• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Skip to navigation
Close Ad

The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

  • Home
  • Podcasts
  • Events
  • Newsletter
  • Connect
    • Custom Events
    • Slack
    • RSS
    • Send us a Tip
  • Advertise
  • Consulting
  • About
The Spoon
  • Home
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Events
  • Advertise
  • About

Alton Brown Makes A Good Point: Is There Room For All These New Kitchen Gadgets?

by Megan Giller
November 11, 2016November 15, 2016Filed under:
  • Foodtech
  • Video
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

The strawberry slicer. The veggetti. The Rollie. We totally feel Alton Brown’s pain about the poor design and general uselessness of some of these gadgets. Good thing that only applies to gadgets, not tech, right?

Well, not exactly. Here at The Spoon we spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about the line between gadget and technology. Is it the use of electricity? Batteries? The implementation of higher-level concepts? We’re still sorting all of this out, and we’d love to hear what you think in the comments below.

But here’s a bigger problem that Alton raises so clearly: “unitaskers,” as he calls them, or anything that can only do one job. They take up space in the kitchen and usually only solve one fairly minor problem. Unfortunately most connected kitchen tech falls into this category at the moment: connected coffee makers, pancakebots, sous vide machines, the list goes on. Will that change, or, as we become more acquainted with technology in the kitchen, will we simply build more counters and storage space?


Related

Video: CNET’s Ashlee Clark Thompson on Her Best Cooking Gadgets

We at The Spoon have long been fans of Ashlee Clark Thompson, Associate Editor at CNet and hilarious twitter poster. (You may have seen her on stage at last year's Smart Kitchen Summit talking about the future of food.) Like us, Thompson is fascinated by the smart kitchen market. "The kitchen has become…

Always Wanted to Try a Blowtorch? With Cheffer, You Can Rent One

If you love gadgets as much as we do at the Spoon, your kitchen counter space is at a premium. Sure, you may want to try that blowtorch or sous vide circulator, but a cooking gadget addiction can end up costing you a lot in terms of space and money. Boston-based startup…

Discovery Announces Food Network Kitchen, a New Content, Recipe, and Grocery Platform

Have you ever watched Alton Brown or Ina Garten on Food Network and thought, "Wouldn't it be great if these chefs were in my kitchen, walking me through the cooking process themselves, preferably over a glass of Chardonnay?" You're in luck, minus the Chardonnay. At today's Amazon event in Seattle,…

Get the Spoon in your inbox

Just enter your email and we’ll take care of the rest:

Find us on some of these other platforms:

  • Apple Podcasts
  • Spotify
Tagged:
  • Alton Brown
  • gadgets

Post navigation

Previous Video
Next Video

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Get The Spoon in Your Inbox

The Spoon Podcast Network!

Feed your mind! Subscribe to one of our podcasts!

Food Waste Gadgets Can’t Get VC Love, But Kickstarter Backers Are All In
Report: Restaurant Tech Funding Drops to $1.3B in 2024, But AI & Automation Provide Glimmer of Hope
Don’t Forget to Tip Your Robot: Survey Shows Diners Not Quite Ready for AI to Replace Humans
A Week in Rome: Conclaves, Coffee, and Reflections on the Ethics of AI in Our Food System
How ReShape is Using AI to Accelerate Biotech Research

Footer

  • About
  • Sponsor the Spoon
  • The Spoon Events
  • Spoon Plus

© 2016–2025 The Spoon. All rights reserved.

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.