Culinary Adventures, Revamped - Wellness, Health & Cleanliness (Series 4)

OPINION PIECE BY MIKI TAKASHIMA (Osaka, JAPAN)

July 6th, 2020

The general trend now is that many people, from choice, social pressures, demands from work, you name it... are spending much more time at home than before. Yes, of course this is due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which I need to mention almost every time I write a blog posting...

I've done some research into what the traditional F&B related platforms are launching on their websites, as I personally am spending a lot of time at home, cooking, from scratch. In actuality, I've been cooking since I was about 4 years old with my mother. The first "dish" I ever made is miso soup, the traditional savory soup that is served almost everyday in Japanese cuisine. This is oh-so-well-known in other parts of the world now, although some people call it "miso" without the "soup", which is confusing to me sometimes... in any case, this strange time has really made me think about what cooking really means, and what survival truly means to the human race.

First off, Bon Appetit has a collection of 89 recipes with 5 ingredients or Fewer and other useful cooking resources they are sharing in this link: Cooking at Home in the Time of Coronavirus

The LA Times has also launched a new feature section, with updated content related to cooking: LA Times: Digital resources for the Home cooks

But how do you know if these are healthy? Does that even matter? Would you rather just eat whatever you want, and not count calories? What is "eating clean"?

We are now facing a world where almost all business meetings can be held in your home, with technological advancements emerging on a daily basis. There are so many resources out there, to get information (maybe too much?) on all kinds of news in every corner of the world (almost).

What does it mean to be healthy? How does cooking affect your life? I know one thing is for sure is that being able to have an adventure in the kitchen is actually good for your brain and your general health.

See this ConsumerReports.org article on their "Eating a bit better" section: "We’ve begun eating at home most of the time because of the pandemic, and a survey of 1,005 people by Hunter, a marketing firm, found that 54 percent of Americans have also been cooking more. A January 2020 study published in the journal Public Health Nutrition suggests that people who cook and eat at home tend to have healthier diets."

I remember a friend of mine from Tokyo decided to take a job in Los Angeles, but ended up hating the experience since his wife did not go with him. He cannot cook at all, so he was struggling to have meals and it did not help that he could not speak much English. Poor guy! I couldn't even imagine that myself since I spend half of the day in the kitchen :)

There are many questions, issues and things to ponder at this time, but I wish that our diets continue to be a healthy, sustainable serving of human connection and interesting articles from the world wide web!

I look forward to seeing what intriguing concepts restaurants will come up with in this next phase of hospitality and tourism....

#wellnessathome #newhospitality #newnormal #health #whatcanyoudoathome #cooking #culinaryadventures #foodandbeverage