Have Irish parents put cooking on the back burner? An Island of Ireland study of the food skills, cooking confidence and practices of parents

Purpose: The purpose of this paper it to examine the self-reported food skills, cooking confidence and practices amongst a sample of parents on the Island of Ireland (IOI) and to highlight jurisdictional similarities and differences between Northern Ireland (NI) and the Republic of Ireland (ROI).Design/methodology/approach: Parents (n=363) on the IOI completed a questionnaire exploring confidence levels of food skills, cooking techniques executed and the identification of barriers which might impact on meal preparation. Non-probability convenience sampling was utilised.Findings: The majority of parents (75 percent) learned their basic cooking skills from their mother with home economics classes being the second most popular source of learning. There were a number of statistically significant jurisdictional differences. For example, when preparing dinners, Northern Ireland (NI) parents were less likely to enjoy cooking and more likely to use processed foods such as breaded frozen chicken and jars of sauces than Republic of Ireland (ROI) (x2=56.167, df=1, p