Food porn becomes competitive as cooking at home during the pandemic brings out the best and worst
- People have been experimenting in the kitchen while stuck at home, and sharing the results on Instagram
- This has led many to raise their culinary bar and try more complicated techniques and dishes, with mixed results
The year 2020 has mostly resembled a dumpster fire. At a petrol station. Next door to a nuclear power plant.
On the positive side, the pandemic has motivated a lot of people to explore their culinary potential. Since governments everywhere are discouraging their citizens from eating out, everyone is cooking at home.
On my social media feed, I see friends braising osso buco, rolling out pastry for beef Wellington and, most commonly, making their own starter to bake gorgeous sourdough loaves, complete with fancy razor-cut crust patterns.
It’s really great to see, except now I think people are starting to get competitive. It’s still very civil online. In fact, everyone is usually very complimentary and supportive, with lots of likes and hearts – and salivating mouth emojis shared for all the pretty looking dishes.
For good friends, people will add hungry comments like “wanna try”, “save me some”, and “yumza”. But beneath it, there are passive-aggressive put-downs too. Remarks like, “did you use organic whole wheat?” or “I did that last week too,” suggest a bit of envy and shade being thrown.