Online food delivery technology and family food traditions: A sociocultural perspective

Abstract

Good food isn’t just about the taste. It’s about where and with whom you eat -Natsumi Ando. This case explores the impact of online food delivery app technology on socializing commensality, communicative expectations, symbolic, moral, and sentimental meanings of food and eating. Ethnographic evidence shows how foods prepared at home and consumed are rooted in practices and ideologies of local communities and cultures. The case examines how the unfettered proliferation of on-demand services such as online food delivery platforms has affected an essential household activity namely home cooking and dining behavior in a country like India. In addition, the study examines how the continuous practice of evading cooking at home impacts food, life, culture, and society on a social and cultural level.