The microwave: Ping for your supper

As the microwave oven reaches its 65th anniversary, we celebrate by trying to live off ready made meals for a week
1970s: Cheaper and safer microwaves
1970s: Cheaper and safer microwaves
GETTY IMAGES/COMSTOCK IMAGES

When the Elizabethan travel writer Thomas Coryat introduced Italy’s new dining implement to Britain at the start of the seventeenth century, the latest addition to the cutlery box received a lukewarm reception. Why would anyone need a fork, folk wondered, when God gave us perfectly good fingers? It took around 350 years before the true importance of tines became apparent — without them, how else do you pierce the film lid on a microwave meal?

The truth is that a fork is the only utensil thousands of people will use to prepare their meals this evening. The British are by far the biggest bingers on ready-made meals in Europe — according to research by Mintel, we spent nearly £2 billion on them last year, with