Home-Cooking Trumps Take-Out

More adults are returning to the kitchen for home-cooked meals instead of opting for take-out or dining out, according to new research from the University of British Columbia presented at the 2010 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences meeting. According to the findings, cooking at home allowed for better control over food individuals prepared, more independence, and time to connect with family and friends.

Researcher Dean Simmons surveyed British Columbia families about their cooking habits, he was surprised to find that the vast majority of families were cooking at home on a regular basis. He also said people also use home cooking as a way to connect to their heritage, with immigrants in particular wanting to enjoy the foods of their homeland. Others just want to eat food like Mom used to make.

Simmons said plenty about cooking has changed. Though women still do the lion’s share of cooking, it’s increasingly becoming a shared task, and teens are less likely to see cooking as a gender-specific activity. Simmons also disputed the notion that we are collectively losing our cooking skills. All that’s happened, he said, is that the actual skills needed for home cooking have changed. Fifty years ago, cooks may have needed to be able to tell when home-baked bread was done, but they didn’t know how to microwave; today, they do.

He also noted men are increasingly adept at the new skills needed to cook.

If cooking was just a simple case of heating and preparing food, “you would expect the kitchen would disappear over time” as technology and industrial techniques improved.

Sources:

* 2010 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences: Forget Take-Out: Families Still Big on Home Cooking