Back In the Kitchen Trivia Quiz

Answer: Grater

It seems quite amazing that the grater has been around for such a long time and the name of its inventor is not really known. Other than grating cheese for Welsh rarebit and potato for rosti, the grater is also used in many dishes.
It can be used to grate coconut, ginger, nutmeg, carrots and chocolate, among many other foods. Now if only I could think of a recipe involving all those ingredients.

Answer: Crock pot

Nachumsohn based his invention on the practice in his family's native Lithuania of Jewish families using bakery ovens, slowly cooling overnight, to cook stews, known as cholent, for the Sabbath.
Although Nachumsohn was born in the USA, the period following WWII was an uncomfortable time for many Americans with German sounding names, so he changed his name to Naxon between the patent being granted and his invention hitting the market. The Naxon Beanery wasn't a huge seller, but when Naxon retired in 1970, he sold his business to Rival Manufacturing, who rebranded the Beanery as the Crock Pot and began a large advertising campaign.
This took sales of the Crock Pot from $2 million in 1971 to an incredible $93 million by 1975, and it can now be found in homes throughout the world.

Answer: Rotating wheel can opener

Lyman was a prolific inventor who worked on variations of the coffee pot, the butter dish and fruit jar lids as well as the can opener.
The first can openers were basically a modified knife or bayonet which were awkward to use and also had the potential for some fairly serious accidents to take place.
Canning of food first took place in the Netherlands in the 1770s and by the 1820s was a common sight in Europe and North America, along with a wonderful instruction that in order to open a can, one should "cut round the top near the outer edge with a chisel and hammer".
By 1925, the Star Can Opener Company of San Francisco had improved Lyman's can opener by adding a second wheel allowing the opener to grip the can between the two wheels. The first electric can openers appeared in 1956.

Answer: Tupperware

Tupper opened his first production plant in 1942, dreaming of the "Tupperization" of every kitchen in America, but a shortage of materials during WWII meant he was forced to diversify into making gas masks and parts for signal lamps.
Following the war, he managed to get his products out to a limited market by offering them as an add on when purchased with another product, such as a Tupperware tumbler with the purchase of a toothbrush or a Tupperware cigarette case when you bought a pack of cigarettes.
Tupperware really took off when Tupper realised two people, Thomas Damigella in Massachusetts and Brownie Wise in Florida, were purchasing a lot of his product and following a meeting with them, discovered they were holding Tupperware parties and home selling the product.
In the early 1950s, Tupperware was withdrawn from all retail outlets and Tupperware parties became the in thing, allowing vendors to demonstrate the versatility of the product and would be buyers to examine and ask questions.

Answer: Tea cosy

During the mid 19th century, the English upper classes would eat luncheon at midday, but then eat their evening meal quite late, often as late as 9 pm. In order to fill this gap, Anna Russell, 7th Duchess of Bedford and a lifelong friend of Queen Victoria, began taking Darjeeling tea, accompanied by light food such as cake or sandwiches in the afternoon. This soon became a daily routine for her and she invited friends to come and share afternoon tea with her, so that they could discuss recent events and catch up on the social scene while partaking. With her friend Queen Victoria as a fan of the new afternoon tea, the practice really took off and would often include several courses of biscuits, sandwiches, scones and pastries, meaning that the pot of tea would soon start to become cold, necessitating the use of a tea cosy to keep the pot warm.

Answer: Jackie Chan

The George Foreman Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine, better known as the George Foreman Grill, is made by Salton Inc, a part of Spectrum Brands and first hit the market in 1994.
Spectrum use Foreman's name under license, after Salton paid him $138 million in 1999 for the honour, but in Asia, especially China, where Foreman is not as well known, they use local hero, Jackie Chan.
The Jackie Chan Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine is exactly the same as the George Foreman version, and Foreman has also appeared in much of the Asian advertising for the product.

Answer: Pyrex

When the warm glass of railway lanterns was exposed to cold air outside the train, it had a tendency to shatter, raising the chances of near misses or even train accidents. In an effort to solve this problem. Sullivan worked with borosilicate glass to make new safer lanterns which were an immediate success.
Physicist Jesse T. Littleton was part of Sullivan's team charged with finding other uses for this new glass and after his wife's casserole dish had shattered in the oven, he and his wife started experimenting with the glass.
When Bessie Littleton presented her results to Sullivan, he improved the make up of the glass, to ensure it was safe for cooking and Pyrex cookware was born.

Answer: Mortar and pestle

In ancient times, a mortar and pestle were traditionally used in the preparation of medicines at the apothecary. Within the sphere of food preparation, early examples offer evidence they were used by Native Americans and pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican cultures such as the Aztecs, among others.

Many of the foods we enjoy today are still at their best when prepared with a mortar and pestle, such as guacamole, hummus and pesto, which takes its name from the pestle.

Answer: Electric toaster

MacMasters was instrumental in developing new electric lighting for underground railways and during the course of his work, he met an electrical engineer, the wonderfully named Rookes Crompton, who went by his middle name of Evelyn.
MacMasters told Crompton of how in an effort to cut costs he had experimented with cheaper metal for the light filaments, but the amount of nickel in the wires had caused the lamp in his laboratory to run so hot that nearby bread began to brown.
MacMasters joined forces with Crompton and perfected his toaster, on which the toast had to be turned over by hand, and sold the design to Crompton, who manufactured it as the Eclipse electric bread toaster.
The first commercially successful electric toaster was the D-12, invented by Frank Shailor in 1909 and sold by General Electric, which was further improved on by the Copeman Electric Stove Company in 1913 with a "toaster that turns toast".
In 1919, Charles Strite of Minnesota invented an automatic pop-up toaster, which was available to restaurants, which was improved upon by Waters-Genter of Minneapolis in 1926, making it available for home use under the name "Toastmaster".

Answer: 1.8 metres (5 feet 11 inches)

The first microwave was developed after being discovered by accident when in 1925 Percy Spencer, a Raytheon employee, found that microwaves from an active radar set he was working on started to melt a chocolate bar he had in his pocket. He conducted further experiments with popcorn and eggs and in 1947 the microwave was ready to be sold to the public.
This monster stood 1.8 metres (5 feet 11 inches) tall, weighed in at 340 kilograms (750 lb) and cost almost $5,000, which was a small fortune at the time.
It wasn't until the 1970s that the low cost, counter top models of microwaves that are so common today became freely available.