Food Trends For 2021: Cooking Along With A Kit

When the pandemic struck, chefs and cookbook writers were stranded. Cooking classes, demonstrations and book tours were canceled.

Dozens turned to social media, where Instagram and Facebook Live took the place of kitchen counters in front of an audience.

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For many, it was trial and error, as they learned which buttons to push, how to control mobile phone cameras and ways to present recipes.

Now, with the new year approaching, many are getting the hang of it, prompting innovations in teaching by video. One trend that’s emerging is cooking along with a kit.

Restaurants, authors and food purveyors are selling boxes of ingredients that go along with the recipe that’s being demonstrated on screen.

Virginia Willis, an Atlanta-based chef and cookbook author who specializes in culinary media coaching, expects that these will multiply.

Food people are looking for ways to make up the revenue they’ve lost from in person presentations, and offer something more than viewers can find in free lessons on YouTube.

I spoke to Willis about the ways that cooking instruction is evolving.

Three types of videos. Willis says cooking videos are dividing into categories. One is the old-school approach, where the recipe demonstrators simply show how the dish is made, and the video is posted online.

The field is crowded. “Every major media outlet is producing demos for people to watch,” she says.

The second type is live classes that require registration. These allow the presenter to charge a fee to attend, and limit the number of people who can take part.

These classes often allow attendees to ask questions as the cooking is going on, or to follow up once the dish is finished.

James Beard Award-winning baker Joanne Chang plans a series of these classes, called Bake Shops, with prices ranging from $50 to $100 per person.

The third type, rapidly growing in popularity, are classes where participants purchase a kit of ingredients, and make the dish at the same time.

Chang is among the food professionals offering these kits. They are also available from Zingerman’s Bakehouse in Ann Arbor, Mich., and from chef Alon Shaya, another Beard Award winner, who has restaurants in New Orleans and Denver, among others.

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The hurdles for cook-along classes. Willis says these types of classes face some issues that conventional demonstrations don’t. One is available tools.

At a cooking school, “you’re handed that stuff. But people may not have that equipment at home,” she says.

Moreover, home kitchens don’t always allow for the concentration that cooks need to keep up. “One lady has the kids screaming in the background, one has the dog that needs to go out,” she says.

There’s another potential issue: people stuck at home are getting worn out from constant cooking. “I don’t think people want to cook everything,” Willis says.

Even in pre-pandemic times, Willis found that not everyone in the audience paid rapt attention. “Some people want to jump in and roll up their sleeves. Others want to hang out and drink wine,” she says.

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Modifications to make it more fun. Willis sees several ways that cook along classes can be more enjoyable.

For instance, one Atlanta charity invited chefs to record a video making a dish, sent the link to participants who made a donation, then delivered the finished meal.

Other private programs have involved putting finishing touches on already-cooked dishes, such as adding a garnish to soup, or whipped cream on dessert.

“It’s part experience, part hands-on, part entertainment,” she says.

The challenge for chefs. Even if they’ve previously participated in virtual learning, Willis says many food people are realizing just how different these classes can be.

“When you’re able to have a live audience, you’re able to play off the audience,” she says.

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For an on-screen presentation, like the Cookbooks With Virginia programs that she hosts on Facebook every Friday, “I have to amp up my energy,” Willis says.

Additionally, chefs can’t cook as much as they might in a live demonstration, because every step needs to be broken down for the camera. “Everything is slower because it’s all online,” she says.

“It’s a transition, and not necessarily an easy one. It requires people to be writers, photographers, producers, lighting technicians, audio technicians,” she says.

As a video consultant, Willis tells clients that expectations are rising. If someone is a culinary professional, the audience expects their setting to look like a television kitchen.

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At the beginning of the pandemic, viewers were more patient with clumsily produced content. She doubts they will be for much longer.

“We were forgiving for a while, but that’s all changed now,” Willis says. Viewers “want to feel like they are getting their money’s worth, and we want to feel like we are giving them value.”