Recently, during my not really official quarantine I’ve watched Toy Story 4 and wondered how a little girl could get so fascinated with the plastic cutlery. I mean, she was probably seeing a fork at least few times a day and still it somehow became the best toy for her. So I started digging for information about unusual kitchen tools and it turned about to be pretty funny and interesting topic. Here’s the result of my research.
The first thing I’m going to show you is the combination of spoon and fork. You’ve probably seen it many times already since it’s pretty popular design but did you know it’s called “Spork” and the first attempts to patent it date back to at least 1874?
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| Protospork - combination of spoon, fork and knife, invented by Samuel W. Francis |
Actually it seems pretty dangerous to eat with due to the knife on the right side of the spoon but the design was still quite innovative. Fortunately, modern concepts of spork abandoned this idea so it has become pretty useful tool on the campings.
Another cool and much more modern invention is the haptic fork, which is basically fork with bunch of tracking devices.
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| HAPIFork - smart fork official design |
It tells you when you should eat, what’s the optimal pace of eating and even measures the size of the bite of the food - all for your good. It seems useless at first but if we take into consideration how many gastric problems are caused by eating too fast, it’s not that stupid idea. The project started on Kickstarter in 2012 - 2013 and reached 1,268 backers so it sure had its target group but for now it looks like the HAPIfork is as good as dead - the BUY NOW button on official website doesn’t work and it’s Currently unavailable on Amazon.
The third and probably the most useless item I’m going to show you is Oreo Cookie Dipper.
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| Cookie dipper |
Personally I don’t know anyone who eats Oreo with milk but commercials say otherwise, so maybe there’s someone who will actually find it helpful. Cookie dipper is basically the hook, which is narrow enough to fit in between two Oreo cookie parts. According to Amazon it’s actually pretty popular gadget but to be honest I can’t imagine spending few dollars on this one.
If you feel you wasted few minutes on reading this post, here’s the short TED movie which pushed me to write this presentation and contains a few trivia facts you may found interesting:
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spork
https://www.hapilabs.com/product/hapifork
http://www.dudeiwantthat.com/gear/food-drink/oreo-cookie-dipper.asp
Questions:
https://www.hapilabs.com/product/hapifork
http://www.dudeiwantthat.com/gear/food-drink/oreo-cookie-dipper.asp
Questions:
- Did you have any favourite kitchen tool (for instance Nesquik spoon straw) as a child?
- What do you think about HAPIfork? Do you think there’s place for smart devices on our tables or in kitchen?
- Have you ever heard about any other strange utensils that may or may not revolutionize the way we consume food?
I don’t think that I’ve got any favorite kitchen tool but I’m sure that I’ve had my favorite plate and it in the shape of Mickey Mouse head with the color picture. For sure it was my favorite plate and food eaten on it was delicious. I think that HAPlfork as for now is too much for me but maybe in the future, it will be more interesting. I rather prefer casual cutlery. To be honest I’ve never heard about other strange utensils and this is the first time I hear about such modern fork.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm not sure but I believe I also used to have Mickey Mouse plastic plate but it got worn out rather quickly.
DeleteYeah, I also think HAPIfork is a little to much but I think smart kitchen robots which help to make food can be quite useful.
Hot food pliers have become my favorite tool in the kitchen - they are much easier than with a fork or spatula, they are suitable for both pan and grill.
ReplyDeleteRecently, a Roman pot in which household members bake bread (delicious!) is very popular in my house. It is used almost every day.
When it comes to HAPIfork I'm not a fan, but there are probably people who will use it and praise it. Who knows, maybe soon it will be developed so that it will analyze the composition of what is eaten with it and will signal that the user has already eaten too much carbohydrates, but the lack of protein? Somewhat reminiscent of applications that help care for what they eat.
I'm a huge fan of spoon for people with parkinson's. It is designed in such a way that all the movement generated by the hand is spread on the handle, and the part used to scoop food is therefore stable and does not shake. When I saw this invention, my first thought was that that's what development is for - support in carrying out everyday and key activities. Here's link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiVQcgmIi08
The food revolution, one of the largest in the world, began in Poland - after all, Poles taught the French how to eat cutlery! The next revolution was the arrival of chopsticks, and now it seems to me that the last revolution was the acceptance of eating food with your fingers - pizza, sushi or Indian food.
I hope that now the revolution will come for those who need it and have a problem with self-eating. I really want everyone to enjoy their meal.
Wow, I haven't heard about this smart spoon before. It's amazing that by modernizing the basic tool like spoon you can greatly improve the quality of life for so many people.
DeleteDid you have any favourite kitchen tool (for instance Nesquik spoon straw) as a child?
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I can consider it as a tool but I used to have favorite plate with some Disney characters on it! Also at the beginning of by-my-own-eating-carrier I used to operate with shorten and blunt fork.
