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Hitwise Intelligence - Robin Goad - UK

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Delia Smith is top chef: let her cook cake

August 31, 2007

Bill recently wrote a very interesting Time column on America’s favourite foods. Following his example I decided to investigate the BBC Food website – the most visited food website in the UK - for this week’s Siteseeing column in the Guardian. It turned out that the most popular searches containing the term 'recipe' sending traffic to BBC Food over the last 12 weeks were 'apple crumble' and 'rhubarb crumble'. That these unseasonable dishes were popular during our washout of a summer didn't surprise me, but it did inspire me to delve a little deeper into seasonal recipe trends.

The chart below illustrates the top recipes searched for by season. Cake recipes are number one for most of the year, but are overtaken by smoothies in the winter. Like the Americans, chicken is our favourite meat, but vegetarian recipes are more popular for most of the year. Indian is the most popular cuisine, while the interest in slow cooking shows has an expected dip during the warmer months.

Fave recipes.png

Some commentators argue that we spend more time watching chefs cooking on TV than actually doing it ourselves, so I also decided to measure the popularity of the top celebrity chefs based on search traffic.

Top chefs.png

Of the top five, Delia is the only one not to have had a TV series or program in the last year, but her enduring popularity and website have helped keep her in the public mind. Nigella jumped to the number one spot during the winter following her Christmas TV special, while Jamie continues to bite at Delia’s heels. Rick Stein has received a boost from his current TV series, and continues to support Cornish tourism via the number of search terms containing the words 'rick stein' and 'padstow'.

Despite being arguably the most over-exposed chef on the list, Gordon Ramsey never makes it above third place. However, he can take heart from that fact that he is the most searched for of the five when it comes to sending traffic to restaurant websites, followed by Rick Stein. Heston Blumenthial’s celebrated Fat Duck is the third most searched for celebrity restaurateur, while Pizza Hut ranks above McDonalds and Domino’s when it comes to the major brands.

Posted by Robin Goad at 01:40 PM | (0) | (0)
In Categories Food | Search