Three Phases of Cooking During the Pandemic: Panic, Nostalgia, and Burnout

The American online platform dedicated to cooking and everything culinary – Allrecipes.com, recently presented quite interesting data regarding cooking during the pandemic. Over the past 12 months, their statistics have grown in all categories from the number of unique user visits, the number of views, and the time spent on the site (2020: 3.3 billion minutes). Due to this, the team from Allrecipes.com shared with Adweek the thesis that people turned inward due to the pandemic and changed their lifestyle, and with that came the need to cook meals for themselves and explore recipes. What is interesting is that, in addition to the increase in the number of home cooks, they also noticed three different trends that changed depending on the phases of life with Covid-19.

First Phase: Creative Substitutions

In the early days following the declaration of the pandemic, shoppers rushed to stores to stock up on essential groceries. Since many ran out of yeast, flour, and similar ingredients or lived in fear of a general shortage, filling their pantries with canned and frozen food, they turned to Allrecipes in search of answers such as which 'ingredients to use when running out of essentials' or '24 recipes with canned tuna'.

Second Phase: New Recipes and Nostalgia

In the second phase of the pandemic, users slowly began to adapt to the new circumstances. They decided to use the time spent within four walls to acquire new skills such as cooking and trying new dishes. Many were also struck by nostalgia, wanting to recreate dishes from restaurants they visited in the old normal or meals their mothers and grandmothers cooked for them. During this phase, recipes with the phrase 'for beginners', articles on how to make your own yeast, decorate focaccia, the best recipes from the sixties, or grandma's comfort food were popular.

Third Phase: Burnout

In this phase, many cooks began to feel symptoms of 'burnout' and a lack of inspiration. They visited Allrecipes in search of simple, creative, yet cheaper meals, leading to popular titles such as '14 dinner ideas for under two dollars per serving', 'Quick meal with less than five ingredients', or 'Delicious and different things you can make with ground beef'.

Although, as concluded by Allrecipes, many cooks lost enthusiasm and the desire to cook by the third phase of the pandemic, it is very likely that many new culinary habits will persist in the 'new normal'. Besides discovering that they can prepare a great meal, novice cooks learned that preparing food can relax and entertain them. Due to this newfound confidence and the joy of cooking, there is no reason not to continue this practice in the future, especially if they do not have to cook every day. 

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