It is safe to say that Britain
is a nation of foodies. 66% of UK adults describe themselves
as passionate about food and drink with 50% saying that they are passionate about home cooking.
Us Brits
spend a small fortune on food – a combination of takeaways and
restaurants or luxury food from the supermarkets. On restaurant bills
alone, the average Brit spends about £44 per week. But what does
our money get spent on? Designers of bespoke
kitchens in Sussex, Harvey Jones, have taken a look at the UK’s
eating habits by region.
Takeaway lovers
According
to a survey by Payment Sense, the average Brit spends around £9.75
on eating out or takeaways for themselves at least once a month.
Annually, this works out at £117 per person. Only once a month isn't that bad though is it?
Although Bristol is named as the Takeaway Capital of the UK with approximately 279
takeaway restaurants, it is Leeds that appears to be the greatest lover of the
takeaways. with 77% of Leeds folk admitting to having at least one takeaway a
month.
This
love of ordering-in isn’t reflected across the whole Yorkshire
region however. Just 25 miles away, only 25% of people in York regularly dine on takeaways.
The Chinese cuisine is a favourite across the
whole country. Only 3 out of the 30 cities questioned didn’t crown
Chinese as their favourite takeaway – and of all individual
respondents asked, 35% voted Chinese as their favourite.
Indian comes a close second with 24% of the votes –
and Indian stole the crown as the number one favourite in
Aberystwyth, Coventry and Wolverhampton.
Eating out
Although I suspect this figure comes more from the larger cities, apparently the average Brit can spend around £288,000 in their
lifetime eating out at restaurants. I find this figure hard to believe.
Whilst
Millennials are expected to eat out more than any other demographic,
the average Brit now eats out twice a week with pub grub stealing the
title as their favourite option. 18-29 year olds spend double the
amount of other demographics on eating out – with an average spend
of £88 per week; possible perhaps if you include drinks!
London
is the city of eating out according to The Chronicle, with the
capital consuming the most Indian, Chinese, Thai, fish and chips and
pizza meals at restaurants than any other city.
Birmingham
is also known as the Curry Capital with 43% of residents claiming
curry restaurants are their favourite, and 34% of Londoners seem to
agree. Glasgow prefers authentic Spanish tapas (14%), while 14% of
Edinburgh folk love Sushi.
Pub
grub is one of the most popular choices in the UK – and
Liverpudlians couldn’t agree more; 49% would choose traditional pub
food.
Home cooking
With
busy work schedules and family life, dinner time at home has become
far less formal and structured than in previous decades. Sitting down around the table for dinner every night has become an impracticable practice. In 2017,
just over 20% of British families said they sat down to dinner
together once or twice a week, and one in five have their ‘family
meals’ whilst sitting in front of the television.
According
to Statista, 64% of people enjoy cooking, whilst 55% describe cooking
as something they have to do but don’t. There has also been a 10%
increase in the number of people preparing meals from scratch at
least once a week from 2005. But which regions are most likely to
cook homecooked meals?
Judging
by how much London, the South West and Northern Ireland eat out, we
can assume that they are the regions that are least likely to stay
home and cook meals. However, Scotland, Wales, the North West and
North East were the regions that appeared to eat out the least,
leading us to the assumption that they are more likely to stay home
and prepare home-cooked meals more often.
The
kitchen, for many, has become the heart of the home meaning we now
tend to spend more time there. Now that open-plan living is on the
rise, cooking a meal doesn’t have to be a lonely task; you can
prepare a family meal in your kitchen whilst spending time with the
family. Or entertaining friends.
*Collaborative piece
