The world changed and so did cooking trends, especially among the millennials. Arpitta Jerath details some new ones that have emerged over the last year and a half

2020 will always be known for massive changes. Of course, with the pandemic, the biggest change has been in the way we work, socialise, interact or in other words — the way we live our everyday life. A massive part of this change has also been in the way we cook, consume and make food choices. For a lot of people, a major part of the last year and, unsurprisingly, this year was spent in the kitchen. With work from home being continued in most professional setups, for some, it meant blurred lines between office and residence. For others, it meant discovering that cooking was not such a pain after all. The sum total is that it’s safe to say that the pandemic changed the way people cooked and looked at food.

The change has been more pronounced for millennials. Most of them found themselves cooking for the very first time and quickly graduated from Maggi and bread omelet to looking for ways to put together dishes with a little more finesse. The interesting part is how a lot of new business ventures came up as well as existing businesses pivoted to meet this latent demand. Here are some cooking trends that emerged among the millennials over the last year and a half.

E-cooking or the idea of cooking almost anything, thanks to the myriad cooking videos, recipes, and blogs online, is less a trend and more a norm now. Rarely would you ever find a millennial stepping into the kitchen without a tablet or a smartphone. With increasing access to gourmet food, cooking shows and travel, people are now more exposed to global cuisines and do not shy away from trying out new dishes at home. Those who enjoy cooking will always have a go-to YouTube channel or food blogger that they trust for food inspiration.

Another direction that people are increasingly taking today is to opt for more plant-based foods and diets and giving veganism a fair chance. Not only does it have its own health advantages, but it’s also easier now than before, thanks to some innovative alternatives that are slowly gaining popularity. Milk, cheese, ice-creams, and even plant-based meat alternatives are readily available across platforms and channels. More and more people are exploring and adopting these options.

On an everyday basis though, a major concept that has really picked up is the idea of meal planning and meal prepping. Between morning virtual team huddles and zoom check-ins, it can get insanely hard for a working professional to balance everyday meals, eat healthily and on time. A very pragmatic workaround has been the idea of planning your meals and spending some time over the weekend to get your weekly meals fixed in one go. Not only does it reduce the time one ends up spending in the kitchen, but also helps in cutting down on wastage and trips to the grocery store.

Be it a batch of overnight oats, granola or healthy snacks, frozen breakfast smoothies, or parfaits — people are finally getting the hang of planning in advance to make healthy food more accessible. Another key trend is to explore and invest in flavour bombs — curry pastes, salad dressings and pan Asian sauces to get flavoursome and well-rounded meals out of the kitchen in no time. A similar yet more holistic idea is that of DIY meal kits with detailed recipe cards. This solves most of the problems that millennials face with cooking — transparency, exact proportions, convenience and wastage.

A DIY meal kit is essentially a box of pre-portioned and semi-prepped ingredients along with a chef-designed recipe that allows you to cook a delicious meal on your own at home. This is a perfect way to skip the inconvenience of shopping for groceries or being left with extra ingredients after a cook. Most of these recipes are one-pot dishes, which means minimal utensils to clean. While a lot of restaurants started their own meal kits last year, a bunch of new players is also trying to ace the space.

The pandemic has been behaviour changing in more ways than one. It’s also, hence, a great opportunity to introduce people to new ideas and concepts that will continue to stick once normalcy resumes.

(The writer is the founder of Let’s Kook Up.)