Hasta La Gadget!

Our weeklong food special has come to an end, but that doesn’t mean you can’t relish the leftovers…

From our amazing roster of guest contributors:
• The Alinea Files, adventures inside America’s most innovative restaurant, written and edited by co-founder Nick Kokonas, with live kitchen action from Chef Grant Achatz
• Our Q&As with Alton Brown: His safe and scary kitchen hacks and his snap judgment of single-purpose kitchen gadgets (plus, his newest book, reviewed)
• Mark McClusky’s enlightening intro to induction cooking
• Michael Ruhlman’s persuasive praise of the kitchen scale
• Georgina Gustin’s jarring essay on food tech’s dark side

From our own staff:
• Dan’s MacGyver Chef series, which we hope to continue
• Knife care and handling, also by Dan, with sage advice from Chef Norman Weinstein
• Matt’s explanation of coffee makers and the caffeinated odyssey that followed
• Adam’s collection of coronary-inducing meat constructions
• Rosa’s chocolate Apple Tablet, you know, the one she ate
• Sean’s lecture on saving money through homebrewing and wine-making
• Mark’s courageous day of eating not-quite-futuristic self-heating food
• Danny’s equally courageous diet of caffeinated snacks

There were also amazing discussions, debates over brownie edges, bacon lingerie, chestnutters and replicators in our very own kitchens. The question about the weirdest food you ever ate tested the strength of our comment system’s photo-upload tool—and our stomachs.

It can be called a success, not least because nobody once said, “When will this stupid theme week end?” In fact we heard from many of you asking for our food-tech coverage to continue. So while the week’s festivities have ended, we pledge to keep playing with our food, and to talk with our mouths full. Good enough?

Thanks to all the staffers and contributors mentioned above. Special thanks to Mark Wilson, my wingman on this outing, and extra-special double-secret thanks to Nick Kokonas, who worked tirelessly writing and editing 24/7 for us, even while launching a project of his own, Alinea Wine. Here’s hoping he one day finds a solution to Alinea’s food-flattening quandary.

Taste Test was our weeklong tribute to the leaps that occur when technology meets cuisine, spanning everything from the historic breakthroughs that made food tastier and safer to the Earl-Grey-friendly replicators we impatiently await in the future.

Hemi-Powered Grill Image from Gizmag via Pretty Much the Entire Internet