(AP Photo / Lisa Poole)
When we sit down to binge watch a season of Chopped, we rarely do it to learn a new cooking technique. In fact, the Food Network might actually discourage us from trying our hand in the kitchen. We speak with industry analyst Eddie Yoon about the future of grocery stores and food companies, in a world where cooking is no longer considered an indispensable skill.
Three Takeaways:
- Some people still love to cook; ten percent of Americans, according to Yoon's research. But the majority don’t love it, and frankly, don’t have a lot of time to do it. As a result, Yoon says that cooking, like sewing, has - and will, increasingly - morph from a necessary skill into a hobby.
- You’d think the Food Network would inspire viewers to try new foods and recipes. But Yoon says he was surprised to discover this wasn’t the case. Cooking shows have raised the bar for viewers, turning actual cooking (beyond, say, boxed mac n’ cheese) into something that might seem too challenging for the average home chef.
- Yoon says that right now, the food industry is in a technology vacuum, and in order to survive, industry leaders need to harken back to their innovative roots. One food technology he hopes to see popping up in grocery stores? Shelf-stable foods, created through a process called microwave assisted thermal sterilization, or MATS.
More Reading:
- Read Yoon’s article about the precarious future of the grocery industry in the Harvard Business Review.
- Other food shopping options, such as delivery meal kit services, are also suffering from lack of revenue. Here's how Blue Apron is adapting to fickle consumers.
- People just aren’t buying soup and cereal as much as they used to. Why is that the case?
- Are robot cooks the answer? This burger restaurant in San Francisco thinks so.
