Imagine cooking dinner and putting a load of washing on at the same time – in the same machine. Thanks to Israeli design student Iftach Gazit’s, this new concept that combines cooking and cleaning your clothes might be revolutionizing the culinary game and washing machine cooking while doing laundry will also reduce your energy bill.
Gazit created steam-bag meals you simply toss in with your laundry. The dinners range from prepackaged foods like steak and herbs to fresh salmon. The waterproof Tyvek bags even come with clothing labels.
Washing Machine Cuisine
The designer said he found inspiration from the sous-vide method of cooking. Sous-vide uses vacuum-sealed pouches in order to control cooking in a water bath or steamer.
[Image Source: Gray Design]
“But rather than cooking a piece of meat at 58C for two and a half hours, you could just set your washing machine to ‘synthetics’ for a long cycle,” he said in an interview with the Guardian. “For vegetables, you could set it to a short hot ‘cotton’ program.”
More importantly, however, is that Gazit’s innovation stems from a routine most people wouldn’t consider. He spent time studying the daily habits of homeless people in New York City. Gazit said he noticed how important laundry services were and how vital launderettes became to the community. The 31-year-old designer decided to utilize the laundromat as a ‘free’ way of cooking as well. He noted that food shows more than just a taste preference:
“The food we eat, and the way we eat it, reflects on our taste but much more on our economic abilities and culture. Our meals provide an example of the social aspects of our lives. In this case we will witness the rise (and fall) of the middle class as it can be seen through the home cooked meal. “
He also wrote about the concept of TV dinners and how they’ve evolved to become a middle-class staple in the United States. TV dinners imply the people eating them have 1) a TV in front of which to eat those dinners and 2) a shortage of time due to a job or other constraints.
[Image Source: Gray Design]
“What is the next step for the TV dinner when you don’t have a house?” he said.
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The Guardian, Interesting Engineering and Complex Hustle contributed to this story.