Toy story: Swetha Sivakumar on the tussles over kitchen appliances

‘So many of my gadgets now live in the attic,’ she admits, ‘but each has brought me joy. Do I overdo it sometimes? Well, we must live a little, I say.’

I’m Swetha, and I’m an appliance junkie... It feels good to finally say it.

Some people have secret bank accounts. Others lie about how much they spent on concert tickets. I find myself defending my desire to buy a new kitchen appliance, every few months. It’s a heated topic of debate in our household.

I love tinkering in the kitchen. I feel real joy when unboxing a new item, experimenting with it and discovering what it can do. As an engineer, I also appreciate the thought and design that goes into these machines. All in all, kitchen appliances are my toys.

The thing is, most are only built to do one job really well. So it can all kind of add up.

I have a cast-iron pan for eggs and toast (and a lot else). But I also truly believe I need my panini-maker. It is excellent at compressing and browning bread. Sure, I could achieve a similar result with a cast iron pan and some weights, but the panini-maker does it faster and more consistently.

I also love my rice cooker, which knows when the water has evaporated and switches off automatically, thanks to a magnetic component that loses its magnetism once temperatures breach a certain limit.

I will admit I sometimes get carried away. I remember reading a story about Pranoti Nagarkar, an engineer who wanted to help women around the world save time by automating the making of rotis. Her machine took care of it all: kneading, rolling, cooking, the works.

Nagarkar and her husband, Rishi Israni, spent eight years tinkering with prototypes before they shipped their first batch in 2015.

The machine was quite expensive at the time, but I was sold. I convinced my husband it was the perfect Valentine’s Day gift (even though we’d never celebrated Valentine’s Day before.) When the box arrived, I opened it with stars in my eyes. And oh, did I use it.

It stood proudly on my kitchen counter churning out rotis every day. I made rotis for anyone who visited. I packed them in my kids’ lunchboxes. I remember beaming proudly when the counter on the machine told me we’d made 6,000 rotis together.

“Look at all the money we’ve saved not buying rotis at the store,” I told my family. They stared at me, more rotis in their hands.

Eventually, I had to pack the machine away. My kids were tired of rotis. The roti-maker was taking up too much space. The machine moved into our attic. Others have come and gone its way since.

The truth is it really is quite hard to tell when a buying decision is going to be a good one.

When our kids were little, for instance, my husband Srikanth Kulukuru and I went through a no-processed-food phase. We bought a masticating juicer with a dozen parts and went on and on (our friends were so bored) about all the fresh juice it produced.

The juice was honestly delicious. We were so happy with our healthy decision. But soon enough, all the prepping, assembling and cleaning took their toll. We grew tired of the smell of decomposing fruit fibre filling up our kitchen. This machine also now lives in our attic.

We then went through a dehydrator phase. My husband has a tendency to go overboard when buying vegetables. I figured we could dehydrate the extras and use them later. We bought a five-tray dehydrator. A few weeks later, we realised no one wanted the leathery fruit. And rehydrating the vegetables was tiresome; even after a long simmer, they don’t really taste right.

I eventually persuaded my husband to simply stick to our shopping list instead.

At one point we had a bread machine too. As excited as we were, it was a simple machine that applied the same settings to all doughs, and so it only ever yielded disappointing loaves.

Two things that have never disappointed me: my electric pressure cooker and high-speed blender.

The cooker is quieter than the stovetop version, with no whistles. That might seem trivial, but it’s a blessing when one has a newborn, nervous pets or just wants to cook in peace early in the morning or late at night. There is no counting of the whistles needed either. Like the rice cooker, it shuts itself off automatically when a certain pressure level or time limit is breached.

I’ve written before about the power of a good blender. With one that spins at 30,000 rpm, you can make smooth sauces, chutneys and idli batter in minutes.

Every appliance involves some element of risk and compromise: cost, counter space, ease of use, actual usefulness. I say, take the plunge. Try new things. Find new loves.

Even the ones that don’t work out will likely find a home elsewhere.

I recently sold my beloved Rotimatic online. The man who picked it up brought his three-year-old daughter with him. They were counting the minutes until they could get started. The excitement in his eyes reminded me of how I had felt eight years earlier.

Isn’t that cycle of joy, thrill and learning part of the journey we’re all on?

Not everything has to be about cost and rationality. As I often tell my husband, at least I’m not “investing” in a new set of golf clubs.

(To reach Swetha Sivakumar with questions or feedback, email upgrademyfood@gmail.com)