On average, Brits spend over 68 hours a year watching celebrity chefs in action on TV, but it seems that this enthusiasm is not translating over to the dinner table, with many people having no interest in recreating their recipes at home.
Brits have firm favourites
The poll by organic dairy Rachel's reveals that Heston Blumenthal is the least inspiring chef of all, with 28 per cent of people saying that his experimental recipes are a turn off and too difficult to follow. Heston is followed by Michelle Roux Jr (17%), Gordon Ramsay (16%) and Raymond Blanc (15%) who also seem to have taken their creations a little too far for the average cook; but despite this apathy for their creations, the nation's appetite for watching foodie shows on TV is still strong.
The research also shows that as a nation, Brits are watching celebrity TV chefs for entertainment, but 32 per cent will never recreate one of their recipes, and nearly as many (33%) find their recipes daunting. Despite this, we spend at least 30 minutes a day thinking and talking about food, or looking for recipe inspiration online with 13 per cent of dining die-hards spending over an hour every day pondering food choices.
Instead, Brits are going back to what they know, with 46 per cent of people surveyed still pinning their kitchen inspiration to their mother or grandmother (16%). Unveiling an undying love of comforting and traditional family favourites, the nation is most tempted by a roast dinner (55%) or shepherd's pie (44%), sending the quirky spiraliser into a downward spin.
Top 10 family meals:
- Roast dinner
- Pasta
- Shepherd's pie
- Curry
- Sausages & mash
- Stew/Hotpot
- Lasagne
- Pizza
- Fruit crumble
- Fajita
When it comes to getting inspired in the kitchen, cooking is also going digital and as almost everything we do is moving online, foodie inspiration is no exception with 37 per cent scouring the net as a first port of call for tempting recipe ideas. Almost half of women surveyed (46%) said that traditional, food splattered cookbooks are losing their appeal - in fact, the average person owns eight cookbooks which sit on a shelf gathering dust.
Quinoa and cauliflower rice may not be on the menu for long, with less than one in ten Brits having experimented with these healthy trend foods over the past 12 months and over half (54%) ignoring new food trends completely.
Anna Jones , food stylist, writer & part of Jamie Oliver's food team, said : "New food trends can be exciting and intriguing but they can leave you running to buy a spiraliser or a pot of spirulina, which ends up gathering dust. While it's important to mix things up and cook in a way that keeps your taste buds excited, it's caring, home cooking we come back to time and time again, even if it means swapping the cookbook for an iPad on our kitchen worktops to add a little something different. Finding ways to update our family favourites by adding our own twists whilst making them a little easier on our bodies, means we still celebrate the comforting memories they bring but we also make sure that they are modern, delicious and good for us."
Rachel's commissioned the research around the nation's cooking inspiration to celebrate the launch of its Inspirations range which includes two tempting flavours: apple & butterscotch and cherry & dark chocolate. Each pot of Rachel's Inspirations is made with the utmost care and, as with all the Rachel's range, contains only organic ingredients, locally sourced milk and no artificial colourings, flavours or preservatives.
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