BBC Two’s The Great British Bake Off is the preferred cooking show of British teenagers, according to a recent YouGov Children’s Omnibus, which polled a nationally representative sample of Britons aged 13 to 19.
According to the survey, more than a third (34%) of British teens say ‘Bake Off’ is their favourite cooking show, beating out Channel 4’s Come Dine with me (18%) and BBC One’s Masterchef (12%).
Asked to choose their favourite celebrity chef and Jamie Oliver comes out on top as the favourite of more than a quarter (26%) of British teens. Meanwhile, Gordon Ramsay was in second place with 14%, followed by Heston Blumenthal at 10%.
However, while Jamie Oliver is the most popular celebrity chef amongst British teenagers, his TV programme, ‘Jamie’s Ministry of Food’, came dead last for cooking shows, with only 2% of respondents choosing it as their favourite.
In terms of their own cooking skills, one in five (21%) teens claim to be frequent cooks, while 43% say they cook sometimes and a third (32%) say they rarely do. Nearly a third (30%) rate their skills in the kitchen as “good” or “very good”, while 46% say they are average cooks. 18% of teens claim to be “bad” or “very bad” at cooking.
Commenting on the Children’s Omnibus poll, YouGov Director Ben Glanville said: “It would seem the mania surrounding The Great British Bake Off also extends to younger people, and according to our poll as many as a third of 13 to 19-year-olds could be tuning in for the quarter-final tonight. It looks like Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood are inspiring a new generation of British bakers.”
