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Home Cooking and a Generational Gap

People love home cooking … they just don’t do it as often as they’d like. Yesterday I talked about meal delivery and meal-planning services. These kinds of services are growing in popularity and in diversity. I think a lot of this has to do with how busy Americans are. We work a lot. We commute a lot. And we don’t take much time off to just relax. We’re harried, but we want to be healthy, too.

But there is another reason that meal delivery services may be on the rise: Millennials.

home cooking couple

Last year, Reportlinker conducted a survey to answer two questions:

  1. Do Americans prefer to cook at home?
  2. And if so, why?

What they found was enlightening. The vast majority of those surveyed replied with a big YES, they like to cook at home. 98% of respondents said they prefer to cook at home rather than being delivered or ordering a takeaway.

However, people are not cooking at home as often as they’d like. Only 36% of respondents said they cook at home daily. And 50% said they cook at home between three and six days a week.

home cooking - saladThe main reason people like to cook at home is price and health. 31% of respondents said the lower cost of home cooking motivates them to prepare their meals at home. While 22% said their desire for healthy food drove their home cooking preference.

When breaking responses down by age, something else came to light. Millenials (those born in the 1980s to 1990s and now in their 20s and 30s) are not as likely to cook at home. 24% of them admit cooking less than once a week and 32% of Millennials find inspiration on cooking blogs or websites.

In addition, meal delivery services appear to be more popular with this generation than other generations — 15% have used one of these services in the last year, compared to just 10% of all respondents.

So, do you like to cook at home? If so, why? Please share your thoughts in the comment box below.

home cooking - potatoes

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About the author

Carma Spence has been experimenting in the kitchen since she was four years old and loves trying out new recipe ideas. She is the author of Bonkers for Bundt Cakes and Your Perfect Pie, as well as author and contributor to several more non-food-related books. With Carma's Cookery, she is taking her passion for empowering people and blending it with her passion for cooking, gift-giving and entertaining.

2 comments on “Home Cooking and a Generational Gap”

  1. Marina Lukyantseva-Haworth

    Technically, I am a millennial but I do cook at home almost everyday with Friday being my day off. Do I enjoy it? NO! I hate cooking (I love cooking shows though) but I grew up in a very traditional Russian household where all females age 10+ were involved in daily home cooking as an essential part of their lives so it is a cultural thing for me. Just today, I was running errands and had a sudden craving for some borscht – I drove to the nearest grocery store, got all the ingredients, and the first thing I did when I got home was making and eating it. A happy camper now:)

    Also, cooking at home is cheaper and healthier as I know what I put in. If I lived alone I probably would be more of a typical millennial but home cooking when you have a family makes more sense.

  2. Carma Spence

    When I was a little girl, a friend of my Mom’s served my mom’s cabbage borscht recipe. I had never had it before, so I called it Gladys Soup (that was my Mom’s friend’s name). I love that soup!

    Marina, have you tried using a slow cooker? You can make amazing home-cooked meals with very little work. My husband is loving it! Yesterday, he made pork roast with potatoes, carrots, mushrooms and sour krout. Yummy!

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