Who needs a sous-chef when you have a smartphone?
A new study released by Google found that millennials are turning to their mobile devices at every step of the culinary process -- from finding inspiration for meals to keeping track of recipes and purchasing ingredients.
Fifty-nine percent of 25- to 34-year-olds bring either smartphones or tablets into the kitchen, while people over 35 are more likely to print out a recipe, per the findings.
"We see through secondary research that millennials are cooking more,” said Anna Conroy, planning director for mcgarrybowen, an advertising agency that partnered with Google and Kraft Foods to conduct the study. “It isn't a chore as much as an ability to create an experience."
In March 2015, sales at restaurants and bars surpassed spending at grocery stores for the first time ever. Millennials are said to be at least partly responsible for this surge in dining-out spending.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but its data suggests that the so-called "digital kitchen," to borrow the study's parlance, might be reviving millennials' interest in cooking at home.
Smartphones provide an easy-to-access trove of recipes, tutorials and information for millennials, including dedicated mobile apps and popular YouTube channels such as HowToCookThat or CookingWithDog. Additionally, how-to videos about cooking racked up a total of 419 million views in 2014, and "How to Cook That" is one of the 10 most popular searches on YouTube, per data cited in Google's study.
Nearly one-third of millennials said that the least enjoyable part of the cooking process was choosing what to cook, per the study. Indeed, broadly worded Google searches such as "dinner ideas," "healthy recipes" and "slow cooker recipes" have become extremely popular, and search interest for "best recipes" on YouTube is up almost 50 percent year over year.
It shouldn't be a huge surprise that people are increasingly using smartphones in the kitchen. After all, we already use them in the bathroom and bring them to bed with us or keep them within reach at night.
Just make sure you don't spill on your device while whipping up something delicious!