We’re constantly told that home cooking is dead. That Americans have abandoned their kitchens, surrendered to takeout apps, and forgotten how to chop an onion. It’s a story repeated so often it feels like fact—but what if it’s mostly wrong?
In this episode of vpod.ai, Mike and Susan unpack the data, history, and cultural assumptions behind the so-called death of home cooking. Drawing on research from historian Rachel Laudan and decades of nutrition data from the University of North Carolina, they reveal a far more nuanced—and surprisingly hopeful—picture of how Americans actually eat.
The truth isn’t that we stopped cooking. It’s that cooking itself has changed.
Inside the episode:
- What long-term data really shows about home cooking since the 1960s
- Why home food consumption has been stable since the mid-1990s
- The surprising stat that over half of adults cook something at home every day
- Why lower-income households often cook at home more than higher-income ones
- How “home supply” foods blur the line between cooking and convenience
- The impact of women entering the workforce on how meals are prepared
- Why frozen meals and jarred sauces changed the kitchen—but didn’t kill it
- How ancient Rome proves fast food isn’t a modern invention
- Why eating at home was once a luxury reserved for the wealthy
- The role of time pressure, mental load, and frustration cost in modern cooking
- How food deserts limit real choices for many families
- Why foodie culture sets unrealistic standards for what “counts” as cooking
- The heated debate over shortcuts, semi-homemade meals, and kitchen gatekeeping
- Why assembling food at home may matter more than making everything from scratch
Rather than mourning a golden age that never truly existed, this episode reframes home cooking as something adaptive, practical, and deeply tied to economic reality. The kitchen didn’t disappear—it evolved.
If dinner comes from a rotisserie chicken, a bagged salad, or a frozen pizza eaten together at the table, this conversation offers permission to drop the guilt. Feeding people matters more than how artisanal the sauce is.
Subscribe to vpod.ai for thoughtful conversations that challenge cultural myths with data, history, and common sense. If this episode made you feel better about what’s in your fridge, share it with someone who’s been shamed for how they cook.
