“Let food be thy medicine, and let medicine be thy food” – a quote attributed, probably incorrectly, to Hippocrates, the Greek founder of western medicine. The sentiment is clear, however.

Food comforts us, cooking brings out our creative side and meals bring families and friends together.

For the moment, this is restricted to kitchen tables, living-room laps or sun-baked back gardens – but we are clearly taking this opportunity to brush up on our culinary skills.

And we’re also bringing a little extra creativity to the bedroom. More on that a little later…

The nation’s interest in home cooking has hit a five-year high as we take advantage of the extra time spent at home with immediate families, flat-mates or just ourselves.

Currying favour at home

With the interest in home cooking rising, what are we looking for specifically? The UK’s love of curries isn’t relenting even if we can’t get to our favourite restaurant.

Right now, tikka masala is retaining its crown as the UK’s favourite curry but we’re keen on a korma and there are signs of becoming mad for madras.

Of course, no curry experience is complete without accompaniments – and there has been a steep rise in searches for naan bread recipes.

Garlic naan edges out peshwari naan but we’re looking to create the whole curry experience as search interest for onion bhajis, chapatis and saag aloo also spikes significantly.

The Great British Home Bake-Off

So we’ve polished off our curry and sides and there might be a tiny bit of room for pudding. Yep, we’re all looking for how to make the perfect cake.

All five of the above are showing big recent rises and, while it can be argued that the above comparison isn’t quite a fair fight, the nation is looking for most help with cheesecakes.

(Side note: if anyone fancies making any of the above and leaving them in a safe place for us then we’d be more than happy to give them a try and report back).

Mixing things up

Frankly, we’re stuffed. After all that hard work at the hobs we need a drink – and we’re also showing signs of creativity here.

While not hitting the heights of Christmases past, we are displaying an unseasonable interest in making cocktails.

Home cooking v takeaways

While we are spending more time in the kitchen, conversely we are also turning to takeaways offering delivery services. Brits love their food and we’re obviously missing trips to restaurants.

Services such as Deliveroo and Just Eat are witnessing big rises as we give ourselves some time off cooking for the family.

And the winner for most popular home-delivered grub is…pizza. Interesting to see the big increase in searches for ‘fish and chip delivery’ though – food for thought for UK chippies.

Getting creative in the bedroom

While a tasty curry goes down a treat, the kitchen isn’t the only place where we’re looking to spice things up.

As we search for cocktails, maybe thoughts of sex on the beach are impacting our search behaviour as well.

Perhaps couples have got a little bit more time on their hands or maybe the lack of socialising is causing single people to look for alternative satisfaction…we’ll leave that to your imagination.

Summary

The UK is putting its chef’s skills to the test and our love of a good curry – or a delivered pizza – hasn’t waned; nor has our need to satisfy our sweet tooth.

The evidence shows we need satisfaction in the bedroom as well. Perhaps we just need a little bit of help after all that food…