You may not have given much thought to how your favourite appliances, gadgets and foodstuffs came to be. But many of the food and cooking inventions we now take for granted had less than illustrious beginnings. Here, we reveal 15 inventions that were initially dismissed for being impractical, improper or downright delusional, yet went on to change the culinary world forever.

Read on as we reveal the genius food inventions that were mocked when they came out, counting down to the most impactful of all.

15. Air fryer

Air fryers have become increasingly popular over the past few years, but it took time for them to catch on. It’s believed the world’s first air fryer was released by American brand Philips in 2010. It was designed and patented by Dutch inventor Fred van der Weij, who was looking for a healthier alternative to fried foods. The concept was simple: circulate hot air through small chambers concentrated on the food to make it crispy.

14. Electric rice cooker

Traditionally, Japanese cooks would make rice in a kamado, a type of stove fuelled by fire, which incidentally inspired the Big Green Egg barbecue. But getting the heat intensity right proved tricky. In 1923, Mitsubishi Electric produced the first electric rice cooker. As many households still didn’t have electricity, it was predominantly used on ships. By the 1940s and 1950s, commercial versions were introduced, but the manual appliances weren’t well received.

13. Toaster

The concept of toast is nothing new. The word itself derives from the Latin word tostum, meaning scorching or burning. Long before electricity, the Romans used this method as a way of preserving bread, holding slices over an open fire with a long fork or placing them on a rack. As the Romans completed conquests around the world, the popularity of toast soon spread to Europe and the Americas.

12. Microwave

In 1946, shortly before the Cold War, American scientist Percy Spencer was tasked by the military with developing magnetron technology to increase the power of radar sets. This device was essential for NATO to identify airborne Soviet threats. But in the middle of his experiment, he realised the magnetron was emitting heat-generating microwaves that had melted the chocolate bar in his pocket.

11. KitchenAid Stand Mixer

While KitchenAid may now have a global reputation for its colourful stand mixers, it hasn’t always been that way. US-based engineer Herbert Johnson came up with the H5, the first known household eggbeater, in 1919. Hoping to revolutionise the culinary scene on a huge scale, the gadget was met with a short burst of excitement in its first few years, becoming popular commercially and among affluent households. However, most housewives were put off by the hefty price tag and the colossal size of the first machine.

10. Canned food

In 1795, as the French Revolutionary Wars waged on, Napoleon Bonaparte and the French government issued a prize of 12,000 francs to anyone who could solve one of the army’s most pressing issues: food preservation. While some methods like smoking and pickling were popular, no one knew quite how effective they were at keeping germs at bay. Things changed when candymaker Nicolas Appert had the radical idea to store food in Champagne bottles, cork it in a similar way to wine and seal with wax before boiling.

9. Slow cooker

Loved for its versatility and simplicity, the slow cooker became a kitchen staple for many during the 1970s. However, its path to success wasn’t a smooth one. American inventor Irving Naxon came up with the idea for a portable cooking device in the 1930s and began selling the invention – then known as the Naxon Beanery – two decades later. While the concept of cooking over a longer period was genius, its marketing was not; the product was initially positioned as a way of cooking cholent, the Jewish stew made from beans and meat, but little else.

8. Coffee machine

Coffee making has changed significantly over the last 200 years. Among the first ‘machines’ was the percolator, which saw a pot with boiling water on the bottom and ground coffee on the top heated on the stove. But as café culture grew across Europe during the 19th century, the process proved too slow for impatient customers. Enter Italian Angelo Moriondo, who invented and patented what is regarded as the first espresso machine in 1884.

7. TV dinner

In 1945, New York–based Maxson Food Systems sold frozen dinners to commercial airlines using the flash-freezing method created by businessman Clarence Birdseye two decades earlier. But it was supposedly a Swanson salesman that developed the concept for what it called ‘TV dinners’ in 1954. Looking for a way to help the company save 260 tonnes of Thanksgiving turkey from going to waste, he came up with the idea of serving a frozen Thanksgiving meal in a box.

6. The whisk

The teardrop design and flexible steel wires made the balloon whisk particularly easy for mixing in a round bowl. In the late 19th century, as aerated, fluffy dishes like meringues became more popular, the rotary eggbeater was invented, and American bakers seemed to prefer this to manual whisks. But when cookery writer Julia Child touted the benefits of a balloon whisk in her first TV appearance in 1963, it brought the humble utensil back into fashion.

5. Tupperware

Ever since it released its first product in 1946, the Tupperware brand has been synonymous with food storage. Surprisingly, it all started with a paint tin. Chemist Earl S. Tupper (pictured) was working in a plastics factory after the Great Depression, when he had the idea of designing storage containers with an air- and liquid-tight seal, similar to those on paint cans. The idea was to help 'war-weary families' reduce food waste, and so the idea for plastic containers with a burping seal was born.

4. The dishwasher

For many, it’s hard to imagine life without the handy dishwasher – but there was once a time its inventor faced criticism. While Joel Houghton may have been granted a patent in 1850 for a hand-turned style of dishwasher, the variation we know and love today was thought up by Josephine Cochran (pictured). Swapping the cleaning sponges for water pressure, she got a patent for this device in 1886 and went on to found Garis-Cochran Manufacturing in the 1890s.

3. Ice cubes

After spending a tumultuous few years in debtor’s prison, then running from the law, Tudor’s perseverance paid off. By 1819 he was travelling the US, convincing previously sceptical bartenders and even medical staff to serve chilled beverages to customers and patients. Fast-forward to the 1830s and the now ‘Ice King’ was shipping thousands of tonnes of ice from Boston to other American cities, as well as to India and further afield, leading to America's booming ice industry.

2. The refrigerator

The refrigerator is arguably the most influential invention in the world of food and drink. But it wasn’t exactly welcomed with open arms. Before the invention of electricity and refrigeration, people would preserve food by storing it in cold water by a river, using an ice house (similar to the one pictured) or techniques like pickling and smoking. The first instance of artificial refrigeration dates back to 1748, when Scottish professor and physician William Cullen demonstrated how the cooling technology would work.

1. The fork

It’s hard to imagine forks being considered anything but practical. Yet when they were first introduced, many couldn’t see the benefit of these utensils over hands, perhaps because the original design only featured a couple of tines for spearing food or holding it in place while cutting. There’s evidence forks were used as far back as the time of the Ancient Greeks, but the table fork as we know it today is said to have become popular during the reign of the Byzantine Empire.

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