Kitchen Gadgets of the Future

If you haven’t noticed, I’m a tad obsessed with culinary gizmos and gadgets.  So I was pretty excited about Electrolux’s Design Lab 2008 this year.  Especially since the criteria for the competition required that all entries, “address food storage, cooking and/or washing.”   Competition was fierce and there were some genius entries.

The Scan Toaster (pictured right) prints whatever you want to scan onto a slice of bread.  Feel like squirting ketchup  all over Sarah Palin’s face?  Done.   Want the weather with your breakfast?  Not a problem.  Just plug this toaster into a USB port on your laptop and voila, breakfast and the morning news.  Like I said, genius.  (This might just be our favorite.)

But if I was still in college, I might be more taken by the Flatshare Fridge.  Think five mini-fridges in one.   This invention has the potential to end all wars over who left the refrigerator door open, who ate your groceries, or who left that scary, moldy thing in there for a month. Of course, there’s also the E-BAG motion-powered cooler handbag, just in case you need a cold drink badly and can’t find a bar.

Or the Coox (pictured right.) With this handy mobile table/cooktop, you can cook and eat wherever you damn please.   Don’t worry about buying a television for your kitchen, now you can cook in the family room, or even your bedroom.

Then again, the portable Vesta Cooktop (pictured right) takes up absolutely no space.  Cook on your laptop, a book or even your lap.  It practically renders a kitchen useless and makes a studio apartment suddenly a whole lot more appealing.  With The Sook, a wireless screen, you can social network, create
recipes and share them in real time as you cook.  Just think how many
kitchen emergencies or cooking disasters would be avoided if we all had
one of these in the kitchen.

Like I said, today’s the day the judges pick the winners.   First prize gets 5,000 Euro and a six-month internship at an Electrolux design center.  Stay tuned while we await the final word from the judges…