Home cooking on the boil again
Magazines with cooking content have been around for decades and food columns have been staple fodder in newspapers for just as long, but in the last 10 years or so the explosion of food shows on television has had a huge impact on what we are cooking at home.
Add the various food-bag options that provide fresh deliveries with recipes to inspire home cooks, lockdowns when we all had to cook more and all the very cool kitchen gadgets that advertising tells us will make it much easier to make restaurant quality food and we now have a community that is turning back to cooking food from scratch.
We have turned the clock back to cook like our grandparents and parents used to do rather than relying on pre-made fast, convenient foods.
We all know the cost of living is going through the roof, especially fresh produce and dairy products, making it harder for many people to prepare the fresh, nutritious food they have been relearning how to make.
I spoke with some retailers to find out how their businesses had changed (put aside the increasing costs) to meet consumer demand.
Mark A’Court from Fresh Choice Nelson City told me they had seen an increase in people buying, not just basics like flour, but also ingredients that add flavour to dishes.
‘‘The change in people’s habits has been really noticeable since the first lockdown in 2020 and the change hasn’t slowed down sales of slow cook cuts of meat products like brisket, beef cheeks, short ribs and even whole chicken frames for making soups and stocks.
‘‘I’ve been in the industry for a long time and I’ve never seen such a significant change in people’s food buying habits, people looking for value by doing it themselves.
‘‘The whole recipe thing has gone bananas, the dried herbs and spices category used to be a sleeper category but now people are buying a lot of these to make dishes they have seen on TV, in a cook book or on the internet.
‘‘People come into the store with recipes on their phones. They are Googling recipes and scanning QR codes on products, and we’re finding a lot more social interaction in-store based around recipes.’’
A’Court said the supply of imported foods was challenging so people were using their mobile devices to check for alternatives.
He said other indicators of people cooking more interesting dishes at home were sales of chili sauces, meat rubs and fresh herbs. Salad and coleslaw bags were selling in winter rather than just summer because people were using rocket or watercress to make fresh salads to go with various dishes.
‘‘We’re finding a lot more social interaction in-store based around recipes.’’ Mark A’Court, supermarket coowner
While I was chatting with Mark we talked about the supply chain shortages behind this frustrating issue.
If you think about how fresh produce is grown you will quickly realise that with the current labour shortages there simply aren’t enough people to harvest produce and many growers who can’t get enough labour are just ploughing their crop back into the ground.
Add in the impact of Covid on every sector and the labour shortages are exacerbated. Recently Tegal advised it had two production facilities closed because of Covid and that means there will be less frozen chicken product available. That’s already starting to show in empty sections in supermarket freezers.
With international freight in a pretty precarious situation as far as reliability goes, there are regularly shortages of products we have all come to rely on to create delicious food at home.
Dave Barrett from The Junction told me they had seen a big uptick in sales of quality local products.
‘‘Things like Neudorf Black Garlic, the products from The Sausage Press and Craft French Pate who make a range of delicious traditional French products are really popular. Customers are also buying locally made olive oil and of course our cheeses. People want quality ingredients to cook with and there’s some stunning foods being made in this region.’’
The other thing I have noticed is how people are tending to shop around and buy locally as much as they can. Farm shops are as popular as ever, the Nelson Market has a huge number of food outlets and the farmer’s market and other markets in the region have a faithful following of people who want to talk to the people who make the food and food ingredients they are selling.
It’s also a fantastic way of saving money; it’s generally cheaper to buy direct from the farmer or producer.
I have also noticed an increase in the range of ‘‘toys’’ we can buy to use in the kitchen. Some things like the high-end Thermomix that used to be seen only in commercial kitchens are now appearing in the kitchens of home cooks.
Just wander around any appliance store and the choice of kitchen equipment is huge.
I’m going to talk with a kitchen equipment specialist in the next couple of weeks to sort out exactly what you should have versus what is nice to have. I can tell you right now that for me the single most important piece of equipment in our kitchen is a good quality, sharp knife. It will do the job of many non-essential but nice-to-have toys.
Whatever motivates you to buy locally grown and produced goods to make delicious food at home I encourage you to keep doing it. The economy isn’t going to get any better for a few years yet and the more self-sufficient we are when it comes to eating, well, the better we all will be.