Cooking at Home Is Cool

In this day and age, Americans have plenty of choices when it comes to mealtime. Restaurants, fast food and the grocery’s prepared meals all compete for a share of the family food budget. But according to a recent survey, 98 percent of Americans prefer to cook meals at home.

Some key findings from the survey, conducted by ReportLinker, include:

• More than one-third of Americans (36%) say they cook at home daily.
• 50% say they cook between three and six days a week.
• Retirees and those who are at home all day are more likely than full-time employees to cook each day.

So what are the reasons? Respondents share that cooking at home is less expensive than going out (31% of Americans say the lower cost motivates them) and it also allows more control over healthier options (22% say their desire for healthy fare drives them into the kitchen).

According to ReportLinker, for busy families, time presents a significant obstacle to putting a healthy meal on the table. Long work commutes and the demands of family activities make carving time for a home-cooked meal challenging. Still, more than half of Americans say they’re able to find between 31–60 minutes each time to prepare a meal. Of these, 26% say it’s worth the time to be able to serve a healthy meal, and 12% do it because they believe it’s the best way to gather the family together.

Although cooking is still very common among Americans, Millenials are much more reluctant to turn on the stove. According to the survey:

• 24% of them admit cooking less than once a week.
• 32% of Millennials find inspiration on cooking blogs or websites.

Millenials are exploring meal-kit delivery services, though. Fifteen percent have used one of these services in the last year, compared to just 10% of all Americans.