Bhawna Mehta is a popular food blogger. In this fast-paced twenty-first century, mankind has advanced a lot. Right from the jaw-dropping astronomical discoveries, to finding vaccines for the disease that caused this historical pandemic, a lot keeps happening on our tiny planet. We all wake up every day, do our chores and finally say good night, and go to sleep. The energy that we require to step ahead with passing time is given to us by the breath we take and the food we eat.

However, we humans aren’t like robots who just need to be charged and thereafter are good to go. We tend to add beauty to our life even in the process of doing the regular chores that we do. “Let’s go to a restaurant for dinner” or “let’s prepare something special today.”, sometimes these sentences are themselves enough to lighten up the mood of the entire family. Special foodstuff has become a part of our special days – may it be a family gathering or a festival. With such a diversity in cultures and people, we have discovered so many cuisines, we have a variety of dishes.

Many people love to cook and experiment with their ingredients to discover new dishes, and thus aspire to become chefs, while some are passionate about exploring the foodstuffs of various regions and thus, step into the paradigm of food blogging or become a food influencer.

Managing the household chores is something that has always been seen as a task associated with women. The thing to be glad about is that this scenario and idea have started to gradually dwindle. Due to empowerment and the mindset that is gradually supporting equality, and their efforts, many women have proved that they are capable of dreaming big and achieve their dreams. Today is the day of celebrating the victory of all the women who rise and shine successfully, a day to be grateful to all the women who have contributed to our journey in some or another way, through one role or another.

Today, we bring to you one such aspiring story of a young lady, who has brilliantly paved her way to becoming a lifestyle and food content creator, food influencer, and recently, a home baker. Bhawna Mehta, a 25-year-old BBA, MBA graduate, has been into food blogging for the past three and half years.

  As a 10-year-old child, Bhawna used to watch TLC. She loved watching the show of Nigella Lawson on TLC. She was passionate about baking and she used to tell her mother that she wanted to be a baker someday in the future. Later on, Bhawna Mehta’s interests shifted towards exploring. She then wanted to explore various cuisines and cultures and thus stepped into lifestyle and food blogging and proceeded towards becoming a food influencer. Lockdown itself was a surprise for us and gave us many surprises, and for Bhawna, one such surprise was the lockdown, it was an uncertain happening for most of us but for Bhawna it was a blessing in disguise.

Lockdown made it possible for her to do what she wished to do as a child – the vacant time open the doors for her to try baking. In the course of lockdown, she came up with her own home bakery. Aside from her childhood idol, Nigella Lawson, she loves the work and follows some YouTube channels like Natasha’s kitchen, Preppy kitchen, and Sarvesh Bhatia.

Her college life was challenging, she was suffering from severe anxiety. But it was during that time her destiny was about to take a beautiful U-turn. One of her friends, suggested her to start a page on Instagram and post about her love for food and exploration of various cuisines. This was what turned out to be a lucky surprise that life gifted her;

What began as a means of coping, as something that would divert her mind and make her happy, with time became a magnificent positive turn in her life. She never thought that her page would become the one with such a great reach. She has recently hit the milestone of 100k followers on her Instagram handle – adatewithlife, which is indeed a great achievement.

Bhawna Mehta’s journey as a food blogger was not always a soft and smooth ride. When she decided to build her career as a food blogger, her parents did not think of it as a good choice. Rather, they thought that it was preferable if she joins a company and works there rather than choosing food blogging as her career. They thought of food blogging just as her hobby. Moreover, they didn’t saw food blogging as a real career. But despite these circumstances, she didn’t step back, and she succeeded with growing recognition and more brand deals and campaigns.

Another hurdle she faced was during the course of lockdown. Due to lockdown and pandemic situations, it was difficult for her to keep regularly posting on her Instagram feed. However, she decided to keep her audience engaged by making recipe videos. After gaining some confidence, she decided to start a home bakery. In the beginning, it was a daunting task to do, and her self-doubts and concern about the opinions of others added to her difficulty. But at the end of the day, Bhawna believes in giving her best and leaving the rest to destiny, and that’s something that encourages her process of growth.

When she began her page, it took her three months to come up with a name for her Instagram handle. She first thought about keeping the name as ‘datewithfood’. Her friend further suggested adding ‘a’ prior to the name of her handle, as it would make the name seem classy and enhance its impact. So initially, the name of Bhawna’s channel was ‘adatewithfood’ but later while reflecting on it, she thought of taking it beyond just food, and thus came up with a new name for her handle, ‘adatewithlife’. Bhawna wants to express herself, who she really is, what she does, and how her life looks like, to the visitors and her audience through her Instagram handle.

Bhawna Mehta is highly passionate about ‘adatewithlife’ and is grateful for the positive changes that her life had undergone due to it. She expresses, “adatewithlife means everything to me, it made me confident and gave me the hope to chase my dreams and let me meet so many wonderful people.” Also, adatewithlife gave her a reason to chase her dreams and a platform to grow. In her life before the Instagram handle and its success, Bhawna used to procrastinate, and she felt that she was lacking the courage to do anything. But this journey of blogging has filled her with confidence and gave her opportunities to make her dreams come true.

As she took a step ahead, she decided to start sharing recipe videos of the foodstuffs she cooked. She used to post various amazing recipes like Mug pizza, Oreo ice cream, Watermelon sorbet, and whipped milk. Many people genuinely enjoyed and even recreated them. Bhawna started exploring more about baking and used to have her friends taste the cakes that she had baked. They too used to cherish the lovely and mouthwatering art of Bhawna, and once, one of her friends encouraged her to start the home bakery.

After hesitating a bit, Bhawna Mehta decided to finally start her home bakery – thus turning her childhood wish into reality. That’s how the along with food influencer she became a home baker and her other handle ‘bakedbybhawna’ originated. Her followers not only loved her baked cakes but also showered adoration and appreciation for her gourmet desserts like the mini cheesecakes. She used to doubt her mini cheesecakes, only to later understand that it became her most loved foodstuff.

Bhawna Mehta prefers a relaxed and laidback life. She engages herself in content creation or watches shows like Big bang theory and F.R.I.E.N.D.S. for most of the days. Aside from blogging and baking, she loves traveling and enjoys watching animated sitcoms. Apart from that, coloring is her hobby. Bhawna does not plan much ahead for the future as she believes in living for the present, though she has a few things on her bucket list which she wants to complete in the coming years. She wants to travel more, reach half a million followers, and wants to open her own bakery. She keeps working hard to keep her followers engaged with amazing and tasty content, and to reach her goals.

As someone who is engaged in content creation related to food and has come this far with baking and cooking in a span of three and half years, she shares that for other people who are dearly passionate about cooking, cooking can turn out to be an amazing career option too. She has a short, simple, and special message for everyone on this graceful occasion of women’s day:
“Just one thing, follow your dreams. Because life is too short for regrets.”

Her words indeed reflect the way she embraces life. So simple, yet so profound. Her life teaches us that life can plant big surprises while we are in the midst of struggle and that even after the darkest of nights, it is destined for the ray of light to appear as the dawn breaks out. Bhawna Mehta inspires us to keep growing throughout our lives, and just like her to do our best and leave the rest to destiny. Her elegant story is indeed like a date with life, a date that’s going to last for her lifetime.