Kitchen Gadgets: Fast-Food Mentality for the Home

[xxchef]

Here's an entertaining and thought-provoking article from the NY Times by Sally Ryan: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/17/dining/17house.html?pagewanted=all

In it she explores and discusses some recent "innovations" in the home kitchen appliance field and how they relate to how much of our society is distancing itself from "real cooking".

Personally, I am consistently amazed and dismayed in the grocery store check-out line while observing other shoppers' purchases. Their carts are almost always filled with boxes and cans of frozen or pre-made foods and "complete" meals. Nobody buys INGREDIENTS anymore!

---------------------

Here are a couple of eye-opening quotes from the article...

"Consider that in the $3.8 billion category called small kitchen electrics, sales were up almost 9 percent from 2008 to 2009, according to market research by the NPD Group. Meanwhile, sales of housewares — that includes knives, pots and pans — were down 11.5 percent."

and...

Quoting Sharon Franke, the longtime director of kitchen appliances and technology at the Good Housekeeping Institute we learn...

"...push-button technology is not pitched exclusively to cooks with limited skills. Smart ovens that can cost thousands of dollars will calculate cooking times based on whether the cook is roasting, say, white meat or dark, using a glass pan or a metal one." and while she has not yet tested a chicken-nugget button "she is a big fan of the “perfect turkey” button on the Electrolux wall ovens, which start around $2,000."

-----------------------------------

I particularly enjoyed the insights into the whole product-development process that these home appliances apparently go through.

It can, apparently, take years for a kitchen appliance to go from concept to production idea to reality and if they get it wrong and “the warehouse is filled with home yogurt makers." Further, according to the article, frozen-dinner makers will send the prototypes of meals to microwave-oven manufacturers for input on the best type of tray to use and even how to arrange the food in the tray so that it heats properly. Makes sense but who knew?

So what's the next BIG THING?

•Will it be the new convection oven with a lever on the front that lowers a metal press inside the oven to make panini sandwiches?

•How about an appliance where you plug in your ZIP code, and it will adjust cooking times based on your elevation?

•Or maybe the system where you can enter a special code from your box of frozen pizza and then software programs the oven to cook the food so that it comes out just as the producer intended (and, of course, reaches temperatures that the government deems high enough to kill pathogens, because we really need to get the government involved here!)?

So, what do you think... Are we who make our meals from actual ingredients, on stoves and in ovens, using pots and pans and knives, a dying breed?

[judiu]

<snip>

Personally, I am consistently amazed and dismayed in the grocery store check-out line while observing other shoppers' purchases. Their carts are almost always filled with boxes and cans of frozen or pre-made foods and "complete" meals. Nobody buys INGREDIENTS anymore!

---------------------

Here are a couple of eye-opening quotes from the article...

"Consider that in the $3.8 billion category called small kitchen electrics, sales were up almost 9 percent from 2008 to 2009, according to market research by the NPD Group. Meanwhile, sales of housewares — that includes knives, pots and pans — were down 11.5 percent."

and...

Quoting Sharon Franke, the longtime director of kitchen appliances and technology at the Good Housekeeping Institute we learn...

"...push-button technology is not pitched exclusively to cooks with limited skills. Smart ovens that can cost thousands of dollars will calculate cooking times based on whether the cook is roasting, say, white meat or dark, using a glass pan or a metal one." and while she has not yet tested a chicken-nugget button "she is a big fan of the “perfect turkey” button on the Electrolux wall ovens, which start around $2,000."

-----------------------------------

I particularly enjoyed the insights into the whole product-development process that these home appliances apparently go through.

It can, apparently, take years for a kitchen appliance to go from concept to production idea to reality and if they get it wrong and “the warehouse is filled with home yogurt makers." Further, according to the article, frozen-dinner makers will send the prototypes of meals to microwave-oven manufacturers for input on the best type of tray to use and even how to arrange the food in the tray so that it heats properly. Makes sense but who knew?

So what's the next BIG THING?

•Will it be the new convection oven with a lever on the front that lowers a metal press inside the oven to make panini sandwiches?

I like the idea, it just removes another uni-tasker from my kitcchen cabinet, and saves pulling out my iron to use on a foil wrapped sandwich...

•How about an appliance where you plug in your ZIP code, and it will adjust cooking times based on your elevation?

POOP. I live in Floria, at sea level.How much good would that do ME?

•Or maybe the system where you can enter a special code from your box of frozen pizza and then software programs the oven to cook the food so that it comes out just as the producer intended (and, of course, reaches temperatures that the government deems high enough to kill pathogens, because we really need to get the government involved here!)?

Meh. Frozen pizza? Blah

So, what do you think... Are we who make our meals from actual ingredients, on stoves and in ovens, using pots and pans and knives, a dying breed?

No, it's not. It may be a shrinking breed, but there will ALWAYS be people who love to mess with real food, just like there will ALWAYS be people who love to paint, or draw or sketch with real, tactile instruments, like pen and ink, crayons, charcoal, oil pain on canvas, etc, rather than using a 'paintbox' program on their computers.