Trend Easy Cooking – cook faster thanks to tasty helpers

“I usually have little time to cook. However, I attach great importance to healthy food. With home-cooked food, I simply know what’s in it. Small tasteful helpers in cooking save me a lot of time and effort and ensure that the food tastes delicious despite the little effort involved.”

Nowadays, most people can easily identify with this statement. That’s why Easy Cooking is a big trend, which primarily refers to aromatic cooking aids. These come in different varieties and qualities, with clear design features emerging.

Why Easy Cooking is in demand

Cooking at home has been gaining in importance again for a few years now. Whereas the trend before was clearly towards food on the go as well as eating in restaurants, thus going in the complete opposite direction, the lockdowns during the Corona period changed the situation and turned the tables.

Although we are now past the most difficult phase of the pandemic, it has remained the case that we are sizzling in our own kitchens more often. The main reasons for this are the rising cost of living due to the impact of the war in Ukraine and the increased health consciousness of many consumers.

Cooking for oneself is considered by more and more people to be an important contribution to a healthy diet in particular and to a conducive lifestyle in general.

However, they often lack the knowledge or experience of how to cook healthily and well. In addition, there is the demand that cooking in everyday life should not be too time-consuming or even time-consuming at all. That’s why cooking boxes like “Hello Fresh” and various culinary products that support the act of cooking are in vogue.

Products for Easy Cooking at home

In the following, we will go over typical product types that promote Easy Cooking and thus help many people integrate freshly cooked meals into their stressful daily lives. They can essentially be divided into two variants:

– simple basic products with a modern, playful wit
– high-quality products for easy premium cooking

By the way: Basically, the products that make Easy Cooking possible include both ready-made mixtures that you only have to mix, as well as additives for more creaminess, a balanced seasoning, et cetera.

Variant 1: Simple basic products with a modern, playful wit

The range of simple basic products that make cooking easier is now huge. They are characterized by their simplicity of use and in most cases present themselves creatively, playfully and with a charming wit. A good example of this are the cooking aids from the Very Lazzzy brand. Here, even the humorous brand name tells a story and makes you smile.

It is also worth mentioning that this type of cooking aid is now available in various designs. For example, there are already vegan or plant-based alternatives for many products with animal ingredients.

Who is attracted by the products?

Simple products with a modern look and sometimes a playful wit appeal above all to the younger generation, who want to practice cooking and try out different things – preferably with creative trend products.

How is the packaging of such products designed?

Simple products for Easy Cooking have a decidedly modern design. They often embody an accentuated minimalism. This means that few colors and a maximum of isolated food illustrations are used. Real food shots are rarely seen.

The focus is generally on creative brand names and the content or added value of the products: What’s good in it? What are the advantages of the cooking aid (made from natural ingredients, more creaminess and/or more flavor in the food, environmentally friendly, etc.)?

Variant 2: Easy Cooking with cooking aids from the premium segment

For a long time, products for Easy Cooking have been associated with cheap and low-quality, even bad ingredients – in the sense of unhealthy fast food. But the view of small cooking aids is increasingly changing. This is mainly thanks to brands that stand out with high-quality ingredients and a packaging design to match, thus greatly polishing up the reputation of Easy Cooking products. M&S pestos and sauces are a good example of this.

Who is addressed by the products?

Premium products for Easy Cooking are mainly aimed at gourmets for whom quality cooking is important, but who do not have the time to spend hours at the stove to prepare an exquisite meal.

How is the packaging of such products designed?

In the case of the explicitly high-quality products for Easy Cooking, the packaging design typically corresponds to the demand for quality in terms of content. It often comes across as very classy, with handwritten typography that gives the impression in the eyes of most consumers that this is something of high quality that has been made with great attention to detail.

General design features in Easy Cooking products

There are several design features that can be found in both basic easy-cooking products and cooking aids from the premium segment:

– Minimalism
– transparency
– Illustrations instead of food shots

The central design characteristic that runs through most Easy Cooking products is minimalism. Brands rely on few but expressive and harmonious as well as preferably natural colors from light to dark. The focus is on what’s inside, i.e. the ingredients and their benefits as well as the added value of the respective cooking aid itself. To this end, the fonts move into focus.

Part of the minimalism, but at the same time an independent feature, is the transparency. The packaging of Easy Cooking products increasingly features transparent containers and smaller labels so that the actual product, i.e. the actual contents, can be seen directly and thus speaks for itself. Consumers appreciate such honest, authentic packaging.

The third striking design feature of the products in the Easy Cooking category is also linked in some way to minimalism and transparency: Instead of the large food shots that seemed indispensable a few years ago to whet consumers’ appetites, we see more isolated illustrations on the new, modern packaging – as creative backgrounds that reflect the spirit of the times.

Conclusion

Whether it’s exotic spice blends, vegan cooking cream or organic pesto, there is an enormous variety of products available today that enable easy cooking at home. In addition to modern basic cooking aids, there has recently also been an increase in premium products that are primarily aimed at particularly demanding hobby cooks with little time.

When it comes to packaging, minimalism and a reduction to the essentials clearly dominate. In short, much of the packaging of products from the Easy Cooking segment follows the motto “less is more”. Consumers should be able to see at first glance what the product in question really offers them. Technically trimmed food shots that promise more than is actually “there” are a thing of the past. Brands today rely on honesty and authenticity.