Disasters of cooking under worldwide lockdown

Burnt bread, collapsed cakes and inedible potatoes: the kitchen failures of Vietnamese families in self-isolation are being shared online, with hundreds of thousands joining a Facebook group to commiserate over their culinary catastrophes.

With half the world in lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, masterchefs-in-the-making across the globe have been posting snapshots on social media of their perfect sourdough and gorgeously gooey brownies as they while away the hours in the kitchen.

So many people have been baking bread that yeast has become scarce.

But in Vietnam, Dinh Duc Thanh, founder of the Facebook group, decided the world’s would-be bakers could benefit from a grain of truth.

“I think when there are groups showing ... delicious dishes and nice homes, we should also have some place where people can share their failures so that people feel more comfortable being themselves,” said Thanh, a 37-year-old videographer from Hanoi.

Thanh started the group last week, and its membership already boasts more than 800,000 people as of yesterday.

Some have shared pictures of smouldering pans and congealed black lumps in pots.

During the pandemic, “suddenly one has to cook three meals a day, clean the house with the kids at home making things a mess ... there will be more accidents,” Thanh said.

Fellow group member Huynh Nguyen Hoang Quyen appeared to have been struggling in the kitchen too, posting a picture of a green-tinged cake that had collapsed in on itself.

“Normally I am quite confident in my housework ability but I cannot explain how it happened,” she wrote.