2020 has brought numerous unexpected changes into people’s everyday life, including their eating habits. Several factors can be considered the cause of significantly altered food trends. First, the rising panic at the beginning of the lockdown led to a deficit of different items in stores. Sometimes it was necessary to implement a creative approach to be able to cook a dish from what was left on the shelves. Second, uncertain times of high distress leave people craving some consolation in the mundane, which results in comfort food’s growing popularity.
Comfort food is a coping mechanism for many people in stressful situations, especially as serious as a global pandemic. Food that provides people with the feeling of coziness and reassurance usually contains much sugar or carbohydrates and creates positive associations in one’s mind. This must be the reason why dessert bars have become universally loved throughout the quarantine. As it turns out, practically anything with high sugar content or that is often used in desserts can be incorporated into such dishes. Common examples of such cooking experiments are brownies, blondies, lemon bars, coffee cakes, and pie bars (Hickman para. 7).
Although such desserts are not uncommon and have been favored by many people long before the pandemic, their popularity rate has grown even more. Not only because they are, indeed, comforting but also, as Hickman points out because portioning these desserts is quite easy, which can be of the essence in times when leaving one’s house is dangerous and not recommended (para. 7). However, with the restrictions slowly loosening, dessert bars’ popularity will likely go back to its normal state. Many people are used to having brownies and coffee cakes at cafes and, once public places open completely, home-baked chocolate desserts will probably lose some of their current demand.
Work Cited
Hickman, Kiersten. “These are the Most Popular Dishes Everyone’s Making During Lockdown.” Eat This, Not That!, 2020, Web.