A former software engineer brought in six pasta-making characters in her kitchen

Fiona Afshar wrote programmes, worked as a florist and raised three children. She never thought she would cook for the money.

Growing up in Iran, I was taught that food means love. “The more we feed you, the more we love you,” Afshar, 57, tells CNBC Make It. In 2018, she started her Instagram accountcookingwithfiona, specifically to post cooking tutorial videos that she had shot for her daughter.

Within months, Afshar had grown a following. She recently discovered how malleable noodle dough is, and posted videos of her modeling, cooking, and serving the brightly colored, loudly patterned noodles. Viewers were hooked. This was followed by cooking classes, brand partnerships, and an online store called Fiona’s Pasta.

Afshar believes her audience is drawn to whimsical noodles for one simple reason: “If you look closely at every culture, you’ll always find some form of noodle. It leaves a really warm feeling.” [of] comfort.”

Five years into her culinary business, food still means love to Afshar — but now she’s getting paid for it, and she’s sharing her love with nearly half a million followers. She brought in $129,300 last year, primarily from making and shipping pasta from her home in Malibu, California, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.

Here’s how Afshar created her pasta business—almost by accident.

When Afshar was 9 years old, at the beginning of the Iranian Revolution, her father took her and her three siblings to the United Kingdom and then left to return to their mother.

Her mother gave her a cookbook, and every night, Afshar would run her fingers over the recipes, saving them as a source of comfort. Her parents joined the siblings after six months, but her deep attachment to food remained. She was telling how she was taken care of and how she learned to take care of others.

After graduating from college, Afshar moved to California and worked as a software writer and consultant. She met her husband, Ali, in 1987 and started a software company with him before retiring to raise their three children.

Except for a short stint as a florist, Afshar did not work until her eldest daughter was in college. She says she has devoted her creative energy to perfecting healthy, fun meals for her family.

Soon after starting her Instagram account, she started making pasta from Chef Thomas Keller’s tutorial — and her followers ate it.

“As soon as I started posting pasta, the whole social media thing went viral,” she says. “I’m like, ‘Okay, y’all want pasta?'” I’ll give you more pasta. “

In 2020, Afshar began hosting virtual pasta-making classes for $35 per person. She says she still isn’t there for the money, but she missed hosting and cooking for other people during the pandemic. At the height of the project, she adds, 100 people attended each class, with people from all over the world joining.

The following year, Afshar’s brother suggested she sell her creations. When she resisted, he made her a proposition: Let’s open Shopify for one month, and if you hate it, we’ll close it.

Together they launched the virtual store, called Fiona’s Pasta. “As soon as he opened a shop for me, it was like pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins. And the sales started coming in,” she says. “I’m like, Are you kidding me? People are already paying $100 for pasta?”

Around the same time, Afshar, a lifelong fashion lover, was approached by luxury fashion retailer Ssense about a collaboration. They would pay her to design pastas that matched the logos and style of brands like Gucci and Anthropologie, and to post videos featuring those pastas on social media.

These kinds of branding deals now make up a large portion of Afshar’s income: Last year, they made her about $18,000. Teaching virtual classes made her an additional $16,500.

However, her biggest source of pasta income comes from her store. Colorful, floral, and designer pasta boxes sell from $80 to $240 on their website.

Afshar says she works about 32 hours a week making, packing and shipping pasta out of her home. She spends $0 on advertising, and her mother and mother-in-law help her roll, cut and dry the dough. Afshar says they refuse to pay them.

“Fiona’s pasta, cooking with Fiona, it’s more of a passion,” Afshar says. “We do not count on income from it.”

Despite bringing in six figures a year, Afshar insists the goal of her work is to connect with people through food and pass on some of her culture to her children. She has no plans to expand her pasta business or teach in classrooms outside her kitchen.

“It has so much potential to grow so big, but in a way, I carry it like a baby,” she says. “It’s very personal. It’s artistic… I don’t want to take it somewhere.” [to] mass production. I think he will lose his essence.”

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