2021-12-20

2021 in review - What a year!

Year’s end is always a time to recap, to review the year’s ups and downs. That’s no different for me and La Cocina Cultural. Seat yourself comfortable and let me take you on a journey through my 2021. Make sure you have your favorite drink by your site, this might take a while 😉.

Many people use New Year’s Eve to define their goals for the year to come. Losing weight, eat healthier, more exercise – you name it. I’m not exactly fond of new year’s resolutions that fade away when January ends. So as usual, I started 2021 without resolutions. However, I had some ideas I wanted to pursue: making La Cocina Cultural a business, becoming an Airbnb host, a road trip in France. And there was a lot of unexpected stuff, of course.

Here are my main topics 2022:

1. My own business – Its’ official!
La Cocina Cultural was founded in mid-2019 while I lived in Mexico. I didn’t have a work permit for Mexico, so I kept things on a private, non-profit level. Back in Germany I had more options, so on February 1st, 2021 I went to the townhall and officially registered La Cocina Cultural as a business. The act itself was pretty unspectacular and mainly consisted of filling and signing forms. But you can probably imagine that it was a big deal for me and I left the townhall pleased as Punch 😊. A huge milestone!

2. La Cocina Cultural@Airbnb – Status: It’s complicated
During pandemic-lockdowns in 2020 I discovered a fun-thing to do: Airbnb online experiences. A host virtually presents an activity and guests from around the globe join in via Zoom. And I figured that this is just the thing for La Cocina Cultural. So once I had my business registered, I started working to get my online experience up and running.  It took some time to get all the requirements done. You can’t image how tricky it can be to produce pictures that Airbnb deems appropriate. But I finally nailed it, my “German Potato Salad Challenge” was available for booking in Airbnb! Me again pleased as Punch 😊.

Naïve as I was, I thought now I just need to sit and watch how my sessions sell out just like that. But you probably already guessed that this was wishful thinking. There are many other hosts on Airbnb and those with the best ratings are displayed first. That makes it difficult for newcomers to fill up sessions and earn their own 5-star ratings and get a better ranking. Nonetheless I hosted several sessions for guests from different countries, showing them how to make potato salad with mayonnaise dressing and another one with vinegar. It was so much fun to explain why Germans usually have clear preference for one of these salads and dislike the other (#therecanonlybeone) and to tell more “potato stories”.

Unfortunately, I discovered the payments Airbnb sends for these sessions is quite a hassle with regards to my tax declaration. So, with a heavy heart I suspended my existence as an Airbnb host. Let’s see, if I can find proper tax advice on this one. I really wonder, if it really is that uncomfortable for small businesses or if I’m the first person in Germany who tries to properly declare these earnings 😛.

3. Potatoes, a DJ and me
In April my workshop on Swabian potato salad (vinegar dressing) was booked as a team event. A company wanted to gift its employees with a special activity. As the company’s headquarter is located in Germany a session involving some German culture seemed about right. The session was attended by almost 30 people from Germany, India, Poland and Portugal. It was my biggest session so far, but applying a few “rules of the game” made whole thing work smoothly. I truly enjoy an international audience in my workshops and love to act as an ambassadress for German cuisine & culture. The cherry on top was the DJ of “Beat Mission” that the company had organized as my counterpart. Whenever I wasn’t explaining or telling stories he played some great chillout tunes. Even a chatterbox like me can limit talking for such a good cause 😉.

4. Bye-bye, Corona kilos!
During the pandemic I had more time for cooking experiments than ever. Due to social distancing & Co and had less physical exercise. I’ve never been a real sports enthusiast, but I used to have an okay level of physical motion. In the end it was no surprise that I gained 5 kg in bodyweight. In spring I saw a photo of myself and was a little shocked. Well, I’m 1,55 m tall (or better say: small), there’s no a lot of space to smoothy spread 5 extra kilos. High time to react!

To get going I participated in a three-month coaching lead by Vienna-based dietician Birgit Barilits. The fun thing is that I already knew a lot of things she taught me. But it definitely makes a difference, if behavior is documented and monitored. My first eye opener definitely was eating more protein. It is included in many foods a like (cheese, yoghurt, tuna, …), so that was easy to incorporate in my meals. But the absolute game changer for me was when I followed Birgit’s advice and got myself a fitness watch to track how many steps I walk. At first this seemed annoying to see how I could squeeze 10.000 steps into my daily routine. But in no time competition mode kicked in and I got totally hooked. I lengthened my daily walks, I raised my walking speed, I included steep ascents and I bought a weighted vest (5kg). Honestly speaking, I expected to slow down when summer ends and the weather gets colder. But surprisingly that didn’t happen. Unless it’s really stormy or rains cats and dogs I go walking in every weather. Actually, I’m curious see how the walking goes in temperatures of -5 and below. I had no clue this was in me, as I said above, I’ve never been a sports enthusiast. Birgit, I can’t thank you enough for making me see this potential! I have big plans for next year. In the preview section below, I will reveal more details…

5. Setting sails with AHOI!
As a newbie in the world of solopreneurs I knew there is a lot to learn. Facebook marketing, SEO, lead, landings pages… oh my gosh! My brain was twisting & turning, but didn’t know where to start. At this point stumbling over the AHOI! program by Laura Roschewitz and Gretel Niemeyer felt like a hint of fate. Being from Northern Germany, not far from the Baltic Sea shore, it was no surprise I was attracted by the maritime word “Ahoi” 😉. The program lasted several weeks and focused on the process to develop and phrase an offer. So far, I thought the portfolio of La Cocina Cultural would be limited to individul cooking workshop. I hadn’t even thought about offering a whole series of connected workshops with some supporting program in-between. Another eye opener 2021! Additionally, AHOI! made me realize that that the culture part in La Cocina Cultural is not just a topping on my cooking classes. It is a vital ingredient for every session, a main pillar of my business. Experiencing different cultures and intercultural understanding is what I have a professional and personal background in. It forms a strong part of my values and beliefs. And this should shine bright at La Cocina Cultural.

