The stats are probably better. Lots of people took up cooking during Covid when everything was shut down.
Cooking themed TikTok accounts and YouTube videos are very popular.
Posted on 09/21/2023 4:52:39 AM PDT by daniel1212
I’ve spent two decades consulting extensively for consumer packaged goods companies. Early in my career I gathered some data for a client on cooking. This research found that consumers fell into one of three groups: (1) people who love to cook, and cook often, (2) people who hate to cook, and avoid that activity by heating up convenience food or outsourcing their meals (by ordering out or dining in restaurants), and, finally, (3) people who like to cook sometimes, and do a mix of cooking and outsourcing, depending on the situation. At the time, the sizes of the three respective groups were about 15% who love to cook, 50% who hate to cook, and 35% who are so-so on the idea.
Nearly 15 years later I did a similar study for a different client. This time, the numbers had shifted: Only 10% of consumers now love to cook, while 45% hate it and 45% are lukewarm about it. That means that the percentage of Americans who really love to cook has dropped by about one-third in a fairly short period of time.
Beyond the numbers, it also suggests that our fondness for Food TV has inspired us to watch more Food TV, and to want to eat more, but hasn’t increased our desire to cook. In part, Food TV has raised our standards to discouragingly high levels: How many of us really feel confident in our cooking skills after watching Iron Chef? (My high school chemistry teacher quit the cello in college after playing a semester next to Yo-Yo Ma.) This may be one reason why consumers now spend more on food in restaurants than on groceries.
I’ve come to think of cooking as being similar to sewing. As recently as the early 20th century, many people sewed their own
Exactly! I’ve got pork chops marinating, will fry some okra while the wife makes cornbread, steamed sweet potatoes, and stewed apples. 😊😛
A really simple cookbook would help those who don’t ‘get’ cooking.
For example: totally basic recipes based on ‘cooking is making things warm or making things soft’. And a simple meal is a meat a starch and a vegetable. (basic basic basic stuff)
Chicken - first recipe at top of page: put chicken in pan, turn oven on to 360 degrees - remove after 45 minutes and eat.
Second chicken recipe: Salt chicken, put chicken in pan turn over on to 360 degrees - remove after 45 minutes and eat.
Then just continue down the page until there’s a chicken recipe most of us would be willing to eat and share with others.
Make it easy, show how much money is saved and let young people learn the patterns of cooking. In today’s world - and tomorrow’s - food is going to become more expensive and restaurants outrageously expensive.
Sounds super yummy!
Last night we had grilled (fresh) Faroe island salmon smothered with lemon, fresh dill, and herbs de Provence, with sides of coconut jasmine rice, and green beans almondine. Very simple and very tasty.
Tonight I’m taking a break and reheating leftovers. I haven’t gotten
Chinese cooking mastered, and there’s a great place a few miles away, so once in a long while we do take out from there. So leftover fried rice, chicken and beef with Asian vegetables.
Tomorrow are leaning towards smoked prime cap steaks smothered with sautéed mushrooms and melted morel and leek Jack cheese, with baked potato, and a side of broccoli with horseradish butter sauce. Oh, and a salad. We almost always have a salad.
What do you marinate your pork chops with?
The stats are probably better. Lots of people took up cooking during Covid when everything was shut down.
Cooking themed TikTok accounts and YouTube videos are very popular.
Macro Biotic TRIPP!!!
I’M In .
I do not love cooking. I do not even like cooking, but I do like eating natural foods so I make a really big batch of something and freeze individual portions. This works well for one or two people, not so much for a family with kids.
*** Lots of people took up cooking during Covid when everything was shut down.***
That’s what happened in our family. We all do love to cook, and our family is all across the country, from coast to coast. We have one son who was a bachelor, and pretty much alone in his apartment with only a handful of people that he would see on occasion in person. He was the one we worried about during lockdowns. So we came up with a plan to have a virtual cook off on the weekends.
