It’s pretty well-known that Americans, especially us millennials, have moved away from eating every meal at home to spending more time away from our kitchens. But that doesn’t mean we don’t care about food - no, quite the opposite. I would say that my peers and I care A LOT about food. We care about where it’s sourced, how it’s sourced, what it’s made of, what it tastes like, what trends it follows, and we demand that restaurants follow our guidelines and meet our needs. Yet if we spent more time cooking our own food, we wouldn’t have to require that out of food establishments. We would know what is going into our food and how it’s made because we’re doing it ourselves. But instead of doing a 180 and returning back into our kitchens to line up our actions with our ideals, we’re eating out more and just pushing restaurants to think and act like we want them to.
How many of my millenial readers out there can relate to this day? On your way to work, you grab Starbucks coffee and pick up one of their breakfast wraps. During your lunch break, you run to Chipotle and get a burrito bowl. You grab an afternoon snack from the breakout room - maybe a granola bar and an apple. You meet up with insert (friends/boyfriend/Tinder date) for dinner after work. Zero hours spent in your own kitchen. I’ve been there many times (don’t worry, Nate - not the Tinder date part) and that scenario doesn’t seem so crazy at all to me! You’re probably like, shame on you, Dani California Cooks.
Okay, okay, so I recognize that I absolutely love to cook and I make it a priority. But I also recognize that I’m one of the few who do. So what about my peers who don’t cook? I actually became super curious on the topic after reading an article about parents and the barriers to preparing dinner for their kids. I can relate to their excuses, with kids and jobs and elderly parents to care for. But us millennials? Your succulent plant needs watering twice a year? What is holding us back from using our kitchens?
So… I surveyed my friends.
- TIME. Almost everyone who says they don’t cook say it’s due to time. And to back that up, throughout my blogging career, I would always have people ask me how I find the time to cook. When your day is filled up with work or schoolwork, exercise, and some social activity, I can see how cooking just isn’t a priority that fits into your schedule.
- KNOWLEDGE. This one surprised me quite a bit! I had many friends tell me that they don’t cook because they do not know HOW to cook. A few said that they didn’t grew up with parents that cooked, so they never learned the skills by example. Other folks said that they don’t know how to prepare the foods that they want to eat.
- BETTER OPTIONS ELSEWHERE. This one is probably my main reason for eating out too. The salads that you can buy at Sweetgreen are usually tastier than ones you can make at home without having to buy a bunch of fancy ingredients or equipment. It’s either go home and make scrambled eggs or pick up a healthyish meal from your go-to spot around the corner.
- CULTURE & VARIETY. Back in the day, it was pork chops and roasted chicken and pasta for dinner on repeat each week. I heard plenty of reasons that cooking at home just gets…boring. Nowadays, you’re craving pho? Yelp the best place in your neighborhood and have it delivered to your house. Really in the mood for “authentic” burritos? Stop by your favorite taqueria on your way home from work. My personal thought behind this is that because our culture is not deeply rooted around one specific cuisine (like France, for example) we’ve grown to crave new and exotic things every day, and know that hundreds of restaurants in our cities can satisfy those desires for different flavors. We don’t have a north star cuisine to always gravitate back to or one that we necessarily grew up with in our parent’s kitchens, so we don’t continue the tradition in our own kitchens. The great melting pot of America - a blessing and a curse?
Even as an avid cook myself, as a millennial, I understand those reasons. I definitely find myself in accordance with them on a weekly basis, and you’ll find on my Instagram that I love love love eating out and enjoying new restaurants. And while I’m not going to lecture all of my buddies on why they should start preparing every meal to be homemade, I would like for this post to open up our eyes a little bit into recognizing that by not cooking, we’re often circumventing issues or things that we really care about. Wouldn’t it be truly easier, more sustainable, more wholesome, more personal growth-oriented to buy ingredients ourselves and learn to cook a few simple tasty dishes, rather than having to rely on a restaurant to align themselves to our demands?
Thoughts? Reactions? Comment below!
Thanks for stopping by! 
We never eat out at restaurants and always cook at home - but that’s probably because we don’t really have a choice! Having coeliac disease and food intolerances means that eating out just doesn’t happen - but luckily I love to cook and love making dinner at home. There are definitely those nights where I wish I didn’t have to cook though!
Kristy @ Southern In Law recently posted…Recent Things: DIY-ing, Tall Girl Problems and Deliciousness
When we did the Whole30, we were “forced” to cook at home more. It was actually kind of nice!
Ashley | the Pike Place Kitchen says
I totally relate. my appetite is so varied and even though I also blog about food and cook quite often I find myself in ruts of eating out!
also - my friends (who claim to hate healthy food/veggies) are always SHOCKED when I make them vegetables or if I make them a whole30 meal at how much flavor/taste is in them. everyone thinks its HARD to make things taste good unless you go to extremes to make exotic dishes. I often find the simplest ways are best (i.e. roasting cauliflower or steaming broccoli with seasoning). oh fresh cracked salt and pepper makes a world of a difference… but no one thinks about that (tri colored peppercorns and pink sea salt will change your world, or at least your steamed broccoli). I think your survey results are spot on!
