the world of food

the deeper World of food, the importance of cooking food, early man and how we used to eat

When you look at the bigger picture of things, you will discover an entire WORLD of foods to enjoy, study, cook, and experience. There are so many cultures, colors, flavors, textures, etc that go along with that world as well. Here you will find all you need to know about THE WORLD OF FOOD.

When we take a closer look at the way we put certain dishes together, we understand how to use various ingredients the best way we can.

“I realized very early the power of food to evoke memory, to bring people together, to transport you to other places, and I wanted to be a part of that.”

– José Andrés Puerta

the importance of cooking food

Food is one of the biggest aspects of a culture. Food has even made its way into pop culture. I mean, the only reason anyone gets on Facebook is to watch “Tasty” videos, and the cooking show “Chopped” is even on Netflix. It’s not often that we actually try out the demonstrated recipe or take advice from the real-life cooks that we watch. Students and young adults in general forget about the importance and the benefits of cooking for themselves.

Learning how to cook is one of the most important skills a person can have. When you cook for yourself you learn to enjoy healthy foods that you’ve always hated. If you know how to cook, you won’t go hungry.

cooking to sAVE MONEY

Cooking for oneself also saves a lot of money. The average American spends about $1200 a year on fast food alone when they already purchase groceries. That’s enough money for two students to go to Disneyland for a weekend. The average college student will eat out three times a week or more, spending about ten dollars on each meal. That’s thirty dollars a week, which adds up to $1440 a year. You could buy a whole textbook with that kind of cash! If you saved up your money correctly you could take a vacation every other year, or, I don’t know, pay off student loans.

learn to cook

There are two main reasons why students don’t cook. We lack time and a kitchen, so we never learn how to survive with just a few potatoes and a pack of uncooked chicken. Therefore, when we get out of school, find a job and finally get the time and a kitchen, we don’t know what to do with it. It’s time we all learn. I suggest taking a community cooking class or making a cooking class one of your electives.

“Cooking today is far greater than it ever was, and more importantly, a chef’s role today has changed dramatically over the last decade.” ---gordon ramsay

early man and the way we used to eat

History of Food 1/5: The Invention of Cooking

Through this video series you will see how early man was able to develop into modern humans by way of inventing cooking. The use of fire allowed us to develop not only bigger brains, but we evolved to have different sized jaws, teeth, and even stomachs. Watch how cooking food today is a nod back to the early days of humans as a species.

man vs chimpanzee

The fossil record offers evidence that meat-eating by humans differs from chimpanzees’ meat-eating in four crucial ways. First, even the earliest evidence of meat-eating indicates that early humans were consuming not only small animals but also animals many times larger than their own body size, such as elephants, rhinos, buffalo, and giraffes, whereas chimpanzees only hunt animals much smaller than themselves.

Second, early humans generally used tools when they procured and processed meat. (Of course, meat-eating by human ancestors could have taken place before early humans developed the ability to procure meat by means of tools —but so far no one has determined whether the fossil record would show any evidence of it or what the evidence would look like.)

Third, as we will see later, it’s likely that much of the first meat eaten by early humans came not from hunting but from scavenging; by contrast, observations of chimpanzees scavenging are extremely rare.

Fourth, like humans today, our early ancestors didn’t always eat food as soon as they encountered it. Sometimes they brought it back to a central place or home base, presumably to share with members of their social group, including unrelated adults. This behavior, the delaying of food consumption, is not observed in chimpanzees, and it holds important implications for how these early humans interacted with one another socially.

The diet of our earliest ancestors, who lived about six million years ago in Africa, was probably much like that of chimpanzees, our closest living primate cousins, who generally inhabit forest and wet savanna environments in equatorial Africa.

Chimpanzees mainly eat fruit and other plant parts such as leaves, flowers, and bark, along with nuts and insects. Meat from the occasional animal forms only about 3 percent of the average chimpanzee’s diet. In 2009, Claudio Tennie, of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, and his colleagues developed a hypothesis that offered a nutritional perspective on the group hunting they had observed in the chimpanzees in Gombe National Park, in Tanzania.

According to this hypothesis, the micronutrients gained from meat are so important that even small scraps of meat are worth the very high energy expenditure that cooperative hunting entails. Important components of meat include not only vitamins A and K, calcium, sodium, and potassium, but also iron, zinc, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12; the latter, although necessary for a balanced primate diet, is present only in small quantities in plants. In addition, macronutrients such as fat and protein, hard to come by in the environments where chimpanzees live, may be important dietary components of meat-eating.

