HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!
According to a new report from Mintel, home cooking is on the rise due to variety of reasons including: economizing, healthier eating (51%), trying new things (56%), exploring foods from other cultures (27%), expressing affection for friends and family (48%), and bonding with children (41%).
Not surprisingly, some of the variation can be traced to generational differences, with Boomer cooks more interested in health, and Millennial cooks feeling sophisticated and smart, not to mention superior to their peers. (Lukovitz, 2011)
I just made a date to bake chocolate chip cookies with my niece and nephew. What about you? What’s your motivation for cooking?
Lukovitz, K. (2100, November 21). Healthier Diet Is One Big Home-Cooking Driver. mediapost.com. Retrieved November 22, 2011, from
6 comments:
Besides the obvious economic and health benefits to cooking (that, and the fact that women adore a man who can cook), a lot of it comes down to the fact that cooking is fun, and you can make the food you want *exactly* the way you want.
Sure, I'll never cook a Filet Mignon the way the folks at Del Frisco's do, but that doesn't mean I have certain dishes that I make better than anyone else (from my perspective). Plus, you can get a little aggressive with your food in a way you can't get in a normal restaurant or take out place (try asking the folks at your local deli to substitute a real French Baguette for the usual Sub Roll, or instead of regular dull Mayo have them put a nice Pesto Mayonnaise on your ham and cheese and see how well that goes over.)
I suspect that a lot of the accessibility of cooking nowadays comes from the abundant availability of recipes and food ideas online, and the ability to walk into any Whole Foods, Fairway, Trader Joe's, or other supermarket and get just about any ingredient you want. We have also seen the Fresh Direct commercials which allow you to go from recipe to home delivery of the food itself lickety split.
I see a lot of people get a little surprised when I say that I enjoy cooking. I assume the reason for surprise is because I am a 22 year old male and many 22yr old males wouldn't say cooking is fun.
Even though I do try to eat healthy as often as I can, that is not the main reason why I cook. I like to cook because it is a way for me to be creative and learn new and different things in the process. I try different recipes and I create my own recipes and it is fun for me as well as a learning experience.
With school, work, and everything else going on in my life I do not have the time to draw or paint or do other things to show creativity, but I do have to eat. Therefore, I take the opportunity of cooking to have some fun with it and make it my own.
Both my husband and I cook every night. He loves to cook more than I but I enjoy to eat at home on a regular basis, My Millenial children have picked up on the cooking craze and they cook at their home because its cheaper. My extended fanily always knows that if they came over they could always get a good meal. It's always good to have people over, cook and eat and talk is the best way to spend an evening. We have always been like this. Lately though we have started watching the various cooking shows for instance, American Test Kitchen and Lydia.Some of my fondest memories were on Friday night's I would make a pizza from scratch and the kids would come over with friends for the pizza and salad. Its a nice way to relax and get to know your guests.
Susan D
I'm 24 years old and for me cooking is limited to a few easy things I make purely out of necessity and financial reasons. I wouldn't say I love it and I wouldn't say I'm good at it (If I would, I'd be lying). However, I have mastered the art of grilling a steak and am pretty good if I do say so myself.
My girlfriend, on the other hand, loves to cook. She's pretty good at it and loves to try new things. The Food Network is always on and trips to the grocery store have become excursions buying ingredients for new dishes that she finds online. It saves quite a bit of money and is much better, health wise than eating out. Though I'm not great at cooking, my girlfriends cooking has made me great at washing dishes...as you can imagine I'm currently saving money for a dish washer.
When I use to live close to home at my last college, whenever I would come home for the weekend I would cook for my family just to 'treat' them I guess. Now, I live on my own and don't have money to eat out so cooking is not so much for the love of it (although I do love it) but more for financial reasons. It's cheaper for me to cook a decent sized meal and eat left overs for one or two days than it is for me to eat three different meals out.
Living in NYC where you can get any type of food at any time is very appealing, however it can get very expensive quickly. That's part of my motivation to cook, cost. I also may be a control freak that wants to know what I'm eating and don't trust other's cooking abilities. That's what I've been told once or twice.
Another major factor that motivates me to cook is that my wife doesn't cook at all. It's a matter of survival. Since we have known each other, she has never once had the urge to cook anything. There have been hints of wanting to learn how to cook, however it has never grown in to a reality.
I love to cook and I find it therapeutic creating something that my family will like and being together with everyone. In our busy lives and opposite schedules, cooking and then eating as family is an experience that some miss out on. At the end of the day, cooking motivates me to bring my family together. AHHH!
ben k.
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