Mouthing OffHome baking, fine-dining takeaway food, and Nigella Lawson’s microwave: 2020 foodie highlights
- 2020 saw an increase in home baking, five-star food deliveries and restaurant closures
- The new year will be one of wild celebrations, celebrity chefs and a fresh way to pronounce ‘microwave’
Happy New Year. I hope 2021 will be a good one. It couldn’t be any worse than 2020, that’s for sure. The hospitality industry in Hong Kong thought the 2019 political protests were bad. Then last year came along and said, “Hold my beer.”
Although restaurants and bars had a rough time, in other ways 2020 was quite good for food appreciation. Stuck at home with nothing to do, people started to bake, and bread making became a global obsession that briefly caused a run on flour.
Suddenly, the cool new things to own were an air fryer and a sourdough starter. Having one of those reusable water flasks was important for a while, but then more environmental cred could be scored with a washable face mask.
It was important when working from home in 2020 to show you weren’t wasting all your time on Netflix and naps, by posting to Instagram all your walnut rye or poppy seed sourdough. That, in addition to your daily yoga routine.
Although some amateur chefs used the pandemic to sharpen their cooking skills, others just ordered lunch and dinner online; the year was also big for delivery services. If you couldn’t eat out, you could still enjoy the food from many Michelin-star establishments, which were willing to pack up their tasting menu and have it delivered to your flat.