6. My website – better done, then perfect
Welcome on my very own homepage! (Feel free to have a look around.) It is another result of AHOI! I wanted a homepage for La Cocina Cultural for quite a while, but didn’t know how to get that going. My only experience in website building until that point was limited to a two-page website I created at university.
As you kept reading until this point, I guess you won’t mind a little detour at this point 😉. My business administration studies at university started off with a class in business informatics. After checking I was in the right classroom, I had to face the fact that building a website was a prerequisite to pass this class. The professor drowned on about zeros and ones for a whole week and didn’t explain who to create a website. I was lost, so I asked a friend of mine studying informatics. He did the politically correct thing: he lent me a book on HTML coding and offered to answer questions I might have. Long story short: I passed that class by building a very orange 2-page website featuring a picture of me on a fire truck.

Afraid of a reconnection with HTML I postponed the website issue time and again. But during AHOI! I realized I need a place to visualize my offers, to create landing pages and stuff. To avoid an overkill of new things to learn I decided to go for a website building kit. Website for Dummies. Almost magically I had a website up and running in just one day. And the best thing: it isn’t orange! So once again: pleased as Punch 😊.

At certain points, of course I reach the limits of that website kit. One example is this blog. It’s not exactly beautifully designed.  But I have no clue about Wordpress, let alone how to switch this website from building kit to Wordpress without trashing it completely. So, I appreciate and work with what I have until I figure out more. Who knows, maybe my year review 2022 (and website) will look much more sophisticated. (Clever me, leaving room for improvement 😉.)

7. En route in France – Cooking on the go
You might know already that I’m a globetrotter@heart. And I started to get some itchy feet while the pandemic kept us grounded. So, me and my partner (he who doesn’t want to be named online) used a time slot between two Corona waves for a road trip through Northern France. It felt great to be on the road again! To keep a healthy distance, we rented a camper van to travel as independent as possible (#vanlife). That was an item on our bucket list, so win-win.

As I have a special connection to Verdun (see here why), that was where we started off. We visited Bayeux, Omaha Beach, Mont Saint Michel, Brest, Locronan, Quimper, Concarneau, the Loire valley and many places in-between. We hiked and biked along the coast of Brittany, which is rough, but so gorgeous.

And whenever I’m travelling, I pay a lot of attention to local food and (eating) culture. We shopped in French supermarkets (drive-through for baguettes, woohoo!). We ate a lot of French cheese, crêpes, Far Betron, great scallops and drank Breizh cola (Breizh = Breton word for Brittany). On the other hand, we travelled in a camper van, which means a kitchen on wheels 😉. It was equipped with a gas stove and additionally I brought an electric cooking plate, which offered a wide range of possibilities. And the best: we could choose the from our “kitchen window”. As there’s a lot of potential in travel cooking, I decided to turn it into a project for 2022. See the preview part below to learn more…

My year in numbers (status Dec 19, 2021):

• 1,088 followers on Facebook (site started in 2019)
• 56 followers on Instagram (started in 2021)
• 61 Facebook and 26 Instagram posts so far
• 1603 website views, 990 visitors
• 48 subscribers on my mailing list
• 1,697 km (=2651,304 steps) walked so far

Some other things that happened 2021:

• Training week to improve my paragliding skills. Finally, up in the sky again!
• Two very close friends surprised me with a tour on a former blast furnace in Dortmund. Findings: a) I not as afraid of height as I thought and b) Never forget to put on sun blocker!
• I got vaccinated.
• Me and my partner (remember, he who doesn’t want to be named) helped to do the finishing touches on my sister-in-law’s new house (#bobthebuilder).
• We emptied my parents’ house and helped them move to East Friesland. It was a strange feeling to leave the house my brother and I grew up in. On the other hand, I drove a van for the first time and loved it!
• Last week we became aunt and uncle again. Welcome, little nephew! Can’t wait to meet you ❤.
• And, of course, I cooked and baked A LOT!

Preview 2022

Woohoo, what a trip through 2021! When starting to write this recap I thought it would be quickly done. I was under the impression there wasn’t that much noteworthy stuff. Scrolling through photos on my smartphone, Facebook posts and stuff proved me wrong!
And what about 2022? What’s to come? Planning feels more difficult to me in pandemic times. But nonetheless, there are some important dates, projects and challenges on the horizon:

• January 1, 2022: The new year immediately starts with a huge milestone for me and my partner (he who… you know). We’ll have our 20th anniversary. 20 years happily together. Supporting each other in good and bad times. No marriage certificate needed. I’m deeply grateful to have him in my life.
• February 6, 2022: my Lions Club Stuttgart-Fontana and me host an online charity cooking session via Zoom. Cooking for a good cause. Interested? Great! Get more info here.
• March 19: I will participate in the Megamarsch in Mönchengladbach. Walking 50 km in 12 hours won’t be easy, but it’s a challenge I’m looking forward to! I will let you know how it played out.
• Travel cooking is one of my passions, therefore I’m working on an ebook on this topic. It will include recipes, tips and hacks for cooking in vans, Airbnb and more. Stay tuned!
• No more wishy-washy stuff! I will join Smash it! So much more than a mastermind by Laura Roschewitz and Gretel Niemeyer. Six months to uncover the full potential of La Cocina Cultural. Top or Flop – at the end of those six months I will decide about the future of La Cocina Cultural.

2022 won’t be a walk in the park. But I’m determined to make it a success. Stay tuned and follow me on my journey!

Love, Ina 💕
Your partner in crime in matters of kitchen & culture