Whats cooking? A mixed methods analysis of cooking perceptions, practices and the implications for food policy

Substantial changes in the food system over the past century have dramatically altered the way Americans eat. As food preparation habits have shifted toward an emphasis on speed and convenience, Americans have come to rely more on foods away from home and convenience foods. However, cooking remains an important part of American life and evidence suggests that frequent cooking is associated with a healthier diet. Similar to the nutrition transition taking place due to the influence of the modern, western food system and the diet it promotes, a “culinary transition” is changing the way people approach food preparation and the skills they need to prepare food and consume a healthy diet. Americans cook less frequently and spend less time cooking than in the past; evidence suggests that traditional or “scratch” cooking, cooking knowledge, skills and confidence have declined. The culinary transition has also shifted perceptions of what cooking is, though little is known about the extent to which the meaning of cooking has evolved or how it may differ among Americans. This dissertation, presented in three manuscripts, explores how Americans perceive and practice cooking, how Americans learn to cook, and public support for school and government programs to teach people cooking skills. This dissertation uses qualitative data collected from focus groups conducted in Baltimore, and quantitative primary data collected via a nationally representative, web-based survey. Manuscript 1 uses focus group data to explore cooking knowledge, practice and perceptions among residents of Baltimore City. Manuscript 2 reports results from the national survey on how Americans perceive the meaning of cooking and how these perceptions are related to cooking confidence, attitudes and behavior. Finally, Manuscript 3 uses both focus group and survey data to explore how Americans learn to cook and public support for cooking education policies and programs. Perceptions of what it means to cook vary considerably and span a continuum from all scratch cooking to anything made at home. Perceptions of cooking incorporate considerations of the degree to which scratch ingredients, convenience foods and heat are used. Cooking behavior among adults in the United States varies somewhat depending on how they perceive cooking, and cooking confidence and enjoyment is lowest among Americans who perceive cooking as including the use of convenience foods. Most American adults learned to cook from their parents (primarily mothers) and very few report learning to cook through formal instruction in school or cooking classes; however, approximately two-thirds of Americans support requiring cooking education in public schools. Cooking is a complex concept and is not uniformly understood. Policies and programs seeking to encourage healthy cooking at home should consider the broad spectrum of activities Americans recognize as cooking as well as the barriers and facilitators to preparing food at home on a daily basis. The way in which people interpret the meaning of cooking has implications for how the public health field measures cooking behavior, and for how we understand the relationships between cooking, at home food consumption, diet quality, and health outcomes. A greater understanding of how people learn to cook, the barriers they face in how they cook in their every day lives as well as strategies frequent cooks employ that enable them to prepare food at home is necessary for the development of effective interventions that seek to reduce barriers to and encourage healthy cooking at home