As COVID-19 continues to press on, many people have rediscovered the joy of home-cooking. Even though countries worldwide have opened up restaurants once again, the pandemic seems to have changed consumer behavior on a longer-term basis.
There are quite a few factors that are contributing to the prevalence of home cooking:
- Many people are still feeling unsafe about dining in; even with all the precautions that restaurants are taking, the majority of people still opt to do a take-away or cook at home.
- With most people working from home these days, they are no longer stopping for breakfast or coffee on their way to work or going to the lunch spots they used to frequent during the workday.
- Financial concerns drive people to create more home-cooked meals because they usually come at a lower cost and often can create leftovers that can be stretched much further than restaurant meals.
According to an Acosta report done in September 2020, even after the pandemic is “over,” many consumers plan to dine out less than before or not at all. Moreover, home cooking is getting more and more common among the younger demographic.
With the rise of home-cooking, there is a corresponding rise in healthier eating, flexitarian diets as well as home baking tools and cooking kits. Since people who are overweight or obese are at higher risk of contracting COVID-19, more people are looking to eat balanced diets. This has led to an increase in cooking from scratch to gain better control over ingredients and preparation methods used. With the rise of the more health-conscious consumer, there has also been a considerable shift towards plant-based cooking during the pandemic. For those who are getting bored of their regular diets, there has also been an increase in recipe inspirations and step-by-step guides to expand the typical weekly menu. In fact, many people are trying to experiment with new flavors to distract themselves because they can’t go out to their favorite restaurants.
The pandemic has also resulted in sparse supermarket shelves created by stockpiling, long waiting lines, and social distancing measures. Because of this, there has been a surge home meal kits that deliver pre-measured ingredients and easy-to-follow recipes for a range of different cuisines. This helps people to recreate a restaurant experience at home. The sales of home-baking items also spiked in the last one year of lockdowns. What used to be considered a treat became a hot commodity for people who were turning to baking as a distraction, or making yummy treats for their friends, neighbors, and family members.
Because of the increase in home cooking, many companies have started creating tools to make the process easier. While many have only recently jumped on the bandwagon, Midnight Kitchen Tools has been making ergonomic products focused on comfort, efficiency, and safety since 2013. The company’s mission is to introduce new ergonomic products that thoughtfully raise the standard of how kitchen tools were designed and make life easier in the kitchen.
The company was founded by Michael Chou, an aerospace engineer who wanted to find a solution to protect his wrist from the discomfort of scooping cold, hard ice cream for his family. After taking that idea and developing countless redesigns and prototypes, he created the world’s first ergonomic ice cream scoop, which has been featured in multiple magazines and articles. After the success of the Midnight Scoop, he discovered that there was another kitchen utensil that vastly needed improvement.
At the beginning of the pandemic, when fear was at its worst and many restaurants were shut down, Michael did not want to risk his family getting infected with COVID-19. He therefore tried his best to make his own food at home. One of the foods that his family loved the most was pizza, so he would either buy a frozen pizza from the grocery stores or try to make it from scratch. As with the ice cream scoop, he discovered that he did not have the right tools to achieve his home cooking goals. He found that many pizza cutters were uncomfortable to hold, difficult to use for cutting, or impossible to clean. For this reason, he decided it was time to develop a new design for a traditional classic.
After many sleepless nights, Midnight Kitchen Tools is proud to announce the launch of the Midnight Slicer. The product was launched on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter on Tuesday, May 11th, and aims to be the world’s first ergonomic pizza/food cutter.
After experimenting with dozens of traditional pizza cutters, taking them apart, and analyzing each one, the team determined that the perfect cutter needs to have a balanced weight, a sharp high-quality blade, and an ergonomic handle. They also knew that the best pizza cutter should not cause people any wrist strain, which is why they decided to design a slicer that can reduce wrist fatigue and make it easier to clean.
What makes the Midnight Slice unique is that a lot of physics and engineering went into the overall design. Its design allows the user to “push” into the food that they want to cut using larger muscles in their chest and arms instead of weaker wrist joints. The finger grooves help users grip the handle easier, giving them the ultimate control when slicing food. Additionally, the curvature in the front of the handle near the blade helps keep the wheel aligned and balanced while users apply force.
The slicer’s 3 parts, (the ergonomic slicer, the sharp cutting wheel, and the wheel-tightened screw), are 100% stainless steel. It is designed to be efficient and comfortable for anyone’s hands. Not only is the Midnight Slice suitable for cutting pizza, but it can also cut through a variety of different foods like quesadillas, pies, vegetables, pasta, and even blocks of fudge. The utensil created by Midnight Kitchen Tools will be a convenient addition to any kitchen and will last a lifetime.
Are you interested in the Midnight Slice and other products by Midnight Kitchen Tools? Click here for more information about their Kickstarter campaign.