- Martyn Tipping and Robert Sprung

A kitchen designed by Porsche with slick aluminum and driftwood finishes is in production. An action-packed videogame featuring Hell's Kitchen chef Gordon Ramsay is about to be released. These imminent product launches are targeted at a new male demographic.
Relax, it's not the metrosexual again.

He's the gastrosexual. Granted, it's not a term you'll find in the dictionary (not yet, anyway). But you will find it coined in Emergence of the Gastrosexual, a recent study commissioned by food company PurAsia and authored by experts including Dr. Paul Levy. (Levy, incidentally, is the purported coiner of the term foodie, which you will find in the dictionary.)

Now, it's not exactly news that men have dominated the upper echelons of cuisine. What is new is the broad demographic trend of men not only spending more time in the kitchen, but also using cooking and gastronomy to define themselves—both as men and as consumers.

According to the study's authors, gastrosexuals, in addition to usually being male, are aged 25-44 and upwardly mobile. Contrary to the popular myth that the limit of men's interest in cooking is limited to the backyard barbecue, the truth is 53% of men report cooking with separate ingredients nearly every day. Cooking is a hobby (as opposed to a chore) for 52% of men, and the amount of time men have spent at the stove has risen fivefold since 1961. Perhaps most surprising: Much of the increasing time that men spend at the stove seems to involve impressing women. In the 18-34 age group (that golden fleece so many marketers quest for), 23% of men said they cook to impress, even seduce, a partner.

Why should marketers care? Simple: Men's interest in the kitchen is rapidly creating branding opportunities. German luxury-kitchen maker Poggenpohl recently unveiled its P7340, a "new kitchen especially designed for men" in partnership with luxury men's accessory brand Porsche Design. The chic, cubist kitchens are a study in black granite and brushed-aluminum (exactly the sort of kitchen you'd want to stroll into after you park your Boxter). Ever mindful of how men love their gadgetry, the modular kitchen comes with a high-tech A/V system and (for $200 a pair) Peugeot electric salt and pepper mills. Yes, the P7340 has everything including the kitchen sink—and that comes with drainer grooves of satinized glass.

When gastrosexuals aren't in the kitchen, many can be found in front of their laptops, often browsing sites such as Culinary Seductions, a "guy's guide to cooking for girls."  Or they might be playing one of the new cooking-themed videogames like Iron Chef America: Supreme Cuisine, a new game developed by software publisher Destineer for the Wii system and Nintendo DS.

Chefs Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay, credited in the PurAsia report as helping drive the rise of the gastrosexual, are also getting in on the videogame act. In September, Ubisoft plans to publish Hell's Kitchen: The Video Game. Players execute three phases of an order: preparation, cooking and service. Afterwards, Ramsay scores each meal, and the rewards include access to recipes from Ramsay's personal repertoire. Meanwhile, What's Cooking with Jamie Oliver is expected to roll out on the Nintendo DS handheld in time for Christmas.

In a recent interview in the Times of London, chef Oliver said that "the best way for women to get their men into the kitchen would be to stop having sex with them until they start to cook." Oliver's only half joking. Today, savvy brands are realizing that plenty of men—with no sexual coercion involved—are in the kitchen already.



Martyn Tipping and Robert Sprung are president and CEO, respectively, of TippingSprung, a branding agency based in New York City. You can reach them at (212) 268-4800 or robert@tippingsprung.com.