Bake Off winner David Atherton has been loving lockdown – and it seems he’s not the only one.
Research from Samsung has revealed that almost half (47%) of Brits are cooking more than usual and three quarters of us are vowing to keep it up in the future.
With the UK set to become a nation of amateur chefs, we asked David to tell us more about his own lockdown cooking experiences.
'Just keep it simple – if you're new to baking, start basic,' he advises. 'Stick to the staples and produce things that you can enjoy. Do you really want a batch of macarons? Probably not, but a nice slice of homemade bread for breakfast will make your morning.
'I've also been choosing recipes that are easy to downsize, since there's only two of us in the house. Proper portioning means you reduce waste and avoid gorging.
Best lockdown dinner?
Me and my partner make our own pasta, so we've been loving a good pasta bake. They're great because you can make them with pretty much anything you've got going spare, and it's a great way to use up leftovers. As long as it's covered in a delicious sauce and crispy cheese, there's nothing to complain about.
Any lockdown food flops?
I tried to make a quiche with no eggs. I'd already blind baked the base and this was at the really serious stage of lockdown, so I couldn't justify going to the shop. An egg run isn't exactly essential. I tried to make it with yoghurt instead and it didn't really work.
What would your last meal on Earth be?
I eat peanut butter every day, so my death row dinner would definitely be crunchy peanut butter on a nice thick slice of lightly toasted white sourdough.
Only if I can do the toasting, though - I don't trust anyone else. When I lived in Malawi I'd grow the peanuts myself, and once they were harvested I'd roast them and spend four hours pounding them just to get a kilo of peanut butter - and I'd do that every week.
What's the strangest thing you've ever eaten?
I'd have to say a cooked mouse in Malawi. I lived in a really rural area, and once all the maize has been harvested, they trap the mice for cooking. You eat the whole thing: tail, skin, legs - everything.
I actually quite enjoyed it. We're conditioned to like certain things about food, like in this country we think it's fine to eat the muscle of an animal, but it's strange to eat the skin. In Malawi those things are more normal, whereas they'd find it really weird that people would eat, say, sushi.