The Butt Ugly Weblog

<grin> I have to say I agree. I spent last weekend at a healthy celebrity cooking workshop. The chefs promoted vegan cooking following the McDougall program http://www.drmcdougall.com .

One thing that surprised me was just how much the chefs talked about their craft - the little things that make cooking easier that you do with a knife, a blender or a pan. Techniques were favored over technology. In fact, the only "tech" devices that all the chefs seemed to appreciate were stick-blenders ("boat motors"), food processors, and mandolines (inclined slicers - really just custom knives).

There was little if any talk about technology. And it wasn't because the chefs weren't aware of the devices, they just know that most don't pay off. People in the audience would ask about this or that device and the chefs would just say, "yes, well I use my knife for that..."

If professional chefs can't find a way to work technology into the craft, it's not surprising that your average person can't either.

My biggest use of kitchen technology is that I keep on my recipes and a log of their results on my JSPWiki. When I want to make something, I print out the recipe and use tape to stick it to the cupboard above my cutting board. If the printout gets wet or dirty, I throw it away, if not I save it for next time. If someone is interested in the recipe, they can keep the printout. So in my case, the biggest savings are not from robotics but from being able to keep notes and put together meal plans more efficiently. By keeping notes I save a lot of labor in the kitchen because I don't make the same mistakes everytime I make a recipe.

--ScottHurlbert, 19-Jul-2006

I remember Cory Doctorow speaking about music in the same way: he keeps all his music on his Powerbook, and if he rents a car, he just burns a couple of CD's to play in the stereos. Then he just throws them away, or leaves them in the car.

(But it's glad to see that someone is keeping recipes on a computer: I remember that that was the great promise of the computing age in the 80s, that I and others used to justify getting a computer in the house ;-)

--JanneJalkanen, 19-Jul-2006