When I was starting to cook back in high school, I had a handful of cookbooks and a few recipe cards from my mom and my grandparents where they had jotted down some family favorites. The cookbooks were reliable, but the family recipes often left out crucial things, such as the cooking time or temperature. They were still great resources, but they left a lot to be desired when I compare my experience of using them to all the resources that I have at my fingertips today. Even though I may not have a “smart range” that can predict exactly how long to bake my cakes and a refrigerator that knows how long to defrost anything I might want to cook for dinner (yet), my kitchen is becoming very “smart” when I compare it to my kitchen of just a few years ago. And that isn’t just because I’ve done a little bit of remodeling between then and now.
These days, I might decide to make a recipe that I bookmarked from a favorite blog and bring my laptop into the kitchen, or pull the recipe up on my iPad for an even easier reference. If there is a technique in a cookbook that I’m unfamiliar with, I can pull up a video on YouTube and watch while I give it a try myself, and I can always do a quick online search for the definitions of unfamiliar ingredients that might pop up. This combination of technology and kitchen work is definitely allowing my kitchen to get a little “smarter” and allows me me do more things, more easily.
Since I’m a food blogger, I tend to take things on step further most of the time because I want to stay connected with all my food blogging friends and readers out there. I take photos of what I’m working on and post them to Twitter and Facebook, which allows me to bring a global audience right into my kitchen with me. And every time I check my feeds or Pinboards, I might get to take a quick trip to your kitchen, too, if you use the same kinds of technology!
Technology has definitely helped – and still helps – to make me a better cook every day, but technology also opened lines of communication and careers that didn’t exist at all just a few short years ago. I’ve been thinking about this because IBM invited me to participate in a campaign with a bunch of other bloggers to share my story and thoughts about the role technology and social media plays in my life. They play a huge role – but it wasn’t until I looked back on how much my kitchen has evolved that I thought about exactly how big that role is. Most of the changes are small, but every video, post, tweet and comment add up to make my kitchen a much enjoyable and much “smarter” place.
I know that all of you are making your kitchen “smarter” in similar ways. Have you ever stepped back to think how much technology has changed the way that you cook, or use your kitchen?
#mysmartercommerce
zerrin
February 18, 2013Love reading this post! I was thinking the same thing about my kitchen and how technology helps me improving my cooking skills! With the help of social networks, I can discover new recipes! My kitchen has become smarter and as a food blogger, I’ve become more organized in my kitchen!
Terry Retter
April 8, 2013With a web site titled Your Smart Kitchen you might think that I would have a lot to say about how the kitchen has changed or become smarter. But the point that I try to make is the cooking should be easier and more fun. There are many tools that have come along that certainly support that perspective. But I find the many chefwannbees (as we call our followers) are still challenged in the kitchen. Realizing that cooking is an adventure and not science is a discover many miss. There are many that look for the technology to take over for them – crock pots that do it all, mixer/blenders that cook as well, packages that go directly to the microwave to the table. Blogs like yours and many others I follow try to bring the pleasures of cooking to the surface and let us realized some of our “mistakes” can be some of our treasures.