Kiwis' Dinner Habits Revealed - Study

Media Release 5 April 2019

Kiwi cooks like to listen to music, hit the vino, watch tv and dance while making dinner, but those who do switch on the box while working their magic in the kitchen, are more likely to have to apologise for what they serve, according to new research.

The research also showed that food is such a contentious issue in the family home for some a seventh (13%) of us fight about what we actually want to eat, and when we do cook the kitchen resembles a “war zone”.

The findings were part of a global study commissioned by meal kit provider HelloFresh which investigated Kiwi’s attitudes towards cooking.

While many of us pride ourselves on being part of an adventurous nation, when it comes to the evening meal, only a small proportion of the country are willing to go beyond the culinary ‘tried and true’.

A fifth (21%) of Kiwis who were surveyed said they have less than six recipes in their repertoire, and are reluctant to give new ones a go, with just one in ten willing to try preparing a new recipe once a week. A further sixth (15%) admit to creating a new recipe just once a year or less often.

And if they do decide to give a new recipe a try Kiwis don’t bother venturing beyond the garden gate, instead turning to another family member to provide them with inspiration.

This was the case for six in ten (59%) Kiwis who relied on family members to give them new meal ideas. Digital media including online and social media were the next most likely source of culinary creativity, with recipe books still popular for more than half (55%) of respondents turning to them for cuisine solutions.

What we lack in culinary imagination we make up for in kitchen confidence, with more than a quarter (27%) of Kiwis surveyed believing food tastes better when they’ve cooked it themselves.

Almost a quarter (23%) of respondents were so proud of what they’d created they deemed it Insta-worthy and posted pictures.

One in five (20%) said restaurant chefs did a better job and just over a tenth (12%) said it was better when cooked by their partner. When a friend cooked dinner we considered it just 2% better than our own efforts.

A fifth of respondents said their friends or partners found them annoying when they cooked and 26% said when they’d finished cooking their kitchen resembled a war zone.

The survey also showed that around four in ten (38%) Kiwis spent up to 15-30 minutes a day deciding what to eat with a further fifth (20%) taking up to an hour to plan their meal choices. A seventh (13%) said they spent more than an hour working out their meals.

Former Masterchef contestant and CEO of HelloFresh New Zealand Tom Rutledge says the results may explain why Kiwi consumers turn to other sources for recipe inspiration more than any other country surveyed.

“The research highlighted that Kiwis are bored with serving up the same few meals on repeat and have started looking for new sources of inspiration for dinnertime, and, it’s great to see our customers relishing the chance to cook things that they otherwise wouldn’t - and gain confidence in the kitchen through that,” he says.

HelloFresh is one of the world’s largest meal kit providers. Over the course of last year, the company delivered almost 200 million meal boxes to over 2 million active customers.

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