Gentlemen, You May Start Your Ovens

A kitchen designed by Porsche with slick aluminum and driftwood finishes is in production. For $200, you can throw in a pair of Peugeot-branded salt and pepper mills. These brand extensions are targeted at a new male demographic – the gastrosexual. You’ll find the term in a recent study commissioned by food company PurAsia and authored by experts including Dr. Paul Levy (who purportedly coined the term "foodie").

According to the study, men are spending more time in the kitchen, which they increasingly view as their turf (53% of men reported cooking with separate ingredients nearly every day, and the amount of time men have spent at the stove has risen five-fold since 1961).

Men's interest in the kitchen is rapidly creating brand-extension 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. Chefs Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay, credited in the PurAsia report as helping drive the rise of the gastrosexual, each have cooking-themed videogames in the works.

For the complete editorial in Brandweek, click here. To download a PDF version of the PurAsia report, right-click here.