More than preparing a meal? Concerning the meanings of home cooking

Cooking is one of the basic activities in our lives. However, people frequently feel they fall short of time to cook when facing problems with the temporal organization of daily life. How people think about home cooking is considered to be important for the time they spend on preparing meals. It is assumed that the meaning of cooking differs for different people, depending on the temporal and social context. This contribution allows us to clarify how the meaning of cooking varies according to individual and household characteristics and the cooking occasion. By using the pooled time-diary data from the Flemish time-use surveys from 1999 and 2004 we can examine people's views on cooking in order to understand how people use time for food preparation. Although the results suggest that people consider cooking primarily as a household chore, preparing food can also be a way to please others, as well as themselves. It seems that feelings of time pressure and the family situation are clearly related to men's and women's cooking experiences. Furthermore, the meaning of cooking also tends to be clearly influenced by the meal situation and (the moment of) the day.

[1]  H. Aarseth,et al.  Food and masculinity in dual-career couples , 2008 .

[2]  Janeen Baxter.  The Joys and Justice of Housework , 2000 .

[3]  A. Murcott.  Invited presentation: Is it still a pleasure to cook for him? Social changes in the household and the family , 2000 .

[4]  Kate Cairns,et al.  Caring About Food , 2010 .

[5]  Andy P. Field,et al.  Discovering Statistics Using SPSS , 2000 .

[6]  Ignace Glorieux,et al.  De 24 uur van Vlaanderen : het dagelijkse leven van minuut tot minuut , 2006 .

[7]  A. Warde,et al.  Convenience food: space and timing , 1999 .

[8]  T. Brunner,et al.  Ready-meal consumption: associations with weight status and cooking skills , 2010, Public Health Nutrition.

[9]  Julie Guthman,et al.  Agrarian Dreams: The Paradox of Organic Farming in California , 2004 .

[10]  Ignace Glorieux,et al.  In Search of the Harried Leisure Class in Contemporary Society: Time-Use Surveys and Patterns of Leisure Time Consumption , 2010 .

[11]  Elisabeth L'orange Fürst,et al.  Cooking and femininity , 1997 .

[12]  T. Lang,et al.  Is there a culinary skills transition? Data and debate from the UK about changes in cooking culture , 2001 .

[13]  M. DeVault,et al.  Feeding the Family: The Social Organization of Caring as Gendered Work. , 1992 .

[14]  Margaretha Nydahl,et al.  The Meal as a Gift—The Meaning of Cooking Among Retired Women , 2000 .

[15]  David Marshall,et al.  Living Together and Eating Together: Changes in Food Choice and Eating Habits during the Transition from Single to Married/Cohabiting , 1998 .

[16]  Lisa Mancino,et al.  Who's cooking? Time spent preparing food by gender, income and household composition , 2006 .

[17]  Karen S. Hamrick,et al.  How Much Time Do Americans Spend on Food , 2011 .

[18]  P. Bourdieu.  Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste* , 2018, Food and Culture.

[19]  J. Sobal,et al.  Foodwork in Newly Married Couples , 2006 .

[20]  B. Beagan,et al.  `It's Just Easier for Me to Do It': Rationalizing the Family Division of Foodwork , 2008 .

[21]  W. Olsen,et al.  The changing practice of eating: evidence from UK time diaries, 1975 and 2000. , 2007, The British journal of sociology.

[22]  J. Sobal,et al.  Commensal Careers at Entry into Marriage: Establishing Commensal Units and Managing Commensal Circles , 2002 .

[23]  H. T. Waterbolk.  Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen , 1997 .

[24]  M. Szabo,et al.  The Challenges of “Re-engaging with Food“ , 2011 .

[25]  A. Warde,et al.  Consumption, Food and Taste: Culinary Antinomies and Commodity Culture , 1997 .