The changing face of Italian cooking during lockdown
A fact-based analysis of how the Covid-19 lockdown changed the Italians’ cooking behaviour
On Sunday 8 March, Lombardy in Northern Italy became the first region in Europe to enter lockdown, the rest of the country followed soon after. In these extraordinary, often challenging times, people have quickly adapted to change and become more practical. Lifestyles have altered and in particular, cooking at home has become the norm, with people learning new skills and re-discovering a love of everyday cooking from scratch.
We’ve taken a look at the remarkable differences in user behaviour from the Cookpad Italia platform during the past month, when lockdown was introduced in Italy, compared with the previous month*. To improve data comparability, all charts have been indexed (maximum = 100).
In general, online searches for cooking and recipes almost doubled in the period after lockdown and have continued to increase. There were strong peaks during weekends and a noticeable peak around Father’s day as people searched for popular recipes.
Searches for recipes such as bread, pizza, pasta and cake increased 3–4 fold after lockdown and replaced searches for artichoke, mushroom and salmon dishes. These increases reflect trends in cooking for basic necessities and comfort and a shift to more family oriented cooking.
There was more than 6 times the usual interest in bread making, specifically for sour-dough recipes, for which the search volume increased more than 10 times, sparked by a national shortage of yeast. This interest has continued to increase week on week.
Looking closely at search trends within Google, the term ‘senza’ (without) increased 3 fold as people looked for recipes to make with a shortage of ingredients as shop shelves ran bare. The most popular searches were for recipes without yeast and eggs, followed by recipes without butter and milk. There was a clear peak during Father’s Day, where users searched for alternative ‘zeppole’ recipes, without having all the ingredients.
There was a marked increase in people watching live cooking events to learn about making specific recipes and join a thriving cooking community. Cookpad’s live events are broadcast most days and presented by Cookpad community managers, sometimes in collaboration with home cook authors. The events provide invaluable opportunities for people to connect, learn and have fun cooking.
Cookpad Italia’s most popular recipe searches changed dramatically during lockdown with views for the most popular bread recipe seeing a huge 12 fold increase. This resulted in more views for ‘pane di grane duro’ than views for the entire top 10 recipe list pre-lockdown. There was a marked increase in searches for comfort foods such as pasta, ice cream and ‘suppli al forno’ (fried rice balls, a speciality dish from Rome).
Cookpad’s live events and communication features continued to inspire people, with double the number of comments on recipes and a 3 fold increase in cooksnaps (where users take photos of recipes they have cooked and share with the authors to thank them). This growth highlights people’s need to connect with others and share positive moments from the isolation of their homes.
In unprecedented times, it is heartening to see people turn to cooking. Where there are food shortages, people are finding solutions, when people are lonely, there is a community to connect with and, in challenging times, it is inspiring to see so many people continuing to learn and grow as they cook each day for themselves and their families.
Charts designed by Elena Gianni
*For this analysis, we consider that lockdown started on Sunday March 8, when Lombardy was put in lockdown. Italy has been in total lockdown since March 11, with all non-essential retail and commercial activities closed. In the analysis, the Covid-19 lockdown period from March 8–30 (23 days) was compared to the preceding 23-day period (February 9–March 2, 2020).
