Jessica Merchant Will Remind You the Joys of Making a Mess in the Kitchen

Here’s a reminder: cooking shouldn’t be taken too seriously. Exploring different recipes, experimenting with flavors, and enjoying the whole process is just as important as making a good meal. Having fun in the kitchen, in fact, is the first and crucial step to becoming a certified foodie.

Jessica Merchant might just help you get there. The founder of the food blog How Sweet It Is, it’s Merchant’s down-to-earth approach to cooking that first caught our attention. Describing herself as “inexplicably in love with food”, her blog offers anything from healthy recipes to comfort food and indulgent desserts.

Self-taught and with no formal culinary training, Merchant doesn’t shy away from making a mess. In fact, she strives for it, as part of her recipe-making process. “I test most of my recipes at least once, but by no means claim to be a culinary genius,” she writes on her website. But with some half a million followers online, she definitely has a spark of genius in her.

“My proudest moment is being consistently genuine in the internet and really staying true to who I am” she remarked once in an interview with Nicole Culver. “I really have not done anything that am not super passionate about or believe in.” Her passion for food has culminated in two cooking books so far: The Pretty Dish and Seriously Delish, both bestsellers.

And when it comes to inspiration, Merchant doesn’t have to look to hard. “Truly, I get it everywhere,” she admits. “I get recipe inspiration anywhere from maybe eating out a restaurant. I get it from seeing a billboard when I’m driving, from seeing a magazine cover, through looking through a magazine, from a beautiful cookbook. Having a creative mind it’s easy to pick up inspiration from anything. You kind of look around and see it.”

Her passionate attitude will inspire you to roll your sleeves and get messy!