Home Automation For Dummies

Chapter 8

Home, Home on the Automatic Range: The Automated Kitchen

In This Chapter

Cooking when you’re not even home

Deciding to automate some of your kitchen tasks

Keeping up with who’s who in automated kitchens

Trekkie (or is it Trekker?) or not, you’ve most likely seen how the folks on board the U.S.S. Enterprise get their nachos and cheese: just push a button and — voila! — a steaming pile of crunchy nachos smothered in melted cheese.

Okay, I honestly can’t recall ever seeing a character on any of the Star Trek episodes or movies eating nachos, but I can’t claim to have watched them all, either. Plus, I understand that nachos and cheese is considered an underground delicacy on Vulcan, but those who indulge in the yummy crunchies won’t admit to it.

The idea of a food replicator has both intrigued and terrified food lovers for decades. Popular shows like Star Trek and The Jetsons made it look to be truly the simplest of tasks, and the characters at least acted as though they enjoyed the “food stuff” it produced for them, so why not? Cooking would just be one less thing to bother with, right? Well, actually some folks would say no to such tech, because cooking is a pure ...