Each week a theme was decided on, and on the weekend we submitted photos and videos of our finished dishes. The themes were given a lot of latitude because not everyone had access to the same items at the stores. (Remember how groceries were hit or miss then with the supply chain issues?) So one week it might’ve been sandwiches for a challenge, or pasta, or pastries, or whatever. There was a lot of leeway with ingredients, so the challenge was just to up your cooking skills game. It worked and we all had delicious fun. We did it for almost an entire year, every week.
#38 The old saying: Teach a man to cook fish and he will eat forever.....
I watched ‘America’s Test Kitchen’ yesterday on cooking a one pan dish of chicken and rice with onions and peas and green onions. I will be making that tonight.
#54 I hate when I go to the kitchen looking for food and all I find are ingredients.
I gotta eat, I gotta cook.
Squeal. It's a dry rub. Coated the chops and let them rest in the fridge for 3 hours. They were excellent.
“I watched ‘America’s Test Kitchen’ yesterday on cooking a one pan dish of chicken and rice with onions and peas and green onions. I will be making that tonight.”
most of what i cook are one-pan dishes ... the main exception is steak, baked potato, and veggie (green beans or broccoli) ...
Consumers are still spending at restaurants despite inflation
This 'consumer' has cut back - a LOT!
This is good news! We have never marinated pork, only dry rubs. I don’t consider them as the same thing, but they are similar. We will check out Squeal on your recommendation.
We have one rub that we used once for the pork, and didn’t like it, so it’s on the scrap heap. Everybody has different tastes. Ours didn’t match our butcher’s that time. For pork, we often use just salt, pepper, and sometimes garlic. However, we will check out the Squeal rub.
It seems like we are both of the enjoy cooking/grilling mode. Home cooking is the best!
I missed reading your comment earlier in this thread. My apologies. Your post is very accurate.
God wants us to have children. And many of them.
Sometimes people cooperate, and sometimes people don’t. In modern times.
Hey, FRiend, you should up your game. If you have ingredients, you have all you need to make a meal. Meals are FOOD.
It sounds like you’re looking for a snack. Go grab some cheese, nuts, or fruit. That can be a snack as well as an ingredient.
I’m saying this with complete love and understanding, as I’ve been in your shoes many times.
When I was in college, all I was allowed in my dorm room was a hot pot and an electric skillet. Toaster ovens were strictly forbidden and back then, microwaves were HUGE and as almost heavy as a CRT TV. (Younguns probably have no idea what that [CRT] is without looking it up on Google or asking Siri, my kids included.)
I *bought* both my hotpot and my electric skillet with S&H Green Stamps. The hotpot bit the dust ten years later, but the electric frypan/skillet is still with me, and used regularly.
The point of my post is that I cooked with both of those throughout college and beyond. My mom told me when I was a freshman that I should write a cookbook for college kids, because I knew how to cook good meals simply and with a few ingredients. She thought I would have to be at the food hall for meals, but I was too broke. I couldn’t afford to have a patty melt there, which was the cheapest thing on the menu.
No matter, I eventually worked my way through the financial difficulties. Within a few months, I was able to wow my then boyfriend (now husband) with a dinner of Steak Diane from that electric fry pan.
I wish I had taken Mom up on that idea of a basic cookbook with just a couple of tools…and ingredients. Lots of kids (even college-aged) might know the basics by now. My own kids learned how to cook by the time they finished middle school, save the oldest.
He only knew how to boil water for the longest time. He was an active teenager, so food was always ready by the time he came home after practice or work. Now as a father though, he is a very good chef, both on the stove or the grill. He also makes great cornbread from scratch. A must for decent BBQ.
I would ask if you’re my brother, because he is the master of one pan cooking, but you’re across the country from him.
Same for my youngest son. He is a talented chef. He teaches me a lot about cooking. He is my go to for foodie and cocktail advice. (Can you tell he’s been in the service industry for quite some time? He has learned a lot by watching and doing in those places.)
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