Kitchen gadgets appear to be the stars of late late-night television. Turn on the TV after one or two and it seems that’s about all you can watch at that time, with everybody and their cousin selling countertop grills, juicers, and rotisserie machines. Then there are all those handy kitchen gadgets that purport to save you time by slicing, dicing, and otherwise cutting much more efficiently.
Has anybody seen the one with a talking toaster yet? These programs, called infomercials, normally sell kitchen gadgets you didn’t know you needed – but which do usually work just as advertised (“or your money back!”).
It’s easy to laugh at them, at the smooth salesmen and women and all of the perky good cheer, not to mention the credulous studio audience obviously paid-for, but on the other hand it really does bring a smile to your face smelling the fresh warm scent of aromatic bread just baked in your very own breadmaker.
Indeed, though possibly kitschy at times, these devices do enhance lives in small everyday ways that over the long-run are possibly not to be undervalued. Unless you completely hate cooking, it is really great fun to prepare your own meals once in a while, and the a lot more extravagant the better.
And what could be more extravagant than artisanal bread in the morning or rotisserie chicken at night, all made right at home? Now only if they could come up with a way to easily clean up! For despite all the pains taken to show how simple it is, most people will find the cleaning up just as bothersome as ever.
There are quite a few parts to many of these gadgets which otherwise make your life in the kitchen so much easier. But it’s definitely a landmark of progress that the luxuries of yesteryear should be available at all in any home now.
