
Technology is invading every aspect of our life, so it's not surprising that we're seeing an increase of electronics in the kitchen. First,
the DS decided to help us all cook, and now it seems that
Amazon's Kindle will be offering The Cook's Illustrated How-to-Cook Library as a free download starting February 24.
I get the convenience of these gadgets in the kitchen -- they take up much less space than the shelf-breaking cookbook collections we all seem to gather -- but are they convenient beyond that? Think about it -- even when you try not to, your cookbooks get splattered by the dishes you're preparing. Finger smudges and stains are part of the territory. But an electronic device -- you have to keep it from getting wet, and you have to have clean fingers to navigate it, or else suffer the woes of keys rendered useless by cooking grime. (Not to mention if your device is low on power. As someone who works in a kitchen with exactly ONE free outlet, plugs must be used frugally. Nor are these electronics suitable for the notes many cooks like to add to their cookbooks.)
To me, it seems like there's a long way to go before these sort of electronics could become truly useful in the kitchen. Now a touch, laptop-sized screen that hangs on your wall and lets you scribble notes, view technique videos, and is encased in a handy, easy-to-clean screen --
that would be ideal.
But what do you think?