The Technology of Food
First, there was fire. Then, there was ice.
Then, eventually, there was the microwave.
Words by Lydia Woolever
Illustrations by Elizabeth Graeber
When you think about food at its most fundamental level, it has always been about one main thing — our bodies. Feeding them, nourishing them, providing them with energy. Then, as our species evolved, food did, too. It started to become about more than just our muscles, organs, and bones — it also became about our souls. Taste, comfort, pleasure. Even boredom, stress, and fear.
Food is one of the most basic necessities and simple satisfactions of humanity, and for that, we like to think of it as primal, natural — of the earth. But food has always indisputably been about something else, too: technology. Thinking about food and technology together might conjure post-apocalyptic images of some barren, soulless, sci-fi era, devoid of flavor and farming, sunshine and love, where mankind subsists solely on artificial space food. We can hark back to “the early days,” before mass production and GMO crops and Cheetohs, but we can’t deny the role of technology from the very beginning. It is engrained in our edible evolution.
Just think about it. First, there was fire: the subtle nuances that the smoke and char of an open flame adds to a piece of meat. Then, there was ice: a cool glass of water, a cube in your whiskey. Then, there were ovens: the warm wafts of rosemary, garlic, thyme, and roast chicken, drifting out of an open metal door. Think about mixing cookie dough with your grandmother as a little girl with those old-school electric hand mixers, and then think about the cold jug of milk that you’d pull out of the refrigerator and pour into two, tall glasses — one for you, one for her — once the kitchen timer told you they were were done. Think about how many times the microwave has saved your ass. Think about where you’d be without your teakettle, your coffee pot, your French press:
Think about life without a fork or spoon. Like food, technology has served a simple function (to feed us), and like food, technology has given us pleasures we would never have known without it. We have fire to thank for barbecue. We have the oven to thank for casserole. And pie. Sure, we don’t need cupcake vending machines or those twirling, battery-operated, spaghetti forks — and not everyone should shell out a few Benjamins on a Vitamix — but thanks to technology, we do have milkshakes. And waffles. Toast. Kraft macaroni and cheese.
But how did we get here? We’ve outlined some of the great technological advances in food, from the stove to the cupcake ATM.
FIRE: 7000 BCE
Thank you, cavemen.
CHOPSTICKS: 1200 B.C.
China starts using the most frustrating utensil known to mankind.
THE STOVE: 25 to 200 A.D.
Cast-iron used to build stoves in China, though Europe doesn’t start using them for another thousand-plus years (1400 A.D.).
THE PRESSURE COOKER: 1679
French physicist Denis Papin’s invention heats water to produce steam, quickly increasing internal temperatures and dramatically reducing cooking times.
THE WHISK: 1800s
The wooden whisk is so 18th century; the wire whisk goes vogue.
“CANNING”: 1803
Parisian chef Nicolas Appert develops a rudimentary method of canning, using glass bottles, cork, wire, and pitch as a means to preserve food for troops and overcome food spoilage. On the heels of Appert, Englishman Pete Durand patents the food-canning process seven years later, in 1810, using sealed, tin-plated, and wrought-iron cans.
THE CHEESE GRATER: 1819
Jacob Bromwell, the oldest housewares company in America, invents three iconic kitchen wares: the flour sifter; those terrifying, flat, metal cheese graters, now being used on Pinterest for lampshades; and that old-school, stovetop popcorn popper that your Grandma used to love. The man deserves a Medal of Honor.
THE ICEMAKER: 1834
An American engineer patents the first practical ice-making machine in London. Makes water taste better. And booze.
THE REFRIGERATOR: 1862
Though many refrigeration breakthroughs had been made in the preceding decades, French engineer Ferdinand Carré pioneers a machine that can produce ice at 200 kg an hour. Allows for the eventual widespread use of Hellman’s mayonnaise, without which no sandwich would be complete.
THE ELECTRIC WAFFLE MAKER: 1911
General Electric sets the standard for the omnipresent countertop models that all of your childhood friends had growing up but that your mother always refused to buy.
THE TOASTER: 1921
Fed up with the burnt toast served at his Minneapolis manufacturing plant’s cafeteria, Charles P. Strite patents the pop-up bread-toaster with a variable timer. Leads the way for two other brilliant American inventions : Pop-Tarts and Toaster Strudels.
THE BLENDER: 1922
Wisconsin engineer invents and patents the electric blender for mixing malted milk drinks — and eventually frozen daiquiris!
THE JUICER: 1930s
British businessman Norman Walker creates the first modern juicer. Paves the way for the Beyoncé Cleanse, and the rest of us who fail two days in.
TUPPERWARE: 1946
The best way to carry leftovers since the burrito.
NON-STICK COOKWARE: 1954
French engineer invents process for bonding PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) with aluminum to create the first non-stick pan. Instantly makes mediocre cooks look like omelet connoisseurs.
THE MICROWAVE: 1955
American engineer and Dept. of Defense contractor Percy Spencer patents a “radar range” that cooks things using high-frequency radio waves. Shortly thereafter, Tappan Stove Company introduces the first home microwave, for which we will forever be thankful.
PAM COOKING SPRAY: 1957
Like Teflon cookware, good ol’ Pam changed the game for fried eggs and pancakes and Dads everywhere.
THE SPORK: 1970
Surprisingly not a product of the 1980s and actually around for a long time before that, the multi-use utensil gets an official trademark.
THE FOOD PROCESSOR: 1971
First exhibited in Paris by inventor Pierre Verdon, whose compact household version, the Le Magi-Mix, was the predecessor of our beloved Cuisinart.
MR. COFFEE: 1971 A.D.
Watered down and oh-so-wonderful.
THE SALAD SPINNER: 1973
French kitchenware company patents a device in the U.S. that’s “convenient for use by housewives, particularly for drying salads.”
THE VEGETABLE PEELER: 1990
For those of us who could never quite master the peeling of a potato in one fell knife-swoop, even after our grandmother’s tried to teach us over and over again, OXO reveals its iconic, ergonomic, handheld vegetable peeler.
THE RABBIT: 2000s
Okay, so The Rabbit Corkscrew might not be a cooking innovation, per se, but who doesn’t agree that the more wine poured, the merrier the dinner party?
THE CUPCAKE ATM: 2012
California baker climaxes cupcake craze with a 24-hour vending machine in Beverly Hills.
KITCHEN TABLET: 2013 Sony introduces the Xperia Z Kitchen Edition, which, like a cookbook, can get wet or spilled on, without being ruined.
THE ELECTRONIC TONGUE: 2014 Scientists develop taste tester to sample food and drink before it heads to market.
Purchase Elizabeth Graeber’s brilliant work here.
