Kraft Finds More Dads in the Kitchen

You can put away those stereotypes that belong in another era: today’s fathers are in the kitchen and cooking up a storm. A new survey from Kraft Cheese found that 96 percent of dads in the United States say they are cooking for themselves or others every week.

What’s more, nearly all – 94 percent –say they are confident about their cooking skills. So confident, in fact, that they are eager to try new recipes and add more flavors to their dishes. Fifty-eight percent of dads surveyed say that they are adventurous or spontaneous when cooking.

Not surprisingly in the digital age, these dads are resourceful when looking to try something new with a recipe. According to the Kraft survey, 83 percent of dads say they use technology for cooking or meal planning, with 51 percent using a computer to print out recipe and 29 percent using smartphones or tablets to search recipes. "We understand that moms and dads approach meal time differently," notes Barry Calpino, Vice President, Breakthrough Innovation, Kraft Foods. "Both are looking for inspiration, but not necessarily through the same channels or to the same end.”

Other tidbits gleaned in the Kraft Cheese survey:

Supper club: 63 percent of dads enjoy cooking dinner, compared to 22 percent who prefer cooking breakfast and 7 percent who prefer making lunch.

Bird is the word: The most common meals in regular rotation are chicken (84 percent), pasta (74 percent), sandwiches (67 percent) and burgers (64 percent).

Cheese, please: Most dads (24 percent) prefer to eat or cook Cheddar cheese, followed by mozzarella (17 percent), American (10 percent) and Parmesan (10 percent).

As Kraft Cheese reaches out to fathers by polling them on their cooking habits, the company also is engaging dads by being a presenting sponsoring at this year’s Dad 2.0 Summit in Houston and teaming up with “Dadventurous” blogger Troy Pattee through a series of articles on cooking.

For more information and for recipes for tech-savvy, adventurous dads, visit www.kraftcheese.com.