EATING HABITS : Losing a Taste for Home Cooking

Ever wonder why the line of traffic to the carry-out window at In-N-Out Burger or El Pollo Loco seems endless? Or why it’s so hard to reserve a table for a candlelight dinner at Chez Denny’s?

Could be because lots of Southern Californians aren’t eating a home-cooked meal tonight. Of 1,586 Southern Californians polled by The Times, 46% said they cook dinner at home every night; 17% do so two nights a week or less.

And then there is Joan Berg, 52, of San Diego, who says: “I don’t cook.” Most women still do--49% cook dinner nightly at home. That compares to 42% of men who do so.

But it’s not the bake-off between the sexes that provides the widest gaps among Southern California groups:

* By far, more Latinos (62%) cook dinner nightly at home than any other ethnic group. Slightly more than half of Asians (53%) and 40% of Anglos pull out the pots and pans each night. Only 28% of blacks cook at home nightly, and 26% said they prepared dinner at home two nights a week or less--about twice the rate for Latinos and Asians.

* Household makeup is also a factor: 62% of those with young children cook every night, compared to 38% who have no children at home. While 57% of married couples prepare nightly meals, 33% of single persons do.

* Almost nine of 10 respondents (88%) over age 65 cook three or more dinners a week at home, while just over three-quarters (77%) of those ages 18-24 do so. Other age groups fall in between.

* About half the people earning less than $40,000 yearly cook dinner each night at home, while almost two in five (38%) of those earning $40,000 or more do.

So where are all these folks eating? Probably not with friends or neighbors.

When asked how often they entertained friends at home, 63% of Southern Californians said “fairly or very” infrequently.