Inspect-a-Gadget!

A friend of mine was listing the fabulous kitchen gadgets she had acquired recently but bemoaned the fact she didn't own a spiraliser. "That's so last year" I comforted her. However, it seems the spiraliser is here to stay and, if you don't own one, you can buy pre-spiraliser food from the supermarket.

Every year has its share of gadgets. The 1960s saw refrigerators becoming popular and revolutionising the way we shopped and ate. My own favourite 1960s gadget was a wall mounted tin opener in our pantry. I would slide the door shut and then wind the tin opener before announcing "third floor - ladies hats!" Yes, I did have a vivid imagination.

During the 1970s home freezers brought women freedom. They could buy ready frozen foods and cooked in batches to freeze food for future meals. This eased the time constraints caused by more women working. The other 70s gadgets I remember were the fondue and the soda siphon - ideal for any dinner (or anyone aspiring to host their own Abigail's Party!)

With the 1980s came sandwich toasters, electric carving knives and, of course, the microwave. This used an electromagnetic wave to cook in a fraction of the time of a conventional oven. It could also be used to defrost frozen foods. A scare about waves escaping and harming humans meant people invested in another gadget which would then monitor whether or not the microwave was leaking!

The 1990s continued what the 80s had started - to show off with cafetières and pasta machines. Where previously there was a cupboard cemetery of unused and unloved gadgets, now your items were on show and no trendy kitchen would be seen without a Philip Starke juicer standing like an alien upon your worktop.

In the noughties I remember watching Ready Steady Cook with my young children who would hand me plates of plastic egg and chips or pizza at the "stop cooking" command. I would then have to hold up a green pepper or red tomato to whichever dish looked the most (erm) appetising! After watching this programme sales of kitchen blowtorches took off, enabling us to make perfect creme brulees.

Christmas 2015 saw us with a new waffle maker and some onion glasses. Whilst chopping onions I can now look like Dame Edna without shedding a tear - erm, and that's a good thing?!