I was having one of those philospohical intellectual talks with Gaurav yesterday night, which went on till 6 in the morning.
One of the topics which came up was how people cook food for themselves. Since the past few centuries, we have managed to outsource various aspects of our living. Earlier on, people used to stitch their own clothes, bake their own bread, even grow their own crops and rear their own animals.
We have managed to systematically *outsource* many aspects of living to others. Now, you have bakers who will bake bread and other baked goods for you. You have clothing stores where you can buy clothes.
So why does every house still have a kitchen?
I envisioned that n years into the future(n being a totally unknown number), we would have outsourced this aspect of our living too. There will be properly managed food agencies who work similar to “mess houses” these days, except the standards of quality will be much higher. The food will be healthy and nutrious, unlike restaurant food or fast food.
These agencies or “food delivery companies” as I like to call them, may further outsource certain aspects of their business to others. For example, the cooking of rice could be be handled by another company, which cooks several different types of rice for several agencies. There could be another company which will handle the procurement of raw supplies needed for cooking. Maybe another company to handle delivery of food.
There are many unknowns too.. Like when will the food be ordered and How will wastage be managed efficiently.
Infact, the change has already begun. There are people who live in houses without kitchens and order food every night. In India, we have “messes” where single men pay a monthly subscription for two or three meals a day.
But as ridiculous as it sounds to eliminate the need of kitchens in houses today, I think this is totally possible in the future. Maybe a few centuries back, people couldn’t imagine houses without ovens to bake bread.
What do you think?
I was having one of those intellectual talks with Gaurav yesterday night, which went on till 6 in the morning.
One of the topics which came up was how people cook food for themselves. Since the past few centuries, we have managed to outsource various aspects of our living. Earlier on, people used to stitch their own clothes, bake their own bread, even grow their own crops and rear their own animals.
We have managed to systematically *outsource* many aspects of living to others. Now, you have bakers who will bake bread and other baked goods for you. You have clothing stores where you can buy clothes.
So why does every house still have a kitchen?
I envisioned that n years into the future(n being a totally unknown number), we would have outsourced this aspect of our living too. There will be properly managed food agencies who work similar to “mess houses” these days, except the standards of quality will be much higher. The food will be healthy and nutrious, unlike restaurant food or fast food.
These agencies or “food delivery companies” as I like to call them, may further outsource certain aspects of their business to others. For example, the cooking of rice could be be handled by another company, which cooks several different types of rice for several agencies. There could be another company which will handle the procurement of raw supplies needed for cooking. Maybe another company to handle delivery of food.
There are many unknowns too.. Like when will the food be ordered and How will wastage be managed efficiently.
Infact, the change has already begun. There are people who live in houses without kitchens and order food every night. In India, we have “messes” where single men pay a monthly subscription for two or three meals a day.
But as ridiculous as it sounds to eliminate the need of kitchens in houses today, I think this is totally possible in the future. Maybe a few centuries back, people couldn’t imagine houses without ovens to bake bread.
What do you think?
Categories: Uncategorized.
I think it’s wrong to do so! It gives you great pleasure cooking your own food. I love to cook! You derive satisfaction of it and you are happy! The important thing here is you are happy! But having food outside once in a while is not a problem! But permanently eliminating the need of kitchen is really bad!
There are people who enjoy baking too. Doesn’t mean everyone should bake their own bread..
There are people who enjoy stitching and designing. Doesn’t mean everyone should stitch their own clothes and design their houses.
If you enjoy doing it, good! Can you do it everyday for every meal? Most people can’t.
This is a idea for the future.. not something which should happen immediately.
Thanks for your feedback
Now food is something which is really close to someone’s heart. Outsourcing that would actually take the human-emotional element out of it.
Just imagine that a small kid has to eat out of the “mess” so he never gets to know how she cooks like.
On the other hand , I suppose , that it will be a lot more difficult for a mother to give the nutritional and growth parameters of her child into some agency;s hand.
Though I still believe that as an idea for business it is good , since there is still not much regulation into quality and cleanliness when it comes to these messes which you are talking about.
But , I am of the opinion that houses still should have kitchen in them , atleast when it comes to a family staying together and also it acts as a stress-buster for many !
Thank you for reading and commenting, Ankit!
You have a very valid point regarding human emotional element. But I think many such changes have happened in the evolution of civilisation where things have become more “mechanized” or “automated” and lost the personal and emotional touch.
Consider houses for instance. Before, everyone used to be design and build their own houses. Nowadays, sometimes people just buy a house which is already constructed, or even worse, rent a house or an apartment. I know this is a completely different issue, but I am just showing another example of the loss of “emotional touch”. “Progress” happens anyway. This is why I believe all this will happen many years or even centuries in the future, not any time soon.
As a business idea, it is brilliant. There is a startup in Mumbai which delivers high quality, nutritional, calorie counted food packages. I read about the start up in “Stay Hungry Stay Foolish”.
Also if you remember, a friend of mine wants us to help him to set up a similar food delivery business. That is something to look forward to.
Interesting POV. Sooner or later, everything is gonna get mechanised, even if cooking doesnt get outsourced completely, i’m pretty sure we’ll have some chef-bot doing it for us. Good read though, gets the grey matter running
Thanks for your comments, Laraib!
These types of business that you speak of are rampant in the United States. You order from a menu for the week, they prepare your food and deliver it to you prepackaged. You can choose from any number of food and either organic, vegetarian or not. All you have to do is warm it up and viola! You have your meal. But to do without kitchens… maybe. But I doubt it. People love their kitchens. At least in the US of A they do. They spends tens of thousands upgrading them and many don’t even cook in them.
Seems like a waste of space and money
lol wat all u think about?! suggest this 2 mummy..hehe