Spice up your cooking hobby — for fun and for college apps

From whipping up a mug of dalgona coffee, baking the umpteenth loaf of banana bread, or attempting to follow your favorite celebrity chef’s cooking tutorial, exploring the kitchen became a popular alternative to exploring the outside world during the pandemic. Now, students can't get enough of their cooking hobbies.

If you’re looking for a way to transform your hobby of cooking and baking into something bigger, I’m here to offer a few suggestions!

Cooking as a creative, social outlet.

Are you trying to make it big on TikTok? Youtube? Insert choice of social media platform? Perhaps you have a recipe you want to share with the world or a gorgeous charcuterie spread you want to spice up everyone’s feed with. Cooking can be a communal activity, even at a social distance.

Social media is one way to connect with others over your shared love for food! You can also check your school or neighborhood to see if there are any cooking clubs or amateur food magazines that are currently accepting members.

Cooking as an entrepreneurial/charitable outlet.

If you’re confident enough to share your food with the public, consider ramping up your kitchen efforts into something bigger than yourself. Is there a social cause or personal goal that you want to raise money for? Ready to test out your entrepreneurial chops? Turning your hobby into a side hustle will help you develop relevant skills (and earn you some bread too!).

There are many moving parts to starting your own side hustle, but don’t let that deter you! From research and development (testing out recipe variations, conducting focus groups with family and friends), to sales and marketing (designing a logo and brand, spreading the word on social media), to supply chain and operations (fulfilling orders, figuring out a pricing strategy)... you’re sure to learn a lot.

Cooking as a personal outlet.

I am a very firm believer that your hobbies and interests are simply that — hobbies and interests. There is no imperative for you to cater them to college admissions officers or puff them up for your resume. If it makes you happy, that’s reason enough!

Cooking and baking can be therapeutic, and the outcomes are often delicious. We hope that it has been an outlet for stress relief or simply an avenue that’s brought joy to your life.