CRAZY ABOUT COOKING

 

 

 

Why are cooking shows so successful?
 

 

If you check  the TV schedule of the last ten years you will notice that shows about  cooking and food such as MasterChef, Bake-off, 4 Restaurants have doubled and are all very successful.

So I wondered why do people like to watch this kind of programmes so much?

It’s a fact that in the last years more and more people are more attentive to what they eat (at the restaurant, for example) often assuming a more critical attitude whether something served to  them is healthy or not or if it matches their tastes.

Food, in general, has always been an occasion of conviviality and joy, a feast,  a moment of aggregation and sharing: breakfast, lunch and dinner are our pleasure moments, our breaks from a stressful life. Moreover,  for Italian people cooking is a real cult: we like to cook and eat well.

Food can reassure and seduce and,  in times of crisis, food is still one of the few things left that you cannot do without and  which stimulates our creativity.

 

 

 

Some psychologists claim that cooking for others is a form of altruism that makes you  feel happy and close to other people producing positive psychological benefits.

To follow a cooking program has the same anti-stress effect that watching a football match and allows you to learn something  even if you are not a great chef.

I myself experienced what great fun cooking can be during the lockdown, I discovered it is a really pleasant and relaxing activity.

Baking for others can increase our feeling of wellbeing and contribute to stress relief, it  makes you feel like you’ve done something good for the world.

 

 
Cooking helps to create bonds.
 

 

 

Participating in an activity like cooking “can help to encourage a sense of trust, community, meaning, purpose, belonging, closeness, and intimacy, it increases happiness, decreases depression and provide a means for social acceptance creating a feeling of belonging to a community”says Matthew Riccio, social psychologist of the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow.

It is through their cooking that grandmothers can pass down to the new generation, beyond their love,  also local traditions. To be in a warm kitchen,  sitting around a table,  cooking traditional recipes and telling stories about food is what these programmes do.

 

  

Probably the audience has grown tired of the usual talent shows, full of arguments and discussions and they are looking for a more intelligent entertainment and that has at its centre food and cooking, which is a theme that creates aggregation,  recalling the ideas of family and ancient values, which are certainly our roots. 

Agnese L., 4sc