If we were to guess what food we will be preparing at home in 20 years’ time, the most plausible response, as Canadian journalist Alex Danco says, would be none at all. In just a couple of decades, turning on the stove before or after work may become something as rare as gardening for the average family. Innovation in the field of food preservation, new and faster ways to buy, and more sophisticated delivery systems will make ordering food healthier and more cost-effective than cooking it ourselves. It’s called cooking as a service and will help us maximise our free time, albeit at the cost of a few traditions.
Even though this trend is still evolving, there are already several examples of the rapid and drastic change over the last few years.
Haute cuisine gets zapped in the microwave
In 2014, Efrén Vázquez and Andrés Casal founded Wetaca, a company that has revolutionised the food home delivery market in Spain with their innovative idea: first-rate dishes that are vacuum-sealed and quickly cooled so that they don’t lose anything in the way of quality. The client then receives it at home and, after popping it in the microwave for just three minutes, their food is ready to eat.
The covid-19 pandemic has resulted in an exponential increase in clients ordering home-delivered food. Even Michelin Star restaurants have decided to offer this service that was once only associated with cheap food.
A chef at home
Something else that is gaining popularity is having a chef visit your home to make high-quality dishes when you aren’t able to do so yourself. You buy the ingredients that you want and then the chef comes to your house and makes up to 25 meal portions that you can eat over the following days. This isn’t an option that’s affordable for everybody, but in some places, like Australia, it’s becoming increasingly popular. Companies like I Hate Cooking have an ever-growing list of clients and more and more chefs working all over the country, each of whom has their specialities, covering everything from stews to desserts.
Ver esta publicación en Instagram
Focusing on athletes
This transformation is also starting to branch out into different specialisations. Some of the larger dietary supplement companies that work with athletes have opted to release product lines featuring high-quality pre-cooked meals. They arrive frozen to your door and you just have to pop them in the microwave. Prozis, a Portuguese company with a lot of experience in this field, has already gotten into this line of business and are making meals that include all the ingredients that an athlete needs to perform at their best.
Ver esta publicación en Instagram
A chef guiding you on Facetime so that you can make your favourite meal to perfection, robots that are getting so sophisticated that they barely need any help when making your favourite recipes – a whole world of possibilities is opening up so that our tables will be ready for a meal at any time.
