The vanishing kitchen

Cooking is slowly fading out of the daily routine of the families. | Photo Credit: Getty Images The board read “3 BHW for sale”. For a moment, I thought the advertiser made a mistake by wrongly mentioning “3 BHW” instead of “3 BHK”.Out of curiosity, I entered the home and was awestruck to note that it was not an inadvertent error but a deliberate replacement of the letter “K” with “W”. There was no kitchen in the flat, only a posh workstation with latest gadgets and furniture, such as adjustable desks, office chairs, laptops, monitors, and keyboards. It had a small kitchenette with a vending machine for tea and coffee.This is the unexpected fallout of the phenomenal growth witnessed by the online food delivery platforms in the country in recent times, dislodging the kitchen from our homes and replacing them with work stations. The combined orders executed by two major delivery platforms in 2025 are estimated to be an astounding 460 million at 14.58 orders per second.With the advent of these food delivery platforms, the traditional Indian kitchens have become redundant. The current trend among the younger generations is, “If food can be ordered online and delivered piping hot in a jiffy, at any time of the day, why take pains to cook?” Cooking is being looked down upon as “out of fashion” these days.With both partners working and no one having time to do household chores, cooking is slowly fading out of the daily routine of families, making way for online orders. This is the new-age trend and a reality. Homes have turned into hotels with a hall to watch TV, bedrooms to rest, and workstations to work.The humble kitchen, which holds wonderful memories, carries a rich legacy, and evokes the mother’s magic culinary touch, and is often the place for family dinners and discussions, is displaced by a cold business-like modern high-tech workstation sans any emotional appeal.The kitchens evoked deep familial bonds and was also a place to convey urgent and important matters “secretly” to the close members of the family without attracting the attention of others. The familiar sight of the entire family sitting around a dining table, gossiping and enjoying dinner together while piping-hot food was served from the kitchen, will be a thing of the past. Instead, each family member sitting in different corners of the house holding a pizza in one hand and a mobile on the other will be a common sight to watch.The older generation find it very distressing to watch emotional bonds of the past turn into vestiges of a bygone era.vsm_48@yahoo.com Published - July 26, 2026 04:50 am IST