how important is a computer in your kitchen?

[steve h.]

...inspired by, "what is the most useless thing in your kitchen you won't get rid of?"

i keep a bookcase in the kitchen but my laptop at the end of the counter (wifi) is invaluable. i've booted lots of gadgets off the counters, but not the macbook pro. way too valuable when i need an answer. now.

is this mainstream now?

[jzerocsk]

Not important at all on the basis of "humans have managed to cook effectively for thousands of years without one."

But, definitely nice to have. My laptop pretty much lives in my kitchen when I'm cooking, and it's defintiely in my plans to build one in somewhere as soon as I accuulate enough spare parts gto make a workable system. It would mainly be used for both off-line and on0-line recipes, taking notes, and playing music.

[teamuse]

I try to bring my laptop down to the kitchen when I can. It serves as both a recipe holder, if I find a recipe online, but do not want to use paper to print it out as, companion- IM friends while I'm waiting for something to be done in the oven, and entertainment- play music or DVDs while I'm cooking, or serving dinner.

[Chew on That]

I guess I never thought about changing the way my house is, but our computers are only in the basement. If you need something, you walk downstairs and look it up (good exercise!) It seems that having a TV in the kitchen is distraction enough. But maybe I'm in the minority.

[Candy]

Actually there are 3 laptops in my kitchen at the moment and a couple of hand helds. This laptop is going to be retired as soon as we get an incoming mail issue resolved.

[Candy]

I live in my kitchen. My laptop is on my desk across from the cooktop and away from any sources of water. It is always on and I cannot imagine not having it there.

[swsidejim]

not important, or necessary at all in my kitchen. I do not need, or use recipes from online sources, I do not trust them. Also, all my own recipes are stored in my brains hard drive.

Also cooking is what I do to relax, and after spending 9-10 hours every workday staring at a computer, it is one of the last things I want to do when I am at home relaxing.

[LindaWhit]

Why do you not trust recipes from online sources? So many of them are printed in magazines, books, what-have-you.

[swsidejim]

I do not look up recipes on the internet, if I need to get some ideas I do go to my cookbook collection @ home. If these recipes are reprinted somewhere online then I would think they were ok, but as I said I do not use my home p.c. for looking up recipes, more for getting directions to restaurants, and communicating in some of the forums I participate in. So a computer really has no place in my kitchen, but lives in my home office.

I should have said I do not trust recipes from people, or sources I do not know.

[LindaWhit]

OK, fair enough. I probably don't have near the # of cookbooks you do, as I don't call mine a "collection" :-) but I often find the Internet or my MasterCook program faster to find something if I choose a couple of ingredients and do a search on those particular items.

And I don't have a computer in my kitchen either. No room.

[inuksuk]

It's handy but not important. I'm the type of cook who would rather make up an answer than look one up. However, instead of clipping recipes out of newspapers I have taken to copying them off of websites and saving them in text files. Some day (yeah, sure) I'm going to get a good database program and organize those suckers.

[southernitalian]

My sister's laptop wound up in a sink full of water. Now it stays in the study.

[revsharkie]

Had mine on the bathroom counter once while I was getting ready to go somewhere, and one of the cats spilled water on it. It doesn't go anywhere near any source of running water anymore, after I replaced the hard drive and keyboard. (It's in the shop right now getting a new motherboard, again probably a result of the cat's clumsiness and my stupidity.) But I take it in the kitchen from time to time, to listen to music or look up a recipe. It can sit on the top of the deep freeze, which keeps it accessible but away from danger.

[AntarcticWidow]

We have our laptop in the kitchen, too, but for me it can be a terrible distraction. While I am within arm's reach of the stove, I have a tendency to get engrossed in what I am reading. I have burned more garlic and onions than I care to admit!