CHENNAI: Social media has opened up many opportunities for both homemakers and enthusiasts. Food videos are the current favourite among people of all age groups and we spoke to a few in the city who swear by them.
Treasa Mathew, a 50-year-old homemaker, has always had a passion for cooking and loves to try out different dishes. Apart from the recipes she inherited from her mother and grandmother, she used to refer to regional weekly magazines for new recipes, until the internet came to her rescue. “It was only a couple of months back, while randomly scrolling through Facebook, that I came across these interesting food videos online. And so I started watching more such videos and realised that it made things so much easier,” she smiles. Not only did she unsubscribe to the magazine – which she had been reading for over a decade, but she began following many other food blogs and food sites on social media.
Similar is the story of Shiny Pious, a HR professional who says that her cookbooks are now covered in dust in some corner of a shelf. “I mostly refer to a lot of food videos from various social media platforms for making snacks and non-veg food items. My first attempt at making cheese balls was thoroughly appreciated by my husband and children, and ever since I have been using the internet for quick recipes,” she adds.
Since its advent, the internet has brought about tremendous changes everywhere, including in food. “Everything from looking up for recipes to ordering ingredients or even an entire meal to reading about the newest food joints in town, has been influenced by the internetin a big way,” says Sethu Kumar, who runs the Instagram page ‘imsohungry’.
Many Facebook and Instagram pages have also started posting short videos (up to five minutes) that give a quick run-through of fun and easy recipes. And these became a hit among many food enthusiasts. “These quick food videos changed the perspective towards cooking, and made it much more simpler. And taking inspiration from there, we too got into creation of these quick food videos on Facebook as it reaches out to people faster. The idea is to present food with its own personality along with imparting a distinct visual experience,” explains Lopamudra Mitra, channel director, Awesome Sauce India (Culture Machine Media).
There are a wide range of recipes available online, ranging from Indian to Mongolian. For those who are strictly vegetarian, pages like Hebbar’s kitchen is a boon. “To a large extent I share a lot of Indian vegetarian food recipes — both from South Indian and North Indian cuisines. However, I also post wide range of recipes from Indo-Chinese cuisine, popular Indian street food, pizzas and pastas and eggless cake recipes too,” explains Archana.
So what made people turn to the internet? Lakshmi Mahesh says that there are three main reasons for the shift — easy access, availability of specifications and the videos. “It is so easy to search for a recipe and you can mention what all specifications you want — like eggless, paneer etc. which may not be possible always with cookbooks and finally videos makes it easy to go through recipes...especially for first timers,” she adds.
Although a vast majority of people have switched from cookbooks to the internet for instant recipes, Katie Nathan, a food blogger feels that grandma’s cookbooks were much simpler. “When people search for a particular recipe on the internet, there are high chances we end up cooking something we are not looking forward to. Grandma’s cookbooks gave us a clear idea what to expect from the recipe and there was no confusion at all,” she sighs.