Consumers' interest in learning about cooking: the influence of age, gender and education

Abstract

General and governmental interest in cooking has increased recently. In part this may be because the acquisition of food preparation skills may make individuals less dependent on processed foods and reduce risks of overweight and obesity. However, little research has been conducted on consumers' interests in learning about cooking. Therefore in 2012 an online survey was conducted in Australia among 1023 adult food preparers with the aim of determining what and how they wanted to learn to cook. Questions were asked about interest in learning about cooking-related topics, specific main meals and cooking techniques, preferred ways to learn, and their demographic characteristics. Frequency and cross-tabulation analyses were used to compare the responses across demographic categories, and content and correspondence analyses were used to analyse meal preferences and age-related differences. The findings show that 71% of the sample wanted to learn more about cooking. Respondents wanted to learn to cook a wide range of evening meals, especially ethnic dishes (e.g. Chinese, Thai, Italian, 'Asian'). Most preferred to learn from television (68%), newspapers and magazines (41%), although attendance at cooking classes (34%), YouTube (27%) and special newsletters (24%) were also popular. There were few, weak associations between interest in cooking and the respondents' demographic characteristics. The findings are discussed in relation to the common problems faced by all domestic food preparers and the major opportunities to communicate about cooking.

How Often Do We Use Cooking Utensils? An Exploratory Study

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Safe Food Management and Smartphone Technology: Investigating the Impact of an App on Consumer Knowledge Retention

“…There is evidence to support the argument that food preparation is still a strongly gendered household task [27]. In agreement, Worsley, Wang [28] have argued that cooking remains a female responsibility in Australia, thus portraying the importance of gender as a co-variate in this study. Second, the other criterion is the ownership and use of smartphones.…”

How does a local initiative contribute to social inclusion and promote sustainable food practices? Focus on the example of social cooking workshops

“…It echoes the results of Stead et al about the Cookwell initiative, 2 whereby it is important not to apply a top-down approach in such initiatives (Stead et al, 2004), as 'community [(practitioners)] and practice constitute each other' (Wenger, 1999in Shove et al, 2012c. In the same way, Hinrichs and Kremer studied a CSA and show that, for an initiative to be efficient, the cooking preferences of the public must be known (Hinrichs and Kremer, 2002), while Worsley et al revealed that there are preferences in the way people learn how to cook (Worsley et al, 2014). These results tie in with the fact that it is useful to build partnership with local stakeholders such as associations, as 'communities of practice are born of the experience of doing, they cannot be willed into existence or designed from afar' (Shove et al, 2012c).…”