What do you think about HAPIfork? Do you think there’s place for smart devices on our tables or in kitchen?
I don't think that I would ever consider use such kind of gadget. We're already using smartwatches to be aware of our daily activity, applications counting calories eaten, smart-fridges etc. but at the other hand gastric problems you mentioned before might works for some crazy gadget person who can't control own way of eating food :D Mainstream ? Don't think so.
Have you ever heard about any other strange utensils that may or may not revolutionize the way we consume food?
Not really to be honest - your question makes me start thinking if I ever notice something worth mention but I saw rather food converted to form that don't need attendance of any extra "tools" e.g. sushi handrolls.
Disney plate was probably must-have for every child (or mom :D)
ReplyDeleteSometimes people just don't pay attention to speed of eating or forget they should slow down. I think it's the tool for them. Nevertheless, I agree it'd be useless for most of people. Personally I believe there's a place for a smart tool which helps to reduce food wastage but I'm not yet sure how it could be executed.
My favourite kitchen tools are mugs, cups and almost everything what we can use to drink. I have always attached importance to these kind of kitchen utensils. When I was a child I've always wanted to use only colourful mugs with different shapes - for example a cup that looked like muffin.
ReplyDeleteHmm..maybe HAPIfork would be useful to people with for example eating disorers ? It would help them to control their way of eating.... Bt to be honest I think it's unessential product nowadays.
Unfortunately, I have never heard about something that may revolutionize the way we consume food, but I hope that someday someone create smart chopsticks which would help people to eat with them without making a mess ;)
The best conversations people have are usually with mugs and cups so I guess it's not that strange people who love them so much and have a lot of memories attached to them :)
DeleteWell, smart chopsticks would be cool, especially for people who are hard learner if it comes to mechanical skills like me. It may not be that bad idea ;)
Yeah, I had a rounded spoon with swirl ornaments on a handle 😂 And I have this spoon to this day 😅
ReplyDeleteThis HAPI fork idea looks interesting, measuring bites must be really usefull feature 😂 Who doesn't want to have such thing?
IOT are everywhere now, aren't they?
Geeks invent tools for another geeks - that's exactly how IoT and smart business works nowadays
DeleteI can't recall having my favorite cutlery as a child, but now by far the most universal tools in my kitchen are chopsticks. I use them to mix, fry and turn the food in a pan and of course to eat, which is why I really liked the video above!
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that HAPIfork is a placebo gadget that is supposed to give people the feeling that they will be slimmer or healthier not because of what they eat but what they use to eat, haha. 😂
I didn't hear much about other such inventions, but while reading the article, I began to wonder how people now approach eating with their hands. There are dishes with which this form is allowed, although today we avoid such behavior (WHY?).
What do you think about this?
Are there dishes that you can't imagine eating with cutlery?
It seems chopsticks have a lot of fans in our group :)
DeleteEating selected dished with hands is actually pretty interesting custom. To be honest I have no idea why some dished are allowed to eat with hands but my guess is that it's just pretty inconvenient to eat with common cutlery and using them makes the dish ugly and unappetizing. Also it may be because of the safety - both edible and inedible parts may get mixed up in the process so eating with hands is reasonable.
Of course, eating hot soup with hands would be quite painful :D
Reading your article reminded me about the project of a cutlery for people who suffer from Parkinson disease. The device is using some stabilizing technology to reduce tremors while eating. I think there's still a space for such gadgets as mentioned HAPIfork would have a target group. For example, people who now use diet apps could rely on this technology. Also, people who love gadgets in or AI geeks would probably appreciate :)
ReplyDeleteI recall some eating kit which I used as a child, some part of it is now kept by my grandmother.
To be honest I've never heard about this Parkinson cutlery before and I've learnt about it in the comments. I believe it's very interesting piece of technology and I'm glad people are thinking about others in need.
DeleteAlso, if such a basic tool as spoon can be improved, maybe there's still place for another innovations
Maybe I will turn out to be a bore, but in my childhood, I didn't play with cutlery. I have also never encountered such inventions as "spork", but I agree that using it may be dangerous due to the blade sticking out from the side. HAPIfork looks like a really interesting gadget and I'd love to test it myself. I remember that just a few years ago I had a problem with eating too fast and it cost me some effort to unlearn it. The most exotic utensil I used to eat is chopsticks, although in Warsaw there are so many Asian restaurants that you can say they have gone to the mainstream.
ReplyDeleteSo it seems there actually exists target group for HAPIfork. Nice to hear that :) That's true, there are so many Asian restaurants here that it actually is pretty awkward to say in public I've never eaten with chopsticks before
DeleteUnfortunately when I was younger I kept myself far away from kitchen and only devices/tools I've been using this time were microwave and toaster. I can say that they were my favourite and I loved to experiment with simple toasts as much as I could. That's might be the reason why after discovering those two I got really round in such young age!
