What is the story behind your blog’s name?

I love chilies- be it red or green. So the main idea behind my handle name was to signify my love
for spicy food.

Why did you decide/inspired to start a food blog?

I am a big time food enthusiast since my childhood. During my college days, I used to explore
new food joints. At that time, I wanted to share my food journey with my followers. Also, I
wanted to share my home made special recipes.

What do you think food blogging will look like in 5 years?

The pace at which food bloggers are mushrooming, it Will be a crowded stream for sure. But
only those who have culinary knowledge will survive in the long run.

Which part of blogging excites you most: the recipe development, the post writing, or the
photography?

For me, photography is more exciting because of the obvious reasons. A dish can be clicked
from top, from sides or any angle but only a good creative shot will make it look appealing.
Conceptualization is very important. Also, recipe development is quite interesting as one learns
the importance of proper weighing the ingredients and seeing the beauty of final outcome.

Do you have any special blogging tip for new bloggers?

Running a food blog might sound like a nice idea, but creating a successful one takes hard work,
dedication, personality and excellent presentation. That’s why while thousands of food blogs
exist, only a few of the most influential food bloggers gain large followings, brand partnerships
and a decent income. Youth is full of energy and ideas, so here is my message-
Three things which matter the most-

1) Content is king. Be it a magazine, newspaper or in my case a microblog, without good
content, you can't go anywhere.  When people visit your profile, if content is engaging and
appealing, they will stay no matter what.
2)Consistency- To be successful in anything that you do, consistency is the key.
Having good content is one thing, but because everyone  has a short attention span, you need to
be consistent.  You have to make sure that you are there.  You need to post daily without fail. It
is very important when you are trying to build a platform,  trying to build up an engaged
audience.
3) Engagement and Communication- it is extremely different from TV, movies. You are actually
directly engaging with your audience. They can relate to me as a person- when I post about ghar
ka khaana, I receive such heartfelt comments like missing mom, missing home cooked food-
that’s the beauty- people can relate.

ABOUT Teekhi Mirchi by Dr. Radhika Agarwal

Radhika Agarwal is a doctor by profession and a foodie by passion. She loves to bring out colors and flavors of India through her food photography. Her feed is full of flavors of India- be it a humble golgappa, or a comforting alfredo pasta to fancy molecular dishes. She always had a thing for cooking and experimenting with food. She started her research about food styling and plating, and realized the importance of good styling and photography as the first big step to a good food
microblog, and as she started to capture and practice, the real fun began!  The ‘real-ness’ of this
journey appealed to her followers who got inspired.
At one point of time, she was also approached by The Hindu to give her comments on future
prospects of food blogging since the industry had begun to bloom. At that point her view was,
“Money will not start flowing in from the very first day. Food blogging requires consistency and
perseverance to become a profitable business. You have to invest time building it without
thinking about the potential returns or getting frustrated. It is difficult to take up food blogging as a full-time profession in India as it is still in an infant stage. Only your creativity will set you
apart from others, so building your brand is completely in your hands.”
She has done brand collaborations with Google, Big FM, Cadbury India, Honor Huawei,
Dominos Pizza, DineOut India, Bru Coffee, Nestle India, Havmor Icecreams, Hike and many
more.

She concluded by saying that, food bloggers constitute one of the most popular and celebrated genres of blogging and she admits that Food-stagramming is not easy and it requires a consistent good engaging content. All She has to say is ” do something in life which you enjoy and makes you happy! Money cannot buy happiness, but the satisfaction in doing something you love and being successful is priceless”.

I ROCK INDIA