The Future is…in the Kitchen?
It seems that new and innovative technology is slowly being infused into ever part of modern life, and now the kitchen is getting its share of sci-fi gadgets.
Philip Preston, president of the laboratory equipment manufacturer Polyscience, is using new technology to create kitchen gadgets which generate excitement about cooking. Some of his creations include a “blizzard chamber” for making flavor-infused snow, and the Thermal Circulator which vacuum-seals and cooks food.
Polyscience’s Thermal Circulator is a tub which vacuum-seals food in plastic, then cooks it in precisely heated water, keeping in the food’s flavor without drying it out. The company’s huge profits from selling hi-tech kitchen gadgets to chefs derived mostly from sales of the Thermal Circulator.
Ted Selker, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Labs, is also interested in using new technology in the kitchen. Whereas Polysciences gadgets are mostly for commercial use, Selker designs products which he hopes will slow the migration of Americans’ from cooking at home to eating in restaurants.
As part of this mission, Selker is most proud of the Smart Spoon. This device has sensors which measure temperature, the chemical properties of the food (like pH and concentration of ions) and its viscosity, making it easier to tell when the mixture is ready at a glance, and without having to taste it.
These future kitchen gadgets are likely to become less sci-fi and more common in the domestic sphere, encouraging us to return to the pleasure of home cooking.