A MUM has revealed how she turned her passion for food into a business raking in thousands a month thanks to a brainwave at the kitchen table.

Fiona Afshar, a mum of three, revealed that she turned her love for cooking into her dream job making colourful pasta in her kitchen.

The mum has written software and worked as a florist but never thought she'd be raking in thousands through pasta.

Last year she raked in £102,000 ($129,300), primarily from making pasta and shipping it out of her home in Malibu, California.

The 57-year-old spoke to CNBC Make It, and revealed she started her Instagram account @cookingwithfionna to film instruction cooking videos for her daughter.

But Fiona soon grew a following online to her surprise and people were obsessed with her colourful, patterned pasta.

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After discovering how creative you could be with noodles, Fiona soon began doing cooking classes, brand partnerships and an online shop called Fiona’s Pasta followed.

“As soon as I started posting pasta, the whole social media went viral,” she says. “I’m like, ‘OK, you guys want pasta? I’ll give you more pasta,'" she revealed.

The mum's love of food began when she was just nine years old when she was given a cookbook by her mum.

Fiona and her three brothers moved to the UK during the Iranian Revolution, and her mum had gifted the book Fiona spent hours looking over as a source of comfort while separated from her mum for six months.

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But, her love of cooking stayed throughout her life, and she decided to share her videos on social media after having a brainwave making food for her family.

After gaining a following on social media, she began hosting cooking classes for £27 ($35) in 2020 as she missed hosting and cooking for people during the pandemic.

Following its success, her brother suggested opening a virtual shop to sell her pasta, which Fiona first resisted.

But he managed to convince her and she hasn't looked back.

The following year, Fiona's brother suggested that she sell her creations. When she resisted, he gave her a proposal: Let’s open a Shopify store for one month, and if you hate it, we’ll close it.

“As soon as he opened shop for me, it’s like ding, ding, ding. Sales started coming in,” she added. “I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me? People are actually paying $100 for pasta?’”

Her pasta became so popular, even fashion designers like Gucci wanted to collaborate with the foodie making pasta with designer logos.

Those types of branding deals now make up a good chunk of her income: Last year, they made her about £14,000 ($18,000).

Teaching virtual classes made her an additional £13,000 ($16,500).

Her largest source of pasta income, however, is from her shop. She sells boxes of colorful, floral and designer-based pasta anywhere from £63 ($80) to £190 ($240) on her website.

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Fiona now works 32 hours a week from her kitchen, and despite her business growing wants to keep it at home with the help of her family.

“It just has so much potential to grow so big, but in a way, I’m holding it as a baby,” she said. “It’s so personal. It’s my art … I don’t want to take it somewhere [to] mass produce it. I think it would lose its essence.”

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