If you follow early TV sitcoms, you’ve probably heard of The Honeymooners and its main character Ralph Kramden. Ralf is an any-man with big ambitions. In a memorable episode, Ralph hatches a get rich quick scheme to sell a miraculous kitchen gadget, that doesn’t work. Ralph spends his entire budget advertising on that new medium, Television! From the moment the question, “Can it core an apple?” is uttered, disaster is quick to follow.
Sound like your last purchase on Amazon? Is food sticking to the non-stick pans you bought from an infomercial? Let’s face it, next to video games, kitchen gadgets are the next most oversold item out there. Most products just don’t do what they are supposed to. Or they are just useless from the start (do you really need a gadget that scrambles your eggs… inside the eggshell)?
Anthony Bourdain revolutionized professional cooking. Not by introducing a new line of recipes or better cooking techniques. Rather, he gave the world the unvarnished truth about working in a restaurant kitchen. It was brutally hot and generally dangerous. “Real” kitchen staff are all supposed to have battle scars… cuts from falling knives, burns from hot oil, scars from splattered sauces.
Mr. Bourdain opened up our eyes to the problems in these kitchens. Bourdain admitted that “living the life” of the talented young chef made him an alcoholic and drug addict. And eventually, a HOMELESS talented young chef. It ain’t pretty folks!
Still, if we carefully work our way through all of the overhyped kitchen gadgets, there are some pretty cool (and simple) ways that we can put together a much better place to work. We CAN build The Kitchen of the Future!
But first, a disclaimer. I don’t receive payments or products from any of the appliance manufacturers or kitchen product firms I mention. However, I have been working with Nicky’s Gardens of Hope (NGOH), a start-up group in Ulster County New York, that is hoping to become something big in services for Intellectually Disabled (IDD) adults. If they are able to do everything they have planned, it could change the world for IDD families.
But for the moment, let’s just look at what NGOH is doing in the kitchen. They are not just going to serve IDD adults, they are going to employ them too. As I’ve already said, work in a commercial kitchen is not for the faint of heart. So it’s probably not for individuals with disabilities. But that’s today’s hot and terrible kitchens, not The Kitchen of the Future! So let’s dive right in and see what a 21st-Century kitchen should look like!
Knives: Let’s start with the basics. Go to any of the big kitchenware stores like Williams Sonoma or Sur le Table and there are knives everywhere. Some are pure works of art, and others have steel worthy of a samurai’s sword. Craftsmanship, balance, and fine edge are all qualities of a great knife. However, injuries and mishaps in the kitchen happen most often when you lose control of the knife.
Back in the 1990’s “ergonomics” was an art rather than a science. Commercial knives were designed to last a lifetime and to be easy to sharpen. But different people have different sized hands, and one size does not fit all. A new company by the name of Oxo designed a knife handle that would be easier for someone older with less strength and arthritis. As it turns out, a well-designed handle also works very well for small children, learning to cook from their grandparents.
Let’s make sure that our kitchen is well stocked with Oxo knifes as well as other kitchen gadgets with ergonomic handles that are easy to hold, and use.
Induction: Kitchens are hot, because stove-tops, ovens, and broilers are hot. In a commercial kitchen, the hotter the better. The problem is that most of the heat doesn’t go into the food, it goes into the air in the kitchen. No matter how powerful your air conditioning, when you are inches away from a hot flame it’s going to get warm! And all of these heated surfaces are dangerous!
Induction cooking, on the other hand, does not heat the air directly. An induction cooktop is cool to the touch. Induction transfers energy directly into the metal of a pot, which then heats the food. The room barely hears up! As a bonus, the air is your kitchen is not polluted by noxious wastes that result from burning gas. That’s a pretty big step forward!
Pots and Pans: There’s a lot of arguments over which is the best type of cookware. No-Stick? Ceramic? Stainless Steel? There are benefits to each type of cooking surface. Non-stick surfaces continue to improve, lasting longer and releasing food more easily. Still, if you don’t want to consume non-stick coatings, and if you want to avoid the toxic vapors that may be caused when your pots are overheated, Stainless Steel seems to be the safest solution.
Silicon: In the as few years Silicon has become a big part of the modern kitchen. Silicon is very temperature proof, cools off quickly and can be made in any shape. Silicon is used as ovenware and as a mold for making ice cubes.
That means no more springform molds, no more hot metal coming out of the oven, no burns from ceramic or iron or other heat-retaining surfaces. A few moments out of the oven and silicon can be handled. It’s also great as a bot holder or heat-proof glove. Let’s add silicon to our ideal kitchen!
Instant Pot: Instant pots have become a “thing”. It cooks rice, makes yogurt, does the work of a crock pot, and even has a pressure cooker function. Without exploding. Just for giving us a pressure cooked chicken soup without blowing up… I want one! It brings together a lot of separate devices, and it cooks without letting much of the heat back into the kitchen, and the “pot” is covered al the time that it is in use. That means a more pleasant and safer kitchen environment!
Adjustable Tables: At any given time, there are a lot of people working in a commercial kitchen. People of all different heights. Yet, most tables and work surfaces in the kitchen are set to just one height. Some have mechanisms to adjust the height but usually require that you first remove everything from the table, and then use two or more people to make the adjustment. Not a function you are likely to use every time a new crew arrives for work.
However, motorized adjustable tables can be used without first being cleared. By making the work surface the right height depending on who is working, work is less tiring and safer. At home, consider the holidays when parents, grandparents, and children all spend time working in the kitchen. An adjustable height work surface might make the holidays a bit less tiring for everyone!
There are a lot of other devices that could further improve the environment of your kitchen, but by making these few changes, you can build a better, safer kitchen… at home or in a restaurant. The Kitchen of the Future can be yours today!