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According to research by Prof Jonatahn Gershuny, who runs the Centre for Time Research at Oxford, men now spend more than half an hour a day cooking, up from just 12 minutes a day in 1961

Men are spending more and more time in the kitchen encouraged by celebrity² chefs like Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver, according to a report from Oxford University.

The effect of the celebrity role models, who have given cookery a more macho image, has combined with a more general drive towards sexual equality, to mean men now spend more than twice the amount of time preparing meals than they did in 1961.

According to research by Prof Jonatahn Gershuny, who runs the Centre for Time Research at Oxford, men now spend more than half an hour a day cooking, up from just 12 minutes a day in 1961.

Prof Gershuny said: "The man in the kitchen is part of a much wider social trend. There has been 40 years of gender³ equality, but there is another 40 years probably to come."

Women, who a generation ago spent a fraction under two hours a day cooking, now spend just one hour and seven minutes – a dramatic fall, but they still spend far more time at the hob than men.

Some commentators⁴ have dubbed⁵ the emergence⁶ of men in aprons⁸ as "Gastrosexuals", who have been inspired to pick up a spatula⁹ by the success of Ramsay, Oliver as well as other male celebrity chefs such as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Marco Pierre White and Keith Floyd.

"I was married in 1974. When my father came to visit me a few weeks later I was wearing an apron⁷ when I opened the door. He laughed," said Prof Gershuny

"That would never happen now."

The report, commissioned by frozen food company Birds Eye, also makes clear that the family meal is limping on in far better health than some have suggested, thanks in part to a resurgence¹⁰ in cooking from scratch by some consumers.

Two-thirds of adults claim that they come together to share at least three times a week, even if it is not necessarily around a kitchen or dining room table.

Anne Murphy, general manager at Birds Eye, said: "The evening meal is still clearly central to family life and with some saying family time is on the increase and the appearance of a more frugal¹¹ consumer, we think the return to traditionalism will continue as a trend.”

However, Prof Gershuny pointed¹² out that the family meal was now rarely eaten by all of its members around a table – with many "family meals" in fact taken on the sofa in the sitting room, and shared by disparate members of the family.

"The family meal has changed very substantially, and few of us eat – as I did when I was a child – at least two meals a day together as a family. But it has survived in a different format¹³."

牛津大学的一份报告显示，受戈登•拉姆齐和杰米•奥利佛等名厨的激励，如今男性下厨的时间越来越多。

模范名厨们为烹饪增添了更多男子气概，再加上性别平等问题变得更为普遍，使得与1961年相比，如今男性下厨的时间增加了两倍多。

牛津时代调查研究中心负责人乔纳森•格尔舒尼教授开展的研究表明，如今男性每天下厨的时间为半个多小时，而在1961年仅有12分钟。

格尔舒尼教授说：“男性下厨是一个更为广泛的社会趋势的一部分。性别平等已有40年的历史，但可能还会有下个40年。”

上一代女性每天花在做饭上的时间不到两小时，而如今仅为一小时零七分钟——虽然时间少了很多，但还是比男性下厨的时间长很多。

一些评论家将新涌现出的爱下厨房的男性称为“爱厨男”，这些男性受拉姆齐、奥利佛以及休•弗恩利-惠汀斯托尔、马克•皮埃尔•怀特和基思•弗洛伊德等其他男性名厨成功的激励，开始下厨操刀。

格尔舒尼教授说：“我1974年结婚。婚后几周父亲来看我，我去开门时正系着围裙，他见状后大笑。”

“但现在再不会是这样了。”

这项由速冻食品公司Birds Eye委托开展的调查还表明，家庭烹饪健康饮食的情况比一些人之前预想的要好很多，这一部分要归因于一些消费者开始学习烹饪。

三分之二的受访成年人表示，他们每周至少和家人聚餐三次，即便不一定是围坐在厨房里或者餐桌旁。

Birds Eye公司总经理安妮•墨菲说：“晚餐对于家庭生活仍然很重要。一些人称家人在一起的时间有所增加，而且消费者如今更加节俭，我们认为传统主义的回归将成为一种趋势继续下去。”

但格尔舒尼教授指出，现在一家人很少全部围坐在桌边一起用餐，其实很多时候大家会坐在客厅的沙发上用餐，家庭的各个成员则一起分享家宴。

“家庭聚餐发生了很大变化，现在我们很少有人能与家人每天聚在一起吃至少两顿饭——就像我小的时候那样。但它以另一种形式延续了下来。”

Vocabulary:

from scatch:从零开始；从头开始