25/07/2025
I love a bit of food philosophy and food politics!
From "the Echidna" email list...
"We might love our food but we fear the kitchen
Friday July 25, 2025
John Handscombe Headshot
The bookshelves groan beneath the weight of our old p**n collection. It used to be an impressive stash. Whenever things became stale and predictable, my wife and I turned to it for motivation and inspiration.
But you know how it goes. The years pass. Familiarity, boredom and complacency set in. Those dog-eared, stuck-together pages that once aroused us no longer leave us salivating. Besides, it's easier and cheaper to find what you desire on the internet.
Still, like the rest of the country, our lust for food p**n remains strong. Those cumbersome recipe books with their seductive, beautifully-lit photographs of casseroles and desserts might now gather dust on our shelves. But a day never passes without a web search or a titillating peek at a TV food channel to decide what dish will become the evening meal.
But alarmingly, that is not the case for a growing number of Australians. We might be a nation that worships food. We just don't sing its praises at the altar - formerly known as the stove - anymore.
A swag of studies culminating in a survey last month by Taste, the country's most popular recipe site, confirms a trend developing in much of the Western world: the home-cooked evening meal, once the beating heart of the Australian household and an almost sacred event where we gathered to debrief and dissect the day - is vanishing.
Taking its place: pre-packaged supermarket meals, food kit delivery services, takeaway and, for those citing extreme fatigue and time and economic pressures, nothing at all but a simple snack.
The Taste survey showed more than a third of Gen Z and almost half the country's Millennials - an age group roughly between 18 and 44 - claim they are too tired to cook at night, compared to just 10 per cent of Baby Boomers.
In a nation that sits together to watch MasterChef, that drools over social media videos of caramel sauce being sensually poured over cheesecake, it's quite the paradox. We've never been more obsessed with food. Yet we've never cooked less of it.
Convenience has become king. Why cook when an app can have a Thai curry on your doorstep in the time it takes to slice an onion and dice some garlic? Why should dinner be a dilemma when a supermarket lasagna requires nothing more than a finger on the microwave button?
It's easy to sneer at how this trend symbolises the rushed, superficial nature of modern life. It's also easy to lament the burgeoning health issues like diabetes and obesity as more people turn to high-fat, heavily-salted and sugar-laden processed foods carrying ingredient labels more suited to a chemical weapons laboratory.
Rising living and housing costs are clearly the main culprits. Increasing numbers of Australians, particularly younger ones, are working longer hours and commuting greater distances just to keep the lights on. A frozen or packaged meal isn't merely convenient, it's a survival strategy.
But there's something deeper at work here, too. Several studies indicate that the kitchen has become a place that younger people fear, not fantasise about. They were never taught to cook at home and complain they do not have the confidence to confront the most basic recipes.
The old-fashioned Home Economics high school classes - I still recall the triumphant glow I carried for weeks after Mrs Becker taught me to make coffee scrolls in Form Two - have morphed into Health and Human Development courses where bare hands rarely encounter moist dough.
No wonder we fetishise food. We've become a nation of voyeurs instead of participants. And those who prefer to watch will always miss out on the intimacy that even a mediocre home-cooked meal can deliver.
The evening meal isn't just about the consumption of calories. It's about conversation and caring for others and yourself. It doesn't have to be fancy. A little garlic sizzled in oil, joined by vegetables and pasta, is the fastest of foods. A few cans of beans and a fistful of herbs stewed in vegetable stock delivers a knockout soup.
It's time we stopped being a nation of food snobs too scared to get our hands dirty and reclaim the often messy and imperfect joy of home cooking. Dinner should be a time to pause, share and enjoy. It's no place for the lonely glow of a phone screen and a lukewarm tub of takeaway pad Thai.
HAVE YOUR SAY: Do you still place importance on the evening meal? Has Australia turned into a nation of food snobs? How do we lure younger people into the kitchen? Send your thoughts to: echidna@theechidna.com.au
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