[Senior Trend] Cooking for the Middle-aged Man

Seniors have a strong interest in health management. Eating is fundamental among these concerns. Considering the happiness, comfort, safety, and enjoyment that food can provide, is there anything more important than taking care of three meals a day? After preparing breakfast, one worries about what to eat for lunch, and after lunch, thoughts turn to dinner. What, how, and with whom we eat shapes our day. There is a TV program called "Three Meals a Day" that captures this well. In the countryside, a middle-aged actor named Lee Seo-jin pairs up with a junior to live a self-sufficient organic life, busy all day solving meal problems. Just watching them procure ingredients and cook shows how much effort goes into eating well every day. As the ratings rose, the cast expanded their locations from rural villages to mountain villages, fishing villages, and even overseas, evolving into a series inviting female actors and animals, with middle-aged male actors playing active roles. In particular, actor Cha Seung-won has become a representative figure of the "cooking middle-aged" by creating high-level dishes with limited ingredients and serves as a model for various food brands.

The dictionary definition of "cooking" is making food through various preparation processes. A 19th-century French gourmet said, "Animals eat feed, humans eat food," introducing that dishes and their ingredients on the table each have their own world history. Famous chefs are revered, and at the top of the popularity rankings for nationally certified qualifications are always Korean, Western, and Japanese cuisine cooking technician certificates. Visiting government-supported cooking courses, one finds them bustling with middle-aged men. They participate using the "Tomorrow Learning Card" provided by the Ministry of Employment and Labor to utilize their leisure time after retirement or to seek reemployment. Those doing it for work often start by recalling their military cooking experience to get jobs in institutional catering or learn with the intention of running their own business. Some show interest in precise cooking processes and accurate measurements rather than "hand taste," focusing seriously on cooking with earnest expressions. In fact, in the culinary field, there are quite a few jobs suitable for middle-aged people as long as they do not give up midway due to physical fatigue. Of course, some learn cooking as a hobby to feed themselves or their families.

There is a book titled "The Best Meal is the One My Husband Makes" by writer Park Seung-jun, which is about a retired husband's adaptation to the kitchen. As a baby boomer, he took on the challenge of cooking the "best meal" to replace his wife, who had been in charge of kitchen work for nearly 30 years. After retirement, his business attempts failed, and he stepped into the unfamiliar place called the "kitchen," gradually understanding the heart of the housewife (主婦, ?夫) who guards the kitchen, yet still tells the story of a clumsy retired husband's kitchen adaptation. For the 50s and 60s generation, roles were divided into masculine and feminine, so ordinary husbands are usually clumsy with housework. They do not even understand why when their wife or mother travels and eats, they say, "The meal prepared by someone else tastes best." From the perspective of only receiving the "table," "home-cooked meals" were all about sincerity, comfort, and happiness. The author was honest. He confessed that nowadays, when his wife suggests eating out, he feels happy. Even if one enjoys cooking, after preparing meals thousands of times, there are times when one gets tired of it. In surveys asking why seniors move to silver towns, the increase in senior couples in their early 60s is largely due to wanting balanced nutrition opportunities and liberation from kitchen work. It is the same context.

Fortunately, in the busy modern society, the options available both inside and outside the home are becoming increasingly diverse. First, the variety and time slots for deliverable ingredients have expanded. The Home Meal Replacement (HMR) market is not only rapidly growing but entering a period of intense competition. The non-face-to-face situation caused by COVID-19 and the increase in single-person households seeking convenience ignited this trend. Among these, meal kits have captured not only the younger generation but also seniors. The inclusion of some cooking steps has become a favorable factor. Meal kits, first experienced through their children, omit the most cumbersome ingredient preparation while retaining the joy of cooking, allowing family members to add or remove ingredients according to their preferences during the cooking process, quickly becoming familiar to seniors. Moreover, many traditional, long-established restaurants that seniors frequented or have memories of are launching products in the convenience food market. Famous chefs with high media recognition are also releasing recipes and developing meal kit products, so this trend seems likely to continue for some time. From convenience store lunch boxes to dried powder-type instant meals, it is a trend somewhat similar to but different from Japan’s familiar patterns.

The trend of middle-aged people cooking seems likely to continue for the time being. Although there is high interest in "healthy diets," isn't the essence of food taste? Our tastes vary widely, but the "customized diets" provided by companies offering senior health meals are still limited in taste and unsatisfactory in price, making it difficult to eat consistently. Even after moving into silver towns, disputes arise over meals, and it seems that even when cooking ramen, "home-cooked meals" are comfortable and good. Suddenly recalling the food descriptions in writer Park Wan-seo's "Who Ate All the Singa?" makes one’s mouth water. When family members participate in cooking, the food connects to all our memories, culture, and nostalgia.

Lee Bo-ram, CEO of Third Age