The British kitchen equipment firm Kenwood conducted a study that found that 33% of Britons have never cooked a meal. While it's safe to assume that beans on toast doesn't constitute "from scratch" cooking, they didn't specify what level of culinary proficiency was needed to qualify, although they noted that only 34% cook completely from scratch, so there was clearly a middle ground that was taken into account. Cooking aside, it is difficult to ignore the fact that most of their survey respondents said that they prefer to bring in all or part of a meal, rather than cooking it themselves, and that 7 in 10 spend less than one hour on each meal they make.
A nutritionist who analyzed the results said that cooking is perceived as taking time, effort and money, but the fact that 5 in 10 people said they were "happy to spend £100 or more on a meal out" suggests that perhaps people really just don't like to cook -or even that they simply can't, despite the popularity of food programming on TV - rather than that they feel they are spending too much time or money when they do.

When kids are very young, they often want to emulate what their parents are doing. For example, if Mom and Dad are preparing dinner, Junior will want to be involved. Unfortunately, while cultivating an interest in food - especially homemade food, as opposed to fast food - is a wonderful thing for a child, they can occasionally get in the way of the chef.











