It’s the night your My Food Bag has run out, there’s no plan, and you’re standing in front of an open fridge door hoping dinner assembles itself. New research says you’re in extremely good company – here’s what is actually in the average Kiwi fridge!
There is a very specific genre of hunger that hits at 6pm on a night when nothing has been planned, I reckon – the My Food Bag has been gobbled up already, the good intentions of Sunday have long gone, and I’m standing in the fridge light doing that thing we all do for no good reason at all – opening the door, closing the door and opening it again, hoping something else has appeared in the two seconds the door was shut.
Turns out this is basically a national pastime. New research commissioned by Angel Bay, which surveyed more than 1,000 New Zealanders about how they actually eat, has found we are, on the whole, a country of improvisers:
- Only one in four of us consistently plan dinner ahead
- Six in ten cook with no plan at all at least a few times a week
- When there’s nothing prepared, two thirds raid the fridge, freezer or pantry for a last minute meal rather than reaching for the delivery app
That last stat is the one that actually surprised me because look I’ll admit, I’m no stranger to a food delivery app when these feelings of hopelessness linger! But two out of three of us improvise? Good for us!
So what’s actually in there?
As part of the survey, people also photographed the insides of their fridges, which is a level of exposure I’m not sure I’d survive, in fact I’m sure I’d be judged on the fact condiments outweigh actual food. But, the results were almost eerily consistent across the board. The items that turned up again and again:
- Milk, with dairy and plant milk sitting side by side in nearly every fridge door
- Eggs, almost always in the door tray
- Butter and yoghurt, because we are nothing if not a dairy nation
- Tomato sauce, described in the findings as the baseline of the Kiwi fridge, which feels correct
- Pre-minced garlic and ginger jars, the ones everybody owns and nobody wants to admit to (apart from me, yay jarlic!)
- Half-used condiments and sauces, in truly heroic numbers
- The leftover container, at least one tub of last night’s dinner sitting hopefully
- Japanese miso paste, maple syrup, jalapeños, hot sauces, pickles and hollandaise
So turns out, we like dairy and flavour?
Jana MacPherson, a Queenstown-based cook and recipe developer behind The MacPherson Diaries, has spent a lot of time cooking everyday meals. She’s built a following of more than 35,000 on Instagram largely on the strength of easy weeknight dinners, so she is well qualified to comment on what we’re all doing at 6pm on a Wednesday, and for her, the ‘global creep’ of condiments is her standout finding.
“Us Kiwis love to travel the world through our tastebuds, right from the comfort of home,” she says. “Items like Japanese miso, chilli crisp, and sriracha mayo were really popular. Milk and eggs were more expected, but it’s interesting to see that we do tend to have global fridges.”
The money bit
Cooking at home is, unsurprisingly, mostly about cost:
- 62% say cost is the most appealing part of eating in, making it the number one reason we cook at home
- The average home cooked meal comes in at $10.77 per head
- 56% of us say we actually enjoy cooking at home
- 27% named taste and flavour as the most important part of a meal, while 21% said family and togetherness
But, the waste numbers are where it gets sobering:
- Love Food Hate Waste estimates the average Kiwi household throws away almost $1,400 worth of food a year
- Leftovers are the country’s number one food-waste culprit, with 32% consistently binning them
- 63% of over-55s rarely throw anything away, making them the most disciplined food users in the country
And, the generation gap is real
The split between age groups is fascinating when it comes to food planning and cooking:
Under 25s: least likely to plan their meals, highest takeaway reliance, highest food waste, and the highest cost per meal at $13.46 per head.
Over 55s: the least food waste of any group, the highest leftover repurposing, a tendency to avoid takeaways and raid the fridge instead, and the cheapest cost per meal at $9.03 per head.
Households with kids: enjoy cooking at home and love the family connection of a shared meal, but are the most likely to order takeaways when caught short.
How to actually cook your fridge
Jane’s whole philosophy is that the ingredients are usually already there, hiding in plain sight.
“You don’t always need to go shopping to make something delicious. Often the best meals come from using what’s already sitting in the fridge, freezer and pantry,” she says. “Sometimes all it takes is changing the format of the meal. Leftovers don’t have to stay leftovers, they can become a wrap, a pasta, a burger bowl or a toastie.”
“Getting creative with the ingredients you already have is one of the easiest ways to reduce food waste, save money and still put something delicious on the table.”
Wraps and quesadillas: “Wraps are one of the most versatile things you can keep in the fridge. They can become quesadillas, wraps, pizzas or a quick toasted lunch using whatever you’ve already got.” Her go-to combination: “If you’ve got leftover chicken, some frozen or canned corn and a bit of cheese, you’ve got the makings of a great quesadilla. Even ham and cheese works.” And for the after school shift: “Kids love building their own wraps. Add grated carrot, cucumber, tomato and let them choose from the collection of sauces that seems to live in every Kiwi fridge.”
Burgers, minus the buns: “You don’t need burger buns to make burgers. If you’ve got patties in the freezer, you can make a burger bowl, wrap everything in lettuce cups, or chop everything through pasta for a completely different meal.”
Pasta and mac and cheese: “When the fridge feels empty, pasta is usually the answer. It’s one of those pantry staples that can be transformed with almost anything you’ve got on hand.” Start with the sauce: “A simple homemade cheese sauce is one of the first recipes everyone should know. Once you’ve got that, you can add corn, peas, ham, bacon or leftover chicken and suddenly you’ve got a completely different meal.” And don’t overthink the finish: “Mac and cheese is incredibly forgiving. Eat it straight from the pot, or top it with breadcrumbs and extra cheese and bake it for an easy family dinner.”
“Eating well on a budget isn’t about meal prepping like a machine,” she adds. “It’s about being creative and using what you’ve already got. A great dinner doesn’t always need a plan or a recipe, it just needs to taste good and get everyone around the table.”
You can eat the survey results!
If you’d like to taste all of this rather than just read about it, the research has been turned into a menu. The Real Life Restaurant by Angel Bay is a pop-up burger bistro set up inside a real suburban home in Morningside, Auckland, where every dish is built from the ingredients that kept appearing in those fridge photos. Guests are handed fluffy slippers at the door, dishes arrive on mismatched kitsch china, and the menus are displayed on the wall like family photos. The line-up includes the Home Comforts Burger, the Global Sauce Shelf Burger with miso slaw, a Breakfast for Dinner Burger with a maple syrup drizzle, the Second Chance Burger loaded with cheddar mac and cheese, and a Fridge Gazer Plate of meatballs with jalapeño popper dipping sauce.
“Every dish on this menu started life as something hiding behind someone’s tomato sauce,” says Jane.
Tables are available on select nights, with bookings open for July 31, and August 1, 6, 7 and 8. Spaces are strictly limited – head to angelbay.com!
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