Science of Cooking

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Skyrocketing prices have taken a big bite out of what Canadians are able to serve up for dinner but food economists say our ability to cope has been worsened by our collective decline in cooking skills.

"We are less able to cook than we were 30 or 40 years ago, and so it's much more difficult for us to adapt our diet," said Mike von Massow, an associate professor at the University of Guelph's Food, Agricultural & Resource Economics department.

But even for those fortunate enough to still afford their weekly grocery run, a lack of skills to improvise in the kitchen makes it harder to work around higher prices, such as by swapping ingredients for less-expensive alternates.

Both then and during today's food inflation crisis, she said her familiarity with the plant-based dishes of her family's Punjabi roots — many of them featuring inexpensive protein sources like legumes — was an advantage.

Annie Belov, a 21-year-old student studying criminology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, has taught herself a lot about cooking since food prices started shooting up.

It's important to note, however, that cooking skills alone cannot solve the affordability problem, said Elaine Power, a professor in the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies at Queen's University.

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