"in every human society of which we know, --prehistoric, ancient, or modern, whether hunter-gatherer, pastoral, agricultural, or industrial--at least some form of art is displayed, and not only displayed, but highly regarded and willingly engaged in." ---ellen dissanayake

young people and cooking today

It’s not news that quarantines caused a huge spike in at-home cooking, but many wondered if the interest would last as time passed. YPulse has found that “kitchen fatigue” has not set in among young cooks. Our research on cooking and diets shows that 70% who are cooking more plan to keep cooking more meals at home even after the pandemic is over. On top of that, 59% say they feel more passionate than ever about cooking since COVID—versus 41% who say they are getting tired of cooking so often. Gen Z’s interest in cooking has increased during this time, with 35% of Gen Z cooking from scratch in 2021, up 14 points from 2019.

YPulse data also show that young people are more likely to cook from scratch than to use prepackaged options.

cooking stats among millennials and gen z

Nearly 90 percent of North American Millennials cooked meals at home in 2022, according to a recent survey. In contrast, only 73 percent of Gen Z cooked their own meals. Other cooking activities were also more popular among Millennials.

cooking taught in schools

Evidence suggests that developing cooking and food preparation skills is important for health and nutrition, yet the practice of home cooking is declining and now rarely taught in school. A new study published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior found that developing cooking skills as a young adult may have long-term benefits for health and nutrition.

"Opportunities to develop cooking skills by adolescents may result in long-term benefits for nutritional well-being," said Dr. Utter. "Families, health and nutrition professionals, educators, community agencies, and funders can continue to invest in home economics and cooking education knowing that the benefits may not be fully realized until young adults develop more autonomy and live independently."

social media in the kitchen

Social media is currently one of the biggest forces shaping food trends among young consumers. YPulse data show social media is their second source for recipes after family, and recipes on social media are the top type of food content they’re interested in.

YPulse’s Comfort in the Kitchen trend data found that 44% of 13–39-year-olds have cooked a recipe that was going viral on social media. TikTok has become especially influential, and young consumers were most likely to say TikTok recipes were the biggest food trend of 2021.That’s not changing, and brands that want to figure out the latest food fads should head to the app, where everything from frozen honey to green goddess salad has trended.

What the food trends that take off there generally have in common is that they put an unexpected twist on known ingredients, and that they’re easy and accessible. Gen Z and millennials are looking to have fun with food and recipes, they’re willing and excited to try new things, and new takes on simple ingredients will continue to trend among these generations.

popular food labeling to young adults

Both Gen Z and millennials are becoming increasingly restrictive in their diets or trying diets that don’t allow certain categories of foods. The number who describe their diets as “unrestricted” decreased between 2019 and 2021, from 66% to 58% among Gen Z and from 64% to 57% among millennials. Meanwhile, the number who describe their diets as gluten-free, dairy free, carb-free, vegetarian, and pescatarian increased among both generations.

The top labels that make young grocery shoppers more likely to buy an item are “all natural,” “organic,” and “eco-friendly,” but we have seen interest in these labels decrease slightly over time. We see indications that they’re less interested in what’s on a label and more interested in what’s in the ingredient list of a product.

gen z and their food choices

While every group of teenagers will include some picky eaters, Gen Z is already shown to be pretty adventurous in their eating choices.

Yes, they tend to like the classics you’d find in restaurants throughout America. Burgers, pizzas, tacos, pastas, and other restaurant basics are all fair game with them. That’s the food they grew up on (and really are still growing up on).

But what they’re looking for beyond that are classics with fun twists, like new flavor combos, global cuisine fusion, and healthy choice options. Don’t forget to offer various spice levels as well. These younger diners are starting to make choices on their own, and getting to choose from mild to hot flavors is very appealing to them.

Again, a strong theme in Gen Z eating habits is authenticity and exploring exciting flavors from all over the world. Some of this comes from growing up in the same households as Gen X and Millennial foodies.

But it also comes from the next generation of American diners being so diverse in background, and exposed to international trends via the internet. The US Census has projected that Gen Z isn’t afraid of trying new cuisines, and are looking for authentic experiences trying out foods from all over the globe.

And that’s the key here: it’s an authentic “experience” with the culture rather than just an authentic cooking technique or ingredients. Their reaction to your restaurant is more about whether they feel like your brand is truly inspired by the culture you’re representing in the food.

social media and food tech

For most of these diners, social media has been around for their entire lives. They’ve grown up with companies marketing through social media as much as any other advertising channel, so they expect restaurants to do the same.

Gen Z is very savvy, shying away from Facebook (now a home for older generations of internet users) and focusing more on Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr.

These are the consumers most likely to liveblog or livetweet their experience, so tapping into that via specials (“get a free sugar cookie when you tweet a pic of your meal and @ us”) can really appeal to them.

They’re also the generation that grew up with touchscreens, so using the most up-to-date tech for your ordering and POS system will seem second nature to them as consumers and employees.

Just make sure your tech focuses on function over style. Gen Z is not easily fooled by flash and fashion if not backed up by making things easier to accomplish and understand.

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