How Much Time Do You Spend In The Kitchen?

TastyReuben

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On an average day (so, excluding special days like Christmas or family reunions), how much time do you spend in the kitchen? Please include not just prep/cooking, but checking for supplies, putting away groceries, cleaning (and not just the dishes), etc.

If you like, include both weekday and weekend, if that impacts your kitchen time.

Also, please answer if you're a pro cook, and if you like, feel free to differentiate between work and home. That could be interesting.

I'm going to have to think about my own habits before I answer for myself.
 
On an average day (so, excluding special days like Christmas or family reunions), how much time do you spend in the kitchen? Please include not just prep/cooking, but checking for supplies, putting away groceries, cleaning (and not just the dishes), etc.

If you like, include both weekday and weekend, if that impacts your kitchen time.

Also, please answer if you're a pro cook, and if you like, feel free to differentiate between work and home. That could be interesting.

I'm going to have to think about my own habits before I answer for myself.

My exclusively at home time in the kitchen, including grocery storage, meal prep, cooking and serving up, snacks, smoothies, plus washing dishes afterwards, is anywhere from 1 to 4 hours +.

Note that I have a small refrigerator in the living room along with the microwave. And when I use those two items, I also consider that kitchen time.
 
I couldn´t give you a time per day, but I do spend time in the kitchen every single day. When I feel "inspired" ( like yesterday), I can make 3,4,5 dishes straight off, without a pause.
Yesterday, for example, I made Aloo saag (potatoes with spinach), carrots with yoghurt and spices, 30 pakoras with sweet potato and onions , and some vegetable cutlets. Took me about 2 1/2 hours. The first year of Covid, I sometimes spent 7-8 hours in the kitchen.
 
Boy, that's a difficult one.

If it's a day I'm actually cooking a meal rather than reheating yesterday's meal, then it can easily be 3 or 4 hours.
If it's a day that I'm reheating, then probably no more than an hour if we don't count going to the fridge for a cold drink or morphine...
 
When I was a pro I easily spent 10 to 12 hours a day on the job. Start at 11 in the morning, close at 22.00 in the evening. But then the cleaning still had to be done.

Now, not quite as much time. About an hour cooking each day because I work slower due to pain. And about an hour shopping every two days. My husband does the washing and cleans the kitchen.

If I get friends over, I may spend two hours shopping and two hours cooking. But I just can't physically do more than that.
 
My kitchen is my home office, not because I'm a pro-cook but because I live in a tiny house :laugh: So that's 10-12 hours spent in the kitchen everyday!

Joking aside, I'd say I spend an average of 1 hour in the kitchen everyday, eating, cooking, cleaning. It can go up to 3 or 4 hours if I'm cooking anything that takes a bit more time or deep cleaning. But I don't cook everyday, I usually make enough food to last for a couple meals and then reheat it.
 
I spend about 5 minutes in the kitchen first thing on a morning making coffee and restocking the fridge.

Then later about another 30 minutes preparing food and another 45 to 60 minutes or so cooking it. There's nothing very complicated about my normal menus. If I'm batch cooking everything takes longer but then it's balanced out when I'm reheating the dishes on subsequent days. On pub and snooker days, my wife usually dishes up the carry oot, so I'm hardly in there.

Although we have a table and chairs in the kitchen, neither of us eat in there usually. However we have been known to relocate the kitchen table to the stoep if we have guests or for special occasions.

 
Yeah, it varies greatly depending on what's going on but I guess an average in my home kitchen would be about 2 hours. Work well, I'm semi retired and my role is more mentoring and recipe development and generally I'm 6 or 7 hours a day 3 or 4 days a week. When I do pop ups or catering that's generally 18hour days for a minimum of 2 days to around 5 days and that happens around 6 times a year.
 
Monday 9-3
Tuesday to Friday 9-5
Saturday 9-3

I try and cook every night so 30 minutes to an hour depending on what we are having..I can get the jump on things by doing some prep at work before getting home..
Sundays usually like to have something decent to eat that requires sitting at a table and using a knife and fork..so I'd say 1-3 hours..but, we have an island where we sit and listen to music and have a glass of whatever so it's not like working at all..just an extension of our lifestyle..

I can disappear pretty quick when it's dishes time..;p
 
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