The Digital Chef

At left: Control panel of the Naboo oven by Lainox

Digital culture has changed the way we work, communicate and spend our leisure time and it has done so in ways that were not remotely imaginable ten years ago. Every new wave of innovation has brought profound mutations, even to areas that may at first have seemed immune to such “contaminations”. Keyboards have insinuated their way into the professional kitchen: ovens are commanded by touch pads, recipes are stored in data bases and provisions are ordered via e-mail. Even the most technology-resistant subjects have had to capitulate to the tyranny of the microchip because analog versions of many instruments, from thermometers to scales, have given way to their digital counterparts. The much-maligned printed instruction manual, that once accompanied more complex equipment, is now more likely to be consultable via CD or on-line.

The generation gap offers various profiles. A chef entirely trained in a pre-digital kitchen (let’s call him a senior operator) is likely to outsource all digital interface to younger collaborators. He enters the digital world only by proxy. The middle-aged chef whose experience spans both the analog and digital kitchen tends to get on board with those applications whose convenience is instantly intuited while rejecting (usually out of laziness) those that require some study. You know the type: he uses a cell phone like its analogical counterpart but hasn’t the remotest idea how its other functions work; can send an e-mail, but can’t open an attachment; cooks everything on the “combi” setting because he can’t remember how the other oven programs. The generation that grew up remote-in-hand embraces everything digital with enthusiasm. Recipes are photographed and shared via social media, new cooking techniques are explored via webinair for dishes that may never be prepared because so much energy is relegated to chat and tweets and likes that virtual cuisine often supplants it’s more nourishing analog counterpart.

We’re dedicating The Digital Chef to those professionals seeking some sort of equilibrium in the technological kitchen. It will turn a curious gaze on the many ways in which gadgets, apps and updated equipment are changing their workplace and their job descriptions. Rather than a pro-technology plea tout court, we hope the information presented will be viewed as a stimulus for the chef to examine his eternal dilemma: How to rationalize a discipline which requires both managerial and creative skills?