With the benefit of hindsight, the future was a wonderful place. Apart from an obsession with bland décor, gleaming uber-hygenic floors and oddly uncomfortable furniture, post-war visions of future kitchens tantalised us with such perennial futurologist's favourites as the magnetically levitated, induction-heated frying pan and the fridge in a drawer.

The Ideal Home Exhibition of 1956 predicted that the 'House of Tomorrow' would be atomic-powered. Food would be vacuum-packed in plastic bags and irradiated with gamma rays - no need for tedious refrigeration! The 'Monsanto House of the Future' - on display at Disneyland from 1957-67 - promised a plastic ultrasonic dishwasher for your plastic dishes.

Lives would be changed by Frigidaire's fridge with motorised revolving shelves and, bizarrely, a built-in mixer. And in 1969, $10,000 could buy you the Honeywell Kitchen Computer, which could store recipes, tell you what to make with the ingredients you had and, for its pièce de resistance, balance your cheque book.

There has been real progress since then, of course - inventions such as microwave ovens and freezers, without which it is difficult to envisage contemporary life. These changes have come in response to consumer trends, particularly around our living habits, growing environmental awareness and ever-evolving internet and mobile technology.

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