Ashley | the Pike Place Kitchen recently posted…Half Marathon Training: three months in
My dad always say that they must be growing brussels sprouts differently these days, but I know it’s just because roasting them makes all the difference!
Perri says
Better options elsewhere, very true! Great post 🙂
Thank you! Thank you for stopping by!
In my food science labs I was surprised by the number of peers who didn’t know how to cook. I think some of it has to do with the fact that we had busy parents (both parents working out of the home) who didn’t have the time to teach us how to cook. I gained a personal interest in cooking, so I taught myself.
Eating out is really fun and we usually do it once a week. Even when I don’t have the time to cook a real meal, I usually do it anyways.
I think the last point you made is so true. A lot of the meals I had growing up were on repeat. I am thankful for food inspiration in the blogging world and the Food Network!
Kate recently posted…Top 3 Friday #6
I really enjoy both eating in restaurants and cooking. Sometimes I wish I had more meals in the week so I could do more of both! 🙂
same here! in my food lab, i feel like i am the only one ho has ever cooked before. it’s for nutrition (and public health, health promotion) majors, but i feel like no one knows how to cook, and only likes decadent/”comfort” food. and actually hates to cook. it is so weird.
This is such a great post and it makes me so thankful for my parents who stressed the importance of learning how to cook. In high school they’d teach me how to make a new basic healthy meal every week so I wouldn’t die in college haha!
Diana @ Live Lean Eat Green recently posted…Shin Splints 101
Haha that is great!! Watching my mom put dinner on the table every night just got it ingrained in me that cooking was supposed to be a part of our day to day routine.
Very interesting. I cook almost 100% of my own meals. And when I head out to eat it’s rare. And usually planned. Not an oh, I don’t feel like cooking scenario.
A lot of my friends don’t cook, or don’t cook often. And for them it seems to be knowledge. Both lack of knowledge on how to cook, but also where to start. What should they make? One recipe or a new one each night. And a lack of knowledge about how much money eating out really costs.
It’s SO much cheaper to cook at home. And I truly believe that anyone can learn to cook - many recipes are fool proof!
Natalie @ Muffins and Miles says
Great post, Dani! My number one reason for not cooking is because I find it very boring. I could bake all day long and never get bored, but the thought of baking chicken and roasting vegetables puts me to sleep! Maybe it’s because the idea of eating cakes and cookies is more exciting to me than eating chicken 😉 Either way, I feel 500x more productive and organized during the weeks when I take the time to cook all of my meals!
baking and cooking are very different!! im definitely a better cook than i am baker!
Allie says
So I’ve actually been thinking a lot about this question lately, so I love your post on it. I think you’ve hit the right reasons, though I also wonder how much the feminist movement had to do with this. My guess is that our dads generation also didn’t know how to cook, but perhaps many moms learned from their mothers. And by the time it came to our generation, it seemed less important than AP classes and varsity sports.
(I say this as a feminist and in no way implying a “go back to the past” approach. Just that all kids should be taught to cook).
I started learning to cook after college, and it gives me a lot of pleasure right now (pre-kids, of course!!
That’s a really interesting thought - perhaps women are still trying to reconcile with making the kitchen/cooking a priority alongside their other ambitions. Hard to do it all!
Interesting post topic! Yeah, I totally hear from people a lot that they either don’t have time to cook, or they don’t feel like they have the skills to make great dinners at home. I cook probably 6 nights a week for a variety of reasons: 1.) I love cooking and the satisfaction of knowing that I prepared my meals myself using wholesome ingredients, 2.) it’s healthier than eating out for me, and 3.) it’s cheaper. I love to dine out as a special occasion, and I think that we’ve turned what used to be the treat of dining out into an everyday/every meal occurrence. I get why people eat out a lot, but I also think that home cooking gives you more of an appreciation for the dining out experience. I hope that more of us Millennials learn to move more towards a balance of eating out and dining in 🙂
Nicole @ Foodie Loves Fitness recently posted…The Quickie Do-It-Anywhere Low-Impact Workout
I definitely find myself appreciating eating out more when I have made the majority of my meals at home that week too!
wow, this is so tru! i first read the title, and was like… no… but then thought about it and realized it is! i think for my friends, it’s the convenience of living while in college. even if they dont live on campus, it’s a lot of frozen meals, chipotle (LOL’d at the tinder reference btw!), or food from the crappy diners on campus (vegan tenders, motzerella sticks… grilled cheese, because that’s close to where they live).
and also ,it’s easier to grab the cuisine they’re in the mood for than to make it. actually, i feel like there is a harsh divide, between those who love to cook, or dont eat out because of budget or food rules, vs those who never cook because of one of the reasons you stated. a good topic to discuss!!
masala girl recently posted…weekly workouts recap + traveling food (!) + updates
definitely! I probably cooked 50/50 when I was in college. It was cheaper, but I really enjoyed going to places on campus with friends and having more of a social lunch.
I’ve definitely blamed “no time” for going out to eat! But time is relative, and we can definitely make time for things we prioritize 🙂
Such a good post! I’m a bit older now, but in my 20’s I didn’t cook much for many reasons but it included not REALLY knowing how and living by myself it didn’t make a lot of sense to cook all the time. I had to get a bit older to appreciate it and learn!
Julie @ Running in a Skirt recently posted…Mother’s Day Weekend Photo Dump