We were lucky to catch up with Jon Bennion recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jon, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

My decision to become an “Intermediate Chef” and pursue pasta perfection came at an important life pivot. I wasn’t looking to change my career after working as an attorney for 15 years, but I was looking to focus my free time into something to channel creativity and work with my hands. This decision followed two and a half decades of faithfully watching food shows on TV and being the go-to family cook. While culinary school was out of reach, I felt I could reach new levels of cooking that had more consistency, finesse, and beauty. Oh, and tasty!

This came right at the beginning of the COVID pandemic – a time when many people were cooking more from scratch and starting food pages on social media. My goal became my Instagram handle, “@intermediatechef” as I channeled my focus to making pasta from scratch, especially multi-colored artistic pasta.

To start this new culinary journey, I found food mentors online that were doing what I wanted to do. I sought out recipes I could use as a starting point. Videos online were helpful to give a visual to the process.

Another big step I took was to make pasta from scratch at least twice a week. Making mistakes and adjusting for those errors is the most essential part of learning a new skill when you are self-taught. Following a successful person’s recipe is a good start, but there will always be factors that some can’t translate into a recipe. Humidity, variations in flour type, speed, and dozens of other variables have small impacts that you can only learn through trial and error.

So I created an account without telling many people with plenty of pasta hashtags to see what would happen. This gave me a chance to deposit a little inspiration back to the Instagram universe as I drew plenty from it. Finding accounts of people who were also on a pasta path was helpful to keep me accountable with others.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I started an Instagram food page without a clear goal in mind, other than to have a platform where I could show my process of becoming an Intermediate Chef. It wasn’t to start a business, get food contracts, or become a recognizable brand. After a year of hard work and consistency, I broke the 10k mark and made a more thoughtful decision that I wanted to grow this little side gig.

The timing of this decision coincided with big changes on the Instagram platform that shifted away from photos and saw constant changes to the algorithm. Posts could see wild differences in overall engagement, which can be frustrating for any creator who is working hard on content. Burnout was setting in.

I realized I was putting all of my eggs into one basket, and diversifying my approach made more sense. For Instagram posts, I was already taking a lot of photos and video that were paired with small write-up to talk about a dish or provide a recipe. So much work was already done, but relying on one changing platform was too limiting. I reached out to my local newspaper to see if they were looking for food columnists. After viewing some sample articles, they approved me for a twice-a-month column. The company that owned this local paper had four others within my region, so it ran both in print and online in five newspapers total. I also started to work on a website to give myself a platform within my own control. As I developed a following locally, I was also asked to teach in-person pasta classes.

Diversifying and asking for new opportunities helped me overcome uncertain times and unpredictable outcomes. I will continue to look for ways to expand my reach in the food space.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

When I look back on my early life, there is no question that creativity and art were always important to me. I would sketch, write, and even cook with my mom. The problem is I never saw that as a career path. Other passions became the professional priority as I saw those pursuits more likely to be the means to make a living.

If I’m honest about my own happiness, those times in life when I have balanced out career demands with creative project are the moments when I have the most fulfillment. Cooking, recipe development, and culinary art is 100% different than what I do for my day job. Art is therapeutic, even in the form of food.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.intermediatechef.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/intermediatechef
• Twitter: www.facebook.com/intermediatechef
• Other: One of my latest food columns: https://missoulian.com/lifestyles/food-and-cooking/redefining-funeral-potatoes-for-the-holidays/article_88ff886c-3a10-5713-9298-6c01bdc72f87.html

Image Credits
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