Looking Back at Our Predictions of a 2025 Kitchen

First a look back at kitchen milestones of the past...

Kitchen innovation has been a hot potato of speculation since the early 1900s, when natural gas and then electric stoves began to replace wood and coal burners. There was refrigeration in the 1950s, followed by microwave ovens in the 1960s.

But although it has been more than 50 years since the Jetsons TV show foresaw robotics with Rosie the Robot and 3D printed food, these innovations are only now emerging as real possibilities in the kitchen of the future.

3D Printing Food

Our Prediction: Printing food using devices such as the ChefJet is said to be the next revolution in food preparation, but at this stage results are mainly limited to the confectionary shown at left.

2025 Update:  As cool and convenient as this sounds, as of writing this I have yet to enjoy ANY 3D printed food and have yet to see one included in your standard New Zealand kitchen renovation. The proliferation of 3D printers in the last 10 years has certainly been a reality but with more of a focus on medical applications or the creation of  3D printed 'ghost guns.' Thats not to say no progress has been made! A bunch of brainy scientists around the world have been working with 3D printing food using softened ingredients to create meals suitable for astronauts and those with specific medical needs such as dysphagia (limited ability to swallow).

The Verdict:  Progress has been made but for us everyday cooks and those enjoying what the local culinary scene have to offer 3D printed food probably isn't on the menu just yet.

Robotic Chef Hands

Our Prediction: British scientists spent almost 18 years developing these robotic 'chef' hands, which can be programmed to prepare meals worthy of a restaurant. Produced by the Shadow Robot Company, the device will be sold from as early as 2017 as part of a purpose-built high-tech kitchen, priced at around UK£10,000 (NZ$21,000).

2025 Update: It seems as though our robot chef had a flurry of publicity in 2015 and hasn't been heard from since. Whether they've changed their name or failed to launch we aren't sure. But a quick google search assures that the robotic kitchen industry is alive and well with a market value of $4.35 billion dollars in 2024 with projections only looking up.

The Verdict: Though it seems that robotic help in the kitchen has become more commonplace it's largely in commercial or factory kitchens and some fast food type restaurants. Although the closest we've seen is the occasional robot waiter which we will admit is a real novelty!

Ikea's Table for Living

Our Prediction: IKEA, the Swedish furniture maker known for its minimalist designs, unveiled its vision for the kitchen of 2025 at last year's Milan Design Week in Italy. One of the ideas that grabbed the most attention at the exhibition was its high-tech ‘Table for living’, a table which automatically identifies foods placed on it and uses a camera to project graphics of recipes for the foods. The also showed a prototype kitchen which included built-in weighing scales, hidden sensors and induction-cooling technology that IKEA reckons will replace refrigerators and keep different foods at just the right temperature. Developed with an eye to sustainability, the kitchen featured a ‘mindful water’ system which filters water, and used waste water for other purposes, such as feeding indoor plants.

2025 Update & Our Verdict: Now this is something that seems a bit more approachable compared to robot chef arms. While on the whole this kitchen prototype and table for living haven't become a mainstay in kiwi homes however the plethora of features are at the top of our list of most likely to be a part of the nowadays or the near future of kiwi kitchen renovations. For now though the only features we can safely say we have included in our kitchen renovations would be filtered water and the re-use of waste water, a great start but hardly The Jetsons.

Smart and Sustainable Kitchens with Post-Industrial Style

Our Prediction: This future kitchen concept by Philips Design also envisions environmental friendliness, but in post-industrial rather than modernist style. “We need to push ourselves to rethink domestic appliances entirely, to rethink how homes consume energy, and how entire communities can pool resources” says the company’s Senior Director of Design-led Innovation, Clive van Heerden. Philips believes the solution is likely to come from biological processes, which are less energy-consuming and non-polluting. Think of it as going back to nature in order to move forward. Philips’ Microbial Home concept uses an integrated cyclical ecosystem – a kind biological machine – to filter, process and recycle what we conventionally think of as waste.

2025 Update: Similar to the Ikea Table for Living, this doesn't seem lightyears away from something we could picture in a trendy Dunedin Warehouse District apartment, however in its totality we haven't seen this taking hold.

The Verdict: While this particular set up (or any of this magnitude) taking hold the value and ideas it stands for 'less energy consuming and non-polluting' are certainly ideas that are becoming more commonplace and applicable for the average NZ home renovation. Although this usually looks like the selection of energy smart applicances, the addition of a solar energy system or the use of recycled materials.