Until now kitchen computers have all had one thing in common… they have failed miserably.  Starting in 1969 with the Honeywell H316 Kitchen Computer, available for the low price of $10,600 (or $62,772.90 in 2009 dollars), this computer built into a table with attached chair and cutting board was able to do one [...]]]>

from www.mydemy.com

Until now kitchen computers have all had one thing in common… they have failed miserably.  Starting in 1969 with the Honeywell H316 Kitchen Computer, available for the low price of $10,600 (or $62,772.90 in 2009 dollars), this computer built into a table with attached chair and cutting board was able to do one thing, store recipes.  Evidently even the included recipe book (huh?) and kitchen apron couldn’t save the H316 from it’s two week learning curve to program, lack of text based display (you had to learn to read binary) and Clockwork Orange good looks, not a single unit was sold.  Here to try once again is the Demy digital recipe reader brought to us by Key Ingredient Corporation, hey it does three things.  Hit the link for the run down.

The Demy is a 5×7 notebook sized computer which, according to the manufacturer, will hold your entire recipe collection in a sleek, compact, kitchen-safe device.  Kitchen safe in this case means it’s splash resistant and supposedly easy to wipe clean.  Now here’s where things start looking bad, according to the FAQ over at MyDemy.com the only way to get recipes into the Demy is by creating a free account at www.keyingredient.com.  That’s right don’t type them directly into the touch screen display, don’t allow compatiblity with any of the hundreds of recipe sites, direct the user to create his umpteenth username and password on the manufactures based website.

Flavourgasmic Reader: “Ok but it’s a computer I’m sure it does more than store recipes entered through a site that I never planned on using?”

Good question and of course you would be right, it also has not one, not two, but three built in timers (built in is good) , a measurement converter and list of ingredient substitutions.  It also doesn’t have email, a calculator, a photo viewer, the internet, wireless, minesweeper, or any of the 100′s of other things a cheap laptop has (or my phone for that matter).  It does have two viewing angles, ok hold the phone when this has to be listed as a key feature I feel they may be stretching for positives.  Ok but at least it’s cheap right?  You decide.

Available May 4th at Amazon, the Demy will set you back 299.99 should you decide you can’t live without it.