ReplyDeleteI didn't really thought about adding any smart devices to my kitchen after few years living on my own. Maybe this day will come, but for now I don't feel this need at all.
I've heard a lot of useless solutions which probably won't revolutionize kitchens. One of them are smart fridges which only perk is having android tablet on it so you can check the weather or facebook. Other ones are specific timers for different types of food, but since most of new tech ovens etc. has their own timers built in, external ones are getting useless.
Personally, I've never had any favourite spoons, forks or even sporks ;).
ReplyDeleteI prefer classic, elegant cutlery sets. An exeption is a coffee cup. I have several different cups. There are some I like and there are some I use only when those are dirty.
I haven't heard about HAPIfork before. After reading this article I must admit the idea of this device does not convince me at all.
When it comes to utensils that may change our style of eating food I think it is very hard to invent anything new and revolutionary. Changing our habits is not an easy task. What is more those are habits of generations, habits that have lasted for years. So, personally I stay wiht fork and spoon.
I personally don't think HAPIfork is the thing we need so much in our society, I mean ok, it's pretty interesting but do we really need this much technology in our kitchen? Don't get me wrong I am really a tech fan and I love new solutions in any area however writing down food you eat is not that hard and I don't need some super tech fork to do it for me. And yes, the OREO stick its more of a joke than invention for me, It reminds me of the famous meme which tells about expectations of people from history about the year 2020 and their predictions of flying cars and at the end of the day we got stick that helps you to dip your Oreo properely in milk :) Spork is the one I can defend, to be honest it has saved me few times with my bulgur hummous salad.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a child I was more fascinated by LEGO sets so I don't think that I have any favourite kitchen tool from childhood. I am quite cautious about all unusual smart gadgets so I don't think that I will need any smart fork or knife in the nearest future, but I think many people would buy it to support their struggles to get fitter. I heard about many "innovative" ideas to use in kitchen, but many of them didn't convice me that they will improve my life in any way.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was 5 my parents bought me a full set: a knife, a fork, a spoon, and a plate with different Winnie the Pooh characters and they were awesome. I kept them to this day as a souvenir.
ReplyDeleteAs a person who eats way too fast, I would be thrilled to try a HAPIfork but I am not sure if it would be able to change my habits. The whole idea of smart cutlery I think has a big potential you don’t really hear about many similar projects.
Unfortunately, I haven’t heard about any such utensils beside those 2 not-really-serious tries:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4884shlK2c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe8Id7pDNOM
To be honest I don't remember having my favourite kitchen tool as a child maybe there was some kind of a bowl that I only used but it is very hard to remember since I've never payed attention to things like that.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it is a great idea, everyone have their own habits while eating and bringing more "smart" things in our lives might stop us from using our brains while doing the simplest things. :D Also I think that eating dinner is some kind of family time and instead of eating with them you would just try to pay attention to the HAPIfork if you are eating correctly. Of course if someone is into smart devices nothing can stop them. :) I didn't hear about any utensils that may revolutionize it because I'm not really intrested into changing a way to consume food.
1. No, in fact I did not have any favourite kitchen tools. I always used them according to their usage. I did not experiment in any way.
ReplyDelete2. It’s pretty awkward looking, but it does save space in the washing machine. I think in the future universal plates could be invented, also to allow saving space within washing machines.
3. I would point to the concept of food in pills. People will nutrition themselves by taking customized tablets. These would contain the healthiest ingridients, replacing traditional meals, it would be a incredibly convenient way to lose weight, not having to bother that much about preparing and individual componets of a meal.
I don't think I have any favorite kitchen tool, but the spoon is the most universal for me.
ReplyDeleteI also don't see any reasonable purpose of using a smart device as kitchen tools. Technology can be helpful when we prepare our dish. When finished, it should have an ideal portion size, but measuring food while eating makes no sense to me. If we do not eat what we have prepared, we will waste food.
To be honest, I've never been interested in this field of technology. I know there is a rapidly growing technology environment useful for food preparation, but I don't know anything about food technology related with consuming.
As a child I used Nesquik spoon straw! It was a most-needed tool in mom's kitchen!
ReplyDeleteI think that intelligent kitchen tools should have people who need control, like the elderly and the sick ones and old people who live alone. I don't think we, as adults, need such control, because we are very good at setting time for meals and good in organize it, especially because of the trend of being fit!
Yes, I heard about other kitchen tools and I have a few useful tools at home for egzample: for slicing pineapple, a large fork to help with slicing onions and tomatoes, and tools for slicing and shredding eggs (sorry but i don’t know special names of this tools). I really appreciate modern tools, because they make it much easier to work in the kitchen and shorten the time of food preparation.