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.
Pointer from Tyler Cowen.
As I have said before, the trend in hobbies is narrower, deeper, older. Fewer people are engaged in each hobby. Those engaged are much more dedicated. And hobbies that have been around a long time attract an older constituency.
Maybe also coming had become more intimidating, seem as requiring more expertise, as the range and quality of food increases esp in cities esp fo
r the young
Well, when every year the amount of time in the day spent working keeps increasing, time spent on “hobbies goes down, and “hobbies” that are mandatory, like food, become a burden.
” Work-family conflict is much higher in the United States than elsewhere in the developed world. One reason is that Americans work longer hours than workers in most other developed countries, including Japan, where there is a word, karoshi, for “death by overwork.” The typical American middle-income family put in an average of 11 more hours a week in 2006 than it did in 1979.
Not only do American families work longer hours; they do so with fewer laws to support working families. Only the United States lacks paid maternity-leave laws among the 30 industrialized democracies in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. The only family leave available to Americans is unpaid, limited to three months, and covers only about half the labor force. Discrimination against workers with family responsibilities, illegal throughout Europe, is forbidden only indirectly here. Americans also lack paid sick days, limits on mandatory overtime, the right to request work-time flexibility without retaliation, and proportional wages for part-time work. All exist elsewhere in the developed world.
So it should come as no surprise that Americans report sharply higher levels of work-family conflict than do citizens of other industrialized countries. Fully 90 percent of American mothers and 95 percent of American fathers report work-family conflict. And yet our public policymakers in Congress continue to sit on their hands when it comes to enacting laws to help Americans reconcile their family responsibilities with those at work.
In 1960, only 20 percent of mothers worked, and only 18.5 percent were unmarried. Because the most common family was comprised of a male breadwinner and stay-at-home mother, employers were able to shape jobs around that ideal, with the expectation that the breadwinner was available for work anytime, anywhere, for as long as his employer needed him. ”
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/reports/2010/01/25/7194/the-three-faces-of-work-family-conflict/
I thought this comparison was inapt:
“I’ve come to think of cooking as being similar to sewing. As recently as the early 20th century, many people sewed their own clothing. Today the vast majority of Americans buy clothing made by someone else; the tiny minority who still buy fabric and raw materials do it mainly as a hobby. If that’s the kind of shift coming to the food industry, change leaders and corporate strategists will have their hands full.”
Home sewing died because it makes no economic sense–imported clothing is now so cheap that it’s virtually impossible to make your own for less. So cheap that a lot of used clothing is shipped in bales to developing countries rather than resold domestically. But prepared foods can’t be imported, they have to be made locally. Restaurant labor costs are rising and my sense is the delta between home-cooked and restaurant meals has been growing steadily wider (especially if you like a beer or glass of wine with your meal). When my wife and I go out, it’s rare that the bill is under $40 with tax and tip — even for a just couple of burgers and beers at a local pub. The same meal at home is well under $10.
Home sewing died because it makes no economic sense
True but it also died as less women made their own clothes, the less their daughters learned to sew as well. 100 years women spent several hours cooking a day and being a good cook was the difference of a good meal and bad meal. Also, watch any young women video from the 1950s, they were not suggesting women should go to college and learn a career.
Also home cooking has not died but it is no longer as popular hobby.
It’s likely that fewer women made their own clothes and taught their daughters because it no longer made any sense. But cooking still does make sense — particularly in developed countries where ingredients have gotten cheaper and more plentiful while labor has gotten more expensive. Despite the increase in female labor-force participation, the standard of American home cooking has improved dramatically vs the mid 20th century:
https://www.amazon.com/Gallery-Regrettable-Food-James-Lileks/dp/0609607820
The number of items in supermarkets has exploded and recipes are available instantly and for free online.
First of all, home sewing was widely practiced into the mid-to-late 20th Century, not just the early century.
Second, the rising cost of labor (“ingredients have gotten cheaper and more plentiful while labor has gotten more expensive”) is precisely why home cooking increasingly no longer makes sense either. Home cooks’ time is not free – it is being diverted from doing something else.
From that perspective, travel to and from a restaurant and wait time while there is generally more time consuming than cooking. Ordering a pizza or hitting the drive through window may save time, but not dining out. One of the reasons I cook as much as I do is that eating at restaurants out too often tries my patience.
Home cooking was killed by the negative-sum mandatory two-income household. Hence, it’s relegation to the status of “hobby.” Ingredients have never been cheaper or more plentiful. Cookware? Better than ever. Gourmet recipes at the click of a mouse. What’s missing is the time and energy to shop, cook and clean.
Exactly.
More working hours and more commute hours makes shopping and food prep a tough chore. And that is magnified for those living near major cities, y’know, where most of our economy is.
Another thing that makes cooking a cheaper option in the modern world is cheap freezing and refrigeration. You can buy lots of raw ingredients from wholesalers (Costco, Sam’s Club, etc.) make large batches of food and then freeze it in portions.
I don’t make large batches because the addiction to a wide variety of hyper-palatable food is hard to kick, although my wife is the major culprit. (I make my delicious macaroni salad 1 pound at a time, but it can last for weeks in the refrigerator.) I usually make enough to two meals. When the girls get bigger, I’ll be making be making larger batches of kid-friendly food, too be sure. I don’t know how people feed a family on take-out and fast food — even with my considerable wherewithal, I’d go broke.
Kling did call this a while ago. He’s right. Hobbies, including cooking, are getting narrower and deeper. Less people cook as a hobby but those who do generally get deeper and much more skilled than they used to.
Is this a bad thing? Or is this something to be learned or acted upon?
Skimming-off the marginal hobbyist is not a bad thing if they’re pursuing fewer and deeper hobbies. If they’re just spending more time in traffic and at make-work jobs, well… They certainly aren’t re-allocating that time to producing and raising children (at least not urban white folk), which is the best reason to get back in the kitchen.
I highly recommend meal kits. My wife and I didn’t cook at all before marriage, then we started using Chef’d. Now we cook 5-6 nights a week plus leftovers for lunch. Its less money, time, and hassle then going out. Much friendlier to being a parent as well.
Yup. We started on Blue Apron 3 years ago. Got good at cooking and cancelled it 6 months ago. Now we cook 5-6 times a week and I save close to $300 a month because I take left overs to work and no tips. Dining out generally takes 2 hours of the evening…so does cooking in (including clean up) and it is a family activity. Also my wife and I have each lost about 30 lbs due to better portion sizes. It’s an incredible change in lifestyle that I feel like has left me with more time, energy, and money.
My mom cooked virtually every meal. Plus she made us lunch to take to school. She put up pickles, sauces, jams. She sewed her own clothes. My sisters too. That was a point of contention. I got store bought clothes.
Mom was a good cook but cooking was not a hobby. It was work.
I “cook” maybe 5 dinners, 3 lunches a week. We eat prepared food some, and eat out once or twice a week. I can be a good cook. Sometimes it’s enjoyable. I cook because I can control what I (we) eat and it’s cheap.
If you asked me, I would not say I loved it.
Depressing, if true.