certainly yes. The mere interest in food alone opens a plethora of avenues. To get started in this expansive area, grab and read a nutrition-related book, switch to a food channel on TV, or open a food blog and read it religiously until a specific niche captures your interests. Another trick is to make cooking a day-to-day habit. Once you get knowledgeable enough, you can get started on virtually anything that involves food.
Now let’s take a glance at some of the top food-related hobbies you could try:
1. Making Handmade Chocolates
Pop in one of your local culinary schools or pastry shops and they’ll gladly admit you into their patisserie- and chocolate-making classes.
You can start at the Institute of Culinary Education .
Take one of their 3 course lessons on candy making and chocolate tempering and watch your interest grow.
2. Preparing Your Own Cocktail
The rift between food and a great cocktail isn’t as wide as you might think.
Many food lovers are also experimentalists.
So, becoming a mixologist isn’t entirely out of the cards.
The best thing about it is that you’ll have to carry out lots of sampling to discover your perfect mix of flavors.
The fact that it demands a lot of practice makes it a great hobby.
3. Starting A Garden
It takes a committed hobbyist to buy tons of those tiny packets of herbs and similar plants from local grocery stores and start a collection at home.
Even better, you can make it more interesting by starting your garden at home.
Here are 30 beautiful DIY garden pots to get started with.
You can start with these top herbs.
4. Ice Cream Making
Few things are as refreshing as ice cream in the summer heat.
Making your scoop at home isn’t as hard as you might imagine.
Like anything else, the trick lies in your ability to perfect the basics.
You can expand from there by adding many different flavors of your liking.
5. Bread Baking
It is now easier to learn baking than ever.
Many boulangeries and bakeries offer artisan bread classes at a cheap price.
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These establishments provide avenues for students to learn to bake virtually every kind of bread.
6. Beer Making
Chances are you have already spent a few hours in the kitchen trying out a few new, delicious dishes.
But why not extend it to homemade drinks?
The best way to get started is to brew your beer.
It isn’t as hard as it sounds as you don’t need much costly equipment to brew an original thing.
In fact, some of the reasonably priced food processing equipment out there is beer brewing kits.
They can be found in your local houseware stores and online. There’s a right kit for every type of beer.
7. Whiskey Making
If you don’t fancy beer, then you should distill your signature whisky.
Good news: preparing homemade whisky isn’t much of a hustle either.
Whisky is probably the most tried homemade alcoholic drink for foodies – chances are your foodie pals have tried it already.
While the most basic whiskey kit is cheap and easy to get, you need to be extra keen when choosing and investing in extras like oak whiskey barrels as they determine the flavor of your whiskey.
8. Wine Making
Wine is yet another great DIY alcoholic drink you could make in the comfort of your home.
Homemade wine is as common as homemade whiskey if not slightly more.
The best thing about wine is that the fermentation process takes a shorter time compared to beer and whiskey, meaning the whole process is a lot easier and fast.
Whether you like red or white wine, you will need to choose the right kit for your grapes.
9. A Foodie With A Blog
The world of food blogging is somewhat crowded but there are still some opportunities if you can figure out something unique to offer to the audience, go for it.
It’s just standard for most foodies to document everything to do with food.
It can be their visit to a certain uptown restaurant, a visit to a certain locality with great food, or the latest recipe they brought in the kitchen.
If you haven’t set up a blog yet but have been an active gourmand, building one might as well be a hobby for you.
Find the specific niche you want to focus on in the larger food and nutrition category.
From here, all you need to do is upload great content on the blog and link it to its accounts on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and/or Facebook.
10. Amassing A Foodie Following on Instagram or YouTube
This is very much like traditional blogging except that everything takes place on your Instagram and/or YouTube account/channel.
You’ve probably realized that everyone with something to showcase is taking it to YouTube.
These two – Instagram and YouTube – have proved to be powerful tools in vlogging.
Yes, that’s the term for it – vlogging – meaning blogging with using rich videos instead of words and pictures.
Set up an account on one or both of these platforms and document your gastronomical escapades to your audience.
11. Pickling
If you have never thought of pickling things, then this is probably the right time to give it a shot.
Pickling could end up being an exciting hobby for you.
Think about it: isn’t it fun to fill all the free space in your cupboard with tons of many different pickles?
You can then enjoy them with your family and friends on every snack or meal you bring to the table.
You can pickle anything (literally): eggs, cauliflower, watermelon, beets, etc. A jar of nicely pickled beets makes a great gift for the visiting in-law, by the way.
12. Restaurant Reviews
While this can easily fall in the same category as vlogging or blogging, it deserves a special mention as it could get you paid (vlogging on YouTube does pay as well but will take a bit longer, only after you have started to accumulate high viewership.).
Nonetheless, whether you choose to review restaurants through videos or the written word, it is one of the hottest hobbies at the moment. You don’t really need to have your blog or YouTube channel.
If you have access to a local newspaper or food-related publication, you can make arrangements with them so that you can review local cafés and restaurants with them.
More often than not, a publication returns your focus on this area by adding you to their payroll but you will need to pitch your idea first.
The good you are at it the better.
13. Dry Aging Beef
Dry aging is a food processing method that involves cutting large slices of beef and aging them for anywhere between several weeks to a couple of months before proceeding to trim and cut them into steak.
This process helps the steak form a flavor and may also go a long way to make it more tender than if you didn’t age it.
If you are tired of buying all dry-aged, it’s time to start your own and even turn it into a business. All you need is a drive.
Conclusion
Can food be a hobby?
Absolutely. In fact, food is one of the top areas of interest with the most hobbies.
There’s a lot you can do: grilling, baking, pickling, reviewing eateries, running a blog or YouTube or Instagram food channel and many, many more.
Your imagination is the limit.
Related
References
Foodie Bucket List: 30 Things Every Food Lover Must Do
Six Superb Herbs for Containers
Awesome Food Hobbies That Will Keep You Busy