With the hospitality sector being hit especially hard by the COVID-19 lockdowns, Pinterest has this week launched a new initiative called ‘Chefs at Home‘, which aims to both showcase recipes from leaders in the field, while also providing support for the restaurant sector.

As explained by Pinterest:

“Chefs at Home [provides] an exciting sneak peek into the home kitchens of the country’s top culinary talent. Chefs at Home features recipes, tips, and tricks from over 30 iconic chefs: What’s Andrew Zimmern’s go-to summer soup? How does Kwame Onwuachi make his favorite hummus? What’s Stephanie Izard’s secret to perfect homemade tostadas?”

A key impetus of the initiative is the rising interest in home cooking due to COVID-19. According to Pinterest, more than 60% of Americans have increased their home cooking in recent months, with the platform itself seeing a 12x increase in searches for “easy at home recipes”. That, of course, makes sense – for one, people in many regions are still unable to head out to a restaurant, but also, when you’re stuck at home, you look to things like cooking as a new project, as something to do in replacement of social events and the like.

It’s not an ideal situation in any sense, but the rising interest in home cooking is, if it can be seen that way, something of a positive within the crisis, and a trend worth noting for those businesses in the sector.

In addition to this, Pinterest is also looking to support the hospitality industry with a new funding package.

“Chefs at Home invites Pinners to not only cook well but also do good. We recognize that food insecurity and job loss has made this a difficult time for many. As part of this program, Pinterest is donating $300,000 in free advertising to raise awareness and funding for the National Restaurant Association Educational Fund (NRAEF), Relief Opportunities for All Restaurants (ROAR), No Kid Hungry, and Harlem Grown.”

That push will then enable each organization to rally further support – so ideally, that initial funding will end up becoming much more through the program.

As noted, the COVID-19 shutdowns have had a huge impact on many sectors, but restaurants, cafes, bars, along with event and travel businesses, have been, in large part, entirely shut down as a result, leaving many struggling, and hoping for positive news sometime soon.

Chefs at Home is a small element within this broader push, but it’s good to see Pinterest working to provide a level of support.

Pinners will be able to find new recipes from the Chefs at Home series every week on the Today Tab in the Pinterest app.