High food prices stir appetite for budget-minded recipes from food writers

Rising food costs mean everyoneis paying more to make mealsincludingthe people coming up withrecipes.

Cookbook author and TV host Mary Bergsaysa combination of rising food prices and concerns about theeconomy have "put the pedal to the metal for everybody" when it comes to people thinking about what they spend ongroceries.

"People don't cook at home to spend money," said Berg, who'sadjusting herown grocery shopping habitsbased on changing prices.

She and other food writers are also carefully consideringwhat truly needs to be in a recipe and how people are cooking and coping under the current circumstances.

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Major grocery chains say shoppers should expect even higher prices for food in the coming weeks. Shoppers on the streets of Toronto told CBC News what that might mean for their food budget.

Rising grocery prices prompt change in cooking

Berg has tried to keep a budget-mindedapproach to developing recipes for some timenow including as she consideredwhat people needed when cooking at home during the pandemic.

"I have been kind of streamlining towards more budget-conscious food," said Berg, noting that if she develops arecipe thatinvolvesa more expensive ingredient, it has to have a purpose in the dish.

"If I do present an expensive ingredientwhether it's a protein or maybe something like a niche seasoning or something like that I try to offer either a reason for it being expensive or I'll give you options in how to use those things in other recipes."

Shahir Massoud, a Toronto chef and cookbook author, said food prices aredefinitely"top of mind" these days, and though there are limits to substitutions that can be made for certainfoods and recipes, he likely wouldn't feature"a risottowith black truffles" in a cookbook right now.

He says people compiling recipes for cookbooks might want to use "less caviar and more creativity" becausecost-effective cooking ideas"will never go out of style" andpublishers are typically looking for cookbooks withlong-term appeal.

Anne-Marie Bonneau, the Ontario-born and San Francisco-basedauthor of The Zero-Waste Chef:Plant-Forward Recipes and Tips for a Sustainable Kitchen and Planet, saidrising prices may prompt peopleto"rethink the waywe cook and the way weconsume, the way we shop."

"It's hard, really hard, for a lot of people," said Bonneau, notingthat through her Zero-Waste Chef blog,she'sseen how the pandemic has influenced what peoplesearchfor likesourdough starter recipesortips on how to reduce food waste.

One of her most-recent posts looked at makingcookies with sourdough discard and flax eggs a vegan egg substitutemade of ground flax seeds and water a substituteshe thought mightinterestreadersdue to the soaring price of eggsin the U.S.

She's also written about finding uses forrandom fruits and vegetables and using "cooked-down leftovers"in pastries, galettes and hand pies.

Ultimately, Bonneau says"the whole cooking zeitgeist" could change, with more emphasis on accessibility andaffordability when it comes to what's being made in the kitchen.

Cookbooks slower to reflect challenges

Because it takes roughly two years for a cookbook to reach consumers in stores, literary agent Carly Watters says it could take some time before thechallenges of today are reflected in what's being published, unless such a project has been underway for awhile.

"They take a really long time because there's so much that goes into it," said Watters, who helped sellBonneau's book.

Massoud whosecookbook Eat, Habibi, Eat!was published in 2021 estimates it would take nearly a year to come up with 100 fresh recipes for a cookbook.

"Even that, when you do the math, that's at a pretty torrid pace," he said.

According to Watters,the authors primed to take advantage of the current moment are those with booksalready in print that havethemes like budget-friendly cooking.

Last year, Bergwhose latest release, Well Seasoned, won a gold medal at the Taste Canada Awardsfinisheda manuscript for a cookbook due out this fall andsays concerns about food costs were on her mind when she was writing it.

"I have almost little flags on each recipe there are some for bang for your buck, so budget-friendly [considerations], reducing food waste," she said.

Canadian bookseller Indigo told CBC News that in the past year it hadn't seen anincrease in sales of cookbooks focused on budget-conscious recipes but it saidBritish chef Jamie Oliver's latest release, One, was the most popular book in this category.

On Amazon,a handful ofthe top-10 top-selling cookbooks of the moment relate to making meals with air fryers or dutch ovens toolsthat can be used for batch cooking whileseveral others focused onbasic kitchen skills.