Kate Hawkesby: Why are young Kiwis now too lazy to cook at home?

Do we no longer care about the sanctity and value of homemade family meal times, asks Kate Hawkesby. Photo / 123rf.

COMMENT:

Having eaten my bodyweight in hot cross buns while lazing through the recent school holidays ordering in and eating out, I was interested to read that fewer and fewer of us are actually doing any cooking at home.

A recent report revealed just 50 per cent of Kiwis cook at home daily.

This study was of course commissioned by the country's newest kitchen, Uber Eats.
But it found that cooking at home, sourcing and preparing meals, that's the domain of the older generation and I'm not surprised by that statistics.

Look around the next time you're in any café, the bulk of the patrons are young people.

Our teenagers, in spite of how much food you may have in the fridge, will opt to eat out over making a sandwich at home any day of the week.

I regularly ask them why they'd rather spend their money at Subway on a sandwich than make one at home for free.

Kate Hawkesby says her teens will spend their money at Subway on a sandwich rather than making one at home for free. Photo / file

I'm yet to get an answer beyond an eye roll, but my bet is laziness and convenience.

But even for those of us who're old enough to know better, those of us who grew up with homemade meals when there wasn't such a proliferation of café culture, even we outsource these days.

If it's not Uber eats, it's a food bag company delivering us the ingredients to assemble and throw in the oven.

Why? Are we too lazy? Too busy? Do we no longer care about the sanctity and value of homemade family meal times?

Getting everyone round the family dinner table is hard yards. People work different hours, kids have sport or work, when they're little they might be eating much earlier than you.

According to Uber's survey, 29 per cent of us get takeaways weekly, 15 per cent of us go out to a restaurant weekly.

We're maybe not as bad as New York - friends who live there say it's very common to find apartments with no kitchens.

Literally no kitchen, at all.

But most modern homes here these days no longer have a separate dining room.
Even the kitchen table is being replaced by counter bar stool dining.

According to Uber, "70 per cent of New Zealanders eat dinner in front of the TV at least once a week, 35 per cent do so regularly."

So sometimes the dining place is no table at all just the couch.

Fifty per cent of us said convenience was a top priority.
So is it because we're working longer hours, and it is just too easy to tap an app and have it delivered?

And that's before we even get to the role of social media in all of this.

Food porn has become so huge online that kids are having their appetites whet every time they scroll past a fancy eggs bene or an avocado smash.

So can we be enticed back into the kitchen to prepare every meal from scratch?

I'd like to think so but for younger generations I wonder if cheap and convenient cafe dining is just all too easy.