Most people think there is nothing better than their own mother's cooking, but a new survey suggests that modern mums are showing up their own parents in the kitchen with a wider range of recipes and better culinary skills.
Despite an increasing availability of frozen food and convenience meals, modern mums are expanding their recipe repertoires turning to celebrity cookbooks, by the likes of Nigella Lawson (pictured), rather than reaching for ready meals, the Daily Mail reported.
The study of 1,000 mums, carried out to launch the Birmingham Food Fest in the UK, shows that mothers of today know 25 more recipes than mothers of the 1970s and 80s, and are more adept at making exotic foreign meals.
Mothers aged 20 to 35 were found to regularly serve up international cuisine like Mexican fajitas and Chinese stir fries for family dinners, and have a repertoire of 21 recipes that they know off by heart.
Go back 30 years and the average mum would have had an arsenal of just 17 dishes, mostly consisting of basics like meat and two veg, pork or lamb chops and shepherd's pie.
TV cooking shows and the surge in food related websites and blogs have been credited with the expansion of mums' menus, with four in 10 modern mothers taking tips from celebrity chefs, and a third having books by celebrity chef.
Though celebs are equipping mums with a wide range of good hearty meals, the average mum’s list of recipes still contains a high proportion of unhealthy meals.
A spokeswoman for Birmingham Food Fest, Emma Gray, said the finding dispel the myth that today's mums are too busy to cook and aren’t “into food”.
"The opposite is true," she said.
"Mums actually love to cook, love to see their families enjoying good hearty meals, and mums are becoming more adventurous than ever before."
And it looks like today's mums will be outdone again by the next generation of home chefs as cooking grows more and more popular among kids.
While 61 percent of mothers surveyed claim to be more adventurous in the kitchen than their own mums were, 84 percent think it is important to encourage their own kids to try as many different foods as possible. Celebrity cooking programs, especially those aimed at kids like Junior MasterChef, are encouraging kids to start cooking even earlier.
Your say: Do you think modern mums are better cooks than their parents' generation?
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