For most of us, the pandemic lockdown was a time of fear and restlessness. We channeled this energy into baking bread, doom scrolling, or perhaps the all too frequent cocktail hour. Fernanda Baggio took her anxiety and made pasta. The result was the inception of her world renowned “All You Need is Pasta” signature creations, a subsequently lucrative venture which lent evidence to the argument that Instagram can be about much more than comparing yourself to friends and acquaintances.
Fernanda recalls, “I was working as a private chef, and the pandemic shut everything down. I had to come up with a way that I could continue to support myself. I called my grandmother when it all started. I said I was lost and didn’t know what to do, and that’s when she told me to start making pasta and delivering it to comfort people who were going through difficult times.” What began for her as a means of staying busy led to a hugely successful business venture. This benevolent gesture to bring happiness into the lives of friends and former clients precipitated a wave of tagging on social media and global awareness.
“All You Need is Pasta” is a monthly subscription service for pasta that is as creative as it is tasty. Conceptualized and developed in Fernanda’s home kitchen in Maringá Brazil, what began as a small Instagram experiment catapulted the chef into famed international entrepreneur status. Increasing the sanitary practices and health standards to nearly unimaginable levels, her pasta creations satisfied individual and governmental practices (including frequent and numerous Covid tests for Baggio herself as the solitary chef).
In addition to holiday themed pasta dishes, Fernanda experimented to come up with experiences for dishes that opened new ideas for fans. Among the most popular of these were: Red bell pepper Ravioli filled with fresh ricotta and brown butter, Culurgiones filled with mashed potatoes, Tortellini in brodo (a family recipe), and Ravioli filled with Kabocha squash, brown butter and spices. These tasty concoctions tempered concern during stressful times.
A glimpse of the “All You Need is Pasta” IG profile will convince you that Fernanda cares deeply about how pasta looks and tastes. Food can serve a utilitarian purpose, but it can just as easily, in the proper hands, become a multi-sensory experience. Ms. Baggio’s pasta is both aesthetically appealing and appetizing. The lockdown was the catalyst that challenged her to find something special for herself and for others.
It’s a valuable life lesson for us all: seek out your own talent and create something as helpful to others as to yourself. Fernanda concedes, “The hardest part for me was dealing with the emotional turmoil. There were moments of complete realization in which I was grateful for the opportunity to dedicate myself to something that I was so passionate about. There were days when everything was going right. I would get excited about learning new things and feel that the effort was paying off.
There were also a thousand doubts, hours of work that seemed to go nowhere, discouraging results, obstacles, people saying it won’t work, and many sleepless nights. When you invest in yourself and try to operate independently, the feeling of being on your own can be overwhelming at times.”
Instagram is often maligned for negative aspects while the positive ones are minimized. For Fernanda, the social media platform provided a much needed means of connectivity when all other public interactions were verboten. Admirers from all over the world, like London based chef and pasta cookbook author Mateo Zielonka, recognized her talent and creativity at a time when positivity was scarcely seen.
In her own need to find a life preserver, Fernanda unearthed something delightful for all. Fernanda notes that social media has its pitfalls but reminds us that you have to look for goodness in order to recognize it when it appears. She comments, “Instagram can be a useful tool to help individuals or businesses reach a wider audience. For me, Instagram opened many doors. I was able to grow my following which allowed me to not only build a successful business to support myself through the pandemic, but ultimately helped me to build the connections that allowed me to reach my goal of working for a 2-star Michelin restaurant in the U.S.
I believe that the best way to start is to choose a niche that you like and really invest in content, a good image, and produce interactive videos that make people interested in consuming both the content and the product. That’s what I did.”
Writer: Basil Thomson