The shift to communal tables has seen a rise in solo diners, especially at breakfast. And with a smartphone, no one is ever truly eating alone.

SOLO DINING — EAT IN

In years gone by, the only people eating out alone were likely to be tourists or business people having a meal in their hotel restaurant.

But across the country, solo dining is on the rise, especially at breakfast, where sharing elbow space at the bar or long table has become a popular pastime.

According to online table booking service Dimmi, over the past 12 months, breakfast solo dining bookings increased more than 10 per cent, while dining out solo went down almost 2 per cent.

In Perth, we were most inclined to eat breakfast by ourselves, with solo breakfast dining up 26.7 per cent. Perhaps it’s because we were filling up early that solo lunchers decreased by 19 per cent in WA, while dinner was up by 6.9 per cent.

Perth’s top five restaurants for solo diners were Eat Greek Restaurant in East Fremantle, Heirloom by Pete Evans in the city, Miss Maud’s smorgasbord restaurant in the city, James Parker Sushi in Northbridge and Hayashi Japanese in Mt Pleasant. Heirloom was Perth’s No.1 booked restaurant for solo dining during the breakfast slot, perhaps due to its location in Fraser Suites.

Camera Icon Breakfast is a popular time for dining solo at Heirloom by Pete Evans.

When it comes to solo dining around the country, 40.69 per cent of bookings were from NSW, 32.56 per cent from Victoria, 14.10 per cent from Queensland, with WA accounting for just 9.05 per cent and South Australia just 3.61 per cent.

Perth’s top 10 solo dining suburbs were, not surprisingly, Perth city, with almost 24.53 per cent of bookings, followed by East Perth, East Fremantle, Subiaco, Northbridge, Mt Lawley, Margaret River, West Perth, Como and Applecross.

SOLO DINING — EAT IN

He was a fixture on Australian television screens throughout the 90s on programs including Healthy, Wealthy and Wise and Huey’s TV Dinner but now New Zealand-born chef Iain “Huey” Hewitson has his eyes set on a smaller screen.

The face of Huey’s Cooking Adventures, which aired for 11 seasons and was seen by 1.7 million people a week, recently launched his own YouTube channel, Huey’s Fabulous Fast Food for One (or Two)

In the latter years of Huey’s Kitchen and Huey’s Cooking Adventures, the most common viewer requests to the TV chef centred around recipes for one.

Camera Icon Iain “Huey” Hewitson has launched a YouTube channel geared to cooking for one.

“I don’t know whether it was due to the fact that more people are living alone, or a change in home-dining habits, with families not often sitting down to meals together,” he said.

“Or even due to singles, who had normally survived on takeaway and pre-packaged foods, now being encouraged by the plethora of TV cooking shows to actually get into the kitchen and whip up something.

“Whatever the reason, when I decided to enter the 21st century and transfer my cooking skills to the more modern medium of YouTube, I decided some research may be in order.”

Hewitson found a renewed interest in cooking by singles and also that young people in particular were interested in the amount of food waste in today’s society (a third of our food production, approximately $10 billion per year, ends up wasted).

He said while most food waste revolved around inefficient production, processing and retail practice, there was also significant waste in the home.

“What I was surprised to discover was that most of those surveyed tended to blame this on the fact that the majority of recipes are written for four or more persons. People rarely adjusted these — instead, intending to use any leftovers at a later date,” he said.

“And, we all know how that works — furry little foil-wrapped parcels found at the back of the fridge a month or two later.”

Hewitson discovered kitchen novices and experienced cooks alike had trouble adjusting recipes to smaller quantities.

“So, with this in mind, it was obvious that recipes that took the guesswork out of cooking for one (or two) really were needed,” he said.

His YouTube recipes are geared to simple cooking with readily available ingredients. They have an exact list of ingredients and little or no waste.

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