5 ways to make money if you're a good cook

There are many people who are blessed with sublime culinary skills that choose to make money cooking from home. Whether you’re a trained professional, or just have a natural passion for cooking, there are several options to consider which can help to generate a side income from using the talent you have.

Try out these ideas to make use of your culinary wizardry, and without the issues of being away from loved ones as you slave away long hours in a commercial kitchen.

1. Start a Home Restaurant and Sell Online Using Delivery Services.

We sometimes refer to cloud kitchens as ghost kitchens, dark kitchens, virtual kitchens or satellite kitchens, but their primary aim remains the same, offering customers a delivery only business entity with no dine-in option to help save on operating expenses.

Starting your own cloud kitchen might seem daunting at first, however, there are plenty of online delivery companies such as Zomato, Swiggy, UberEATS and more that can list, promote and get your food out to customers whilst handling the marketing and sales side of the business for you. You decide what is on the menu and the price and they handle the rest.

The platform or mobile application will take orders; you cook the order and they will provide the driver who will deliver it to the customer. At the end of the week or month, you will get paid directly from the delivery company depending on what you have sold and will usually take some commission for their services.

You can also start your own website with a restaurant online ordering system from which people can order directly. You will have to handle the delivery and everything else, but you won’t have to pay the fees that you would if you were to use a service.

2. Tech Cooking Classes Online

Face to face online food technology classes are becoming more and more popular and is a good way to generate extra income if you can create fun and innovative classes where you can showcase your cooking talent whilst teaching others your recipes and methods. You could start by doing this on YouTube and then branch out to other platforms or create your own website. You will need a high-quality camera and microphone in order to capture the beautiful dishes you are teaching your students.

3. Make Money by Writing Recipes

This section also ties in with the above, but rather than making videos with audio, you will simply create, write and sell the recipes online to food blogs. You’ll need to network and source out bloggers or websites related to the cuisines you specialise in and then offer to write new and creative recipes that they can present on their platform. This requires less cooking from you, but you will need to explain in far more depth the preparation and methodology of cooking each dish.

4. Become a Food Blogger

If you have enough recipes, and learn the required computer skills, you may look to create your own blog, which is a popular way to share your cooking expertise with like-minded people.

It is worth mentioning that starting a blog is extremely time-consuming at first, and results take time to see, but stay persistent and eventually your blog will grow as you continue to add cooking experiences and recipes that will attract more of an audience.

Once you’ve successfully reached a substantial amount of readers, there is excellent potential for a passive income using affiliate marketing, advertising and sales from your cooking courses. Starting a blog is one of the first avenues to consider when you decide to monetise your cooking skills. There is a good deal of resources and you can find online on how to start a blog and it is worthwhile researching this in depth.

5. Set Up Your Own YouTube Cooking Channel

YouTube is a great option to explore when selling cooking courses or promoting your recipes for your blog or cloud kitchen. YouTube also pays you when you have a certain number of followers and views on your content, so this can grow along with the ideas mentioned above.

YouTube is a fantastic platform for sharing knowledge, so if you have the culinary skills, set up a channel which is easy to do and begin creating videos. You can also live stream, which shows that you are more confident and can answer any questions viewers may have while live.

A successful YouTube cooking channel can generate a solid stream of passive income. Just think of content that is enjoyable to watch, perhaps short videos on simple recipes, cooking on a budget tips, healthy meal preparation, or how to cook for parties and events. The list of possibilities here is endless. Keep things friendly, approachable and light-hearted, and your channel can gain new subscribers and repeat visitors worldwide. Now that you are familiar with a few more opportunities to make money from cooking, it's time to get out there and get started.