Microsoft Is Developing a Kitchen Client? I Thought Gordon Ramsay Hosted ‘Hell’s Kitchen,’ Not Bill Gates.
by John Paczkowski
Posted on June 6, 2007 at 12:07 PM PT
Apparently, I missed the chapter on Ma Gates’s Favorite Recipes in “The Road Ahead”–Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates’s 1995 book on the personal-computing revolution, because Microsoft is reportedly hard at work on a version of the Windows operating system for the kitchen. Sources close to the company say it’s developing a “Kitchen Client” software that will transform our lowly analog sculleries into full-blown computing environments.
It’s worth noting here that Microsoft’s initiative is not the first of its kind. Back in 1969, Honeywell launched the “Kitchen Computer”–essentially a $10,000 recipe holder marketed under the tag line “If she can only cook as well as Honeywell can compute.” The device was an enormous failure–it’s not known for sure if Honeywell ever managed to sell even one. Presumably, Microsoft’s offering will be a bit better at marketing, as long as it’s not undersold by a competing Open Sauce client …
Comments
John,
In our kitchen we use paper now for recipes. Works quite well. Takes spills without sparking or smoking.
However, I am interested in getting all our favorite recipes into some sort of database.
So, a MacBook (it already comes with an easy-to-use operating system) and possibly this software: http://mydreamapp.com/contesta.....chaelyuan/
,dave
Posted by Dave Barnes at June 6th, 2007 at 2:24 pmHoneywell made/sold at least one of those things; I saw it at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.
Posted by Mike Evangelist at June 6th, 2007 at 3:43 pm