HN Explorer

Ask HN: Do you use your laptop while you cook?

8 points by mendeza ↗ HN
I was making pumpkin pie this weekend, and I was thinking about how a smarter kitchen can make cooking and preparing great meals better and a greater experience.

Does anyone have things that frustrate them with cooking? Anything frustrating on having your laptop out while you cook? Would love to hear your thoughts?

16 comments

[ 5.9 ms ] story [ 49.8 ms ] thread
iamNumber4
Don't be a savage. Get a tablet and some 3m Command hooks. strategically place the command hooks in various locations in your kitchen. put 2 hooks upright level, and then another hook inverted centered between the bottom hooks, use your tablet to measure the distance, so that you can slide your tablet through the hooks to hold it. So Bottom left a hook, bottom right a hook, invert hook on the top to hold the middle of the tablet.

like this:

https://productreviewsbychristina.files.wordpress.com/2017/0...

I have hooks on the window above my sink, on the outside of the exhaust hood above the stove, on the fridge door, and on the inside of a select cabinet door that can be angled. just have to slide the tablet out, and move it where I need it. Don't have to worry about spills and damaging it because it's not on a counter or table and it's out of the way and eye level.

it's great for looking at recipes, using a Timer app, and watching Netflix while cooking and or doing the dishes.

I'm on the hunt for a decent bluetooth in oven thermometer and app. Anyone have any suggestions?

mendeza
That is a simple solution! Have you had an issue with getting your tablet dirty though?

Ive been looking at projectors I can point down to the kitchen counter. Then I can swipe through recipes without getting my devices dirty.

Also, I would think watching netflix as you cook would distract you and maybe mess up your meal, has that happened to you?

iamNumber4
no, because any self respecting cook has a towel on their shoulder.
ezekg
Cool idea! I didn't know I needed to set up these hooks until now. Every time I cook the iPad gets in the way due to my lack of counter-space.
iamNumber4
It works great in the bathroom too. Take bath watch a movie. just try not to put the hooks over the tub, to avoid a accidental splash.
davelnewton
Yeah, the laptop--it's not even on the radar for cooking; that's why we invented tablets. And cookbooks.
tmaly
I have a few times, but I find it just easier to print out the recipe.

The place where it would get difficult is where I am making multiple dishes with multiple steps and I need to have timers for many of the steps.

mendeza
Have you had issues with preparing meals just from instructions, like the description on completing the step was not enough? For example for me, I never cooked a pumpkin, so I had a wrong assumption on how I would make the pumpkin filling, but seeing a video helped realize what they meant.

Probably better instructions would of dealt with that, but I would think some recipes would assume a level of background knowledge.

rl3
Just get the right model, and you can cook your food on the laptop itself. Screen placement ceases to be an issue when your stir-fry is sizzling away on the keyboard.
uptownfunk
TV is near by I just cast youtube vids on my TV.
imauld
I use it to play music that's about it.

As I've gotten better at cooking I rely less on recipes and sort of glance of them to get the idea of what is supposed to be happening and go off that.

matchmike1313
Nope, I do use my phone thou. I also have a LCD mounted in the kitchen with an old Mac Mini connected to it, works great for cooking.
waibelp
Not for cooking but for streaming tv while washing dishes. ;-)

The problem in my opinion with recipes is that there are too much and most of them are not good. A lot of times I started to cook anything by recipe just to throw it away after some minutes and "freestyling" the meal...

probinso
I place a piece of Velcro on the back of my phone, and have Mount points around my kitchen
probinso
Cheaper than the clips and tablet
probinso
I also placed these Mount points in my car in the shower, and my bedroom