The new guy wasn’t at the meeting tonight, which was a relief. He always tries to derail the conversation into his strange and manipulative pyramid schemes, so much so that it’s a surprise that he hasn’t been asked to leave as of yet. Hopefully…soon.
As it was, we were able to have a rousing discussion about kitchens. Interesting chat as well, because we were split down the middle over whether kitchens would even exist in the future.
Personally, I was firmly on team kitchen. People are never going to stop loving the ability to cook their own food; it’s a hobby and passion for many. People get so excited about custom kitchen design I just can’t imagine that we’re going to take an entire room and just say ‘nope, not interested any more’. True, many people will just convert it into a dining room, but I’m not even entertaining the possibility that it’s going to happen at all.
The working theory is that food will become so incredibly instant that there really won’t be any need for a kitchen. Everything will be in packets and tins, so compressed and easy that you can just grab it out of the pantry, stick it in a microwave (which will probably also be in the pantry) and it’s done. A gourmet-quality meal in a minute, all without the air of any sort of kitchen appliances.
Now, there’s something to be said for there being a gas shortage that might mean less cooking, but that alone isn’t going to stop people. There’s an oil shortage right now, but tell petrol-heads to stop driving cars and they’ll laugh in your face. People passionate about contemporary kitchen design, and especially designing your own kitchen, won’t let all that go away. People who love to use their own kitchen to cook and unwind and socialise aren’t just going to switch to tins and microwave packets. As if!
-Joy