Peer into Panasonic’s kitchen of the future, today

Around the mid-century, the “kitchen of the future” might have included an ice maker in the fridge door and a massive microwave oven on the counter — probably a “Radarange.” But as we make our way through the new millennium, we’ve got some serious tech packed into the kitchen this time around.

At CEATEC Japan 2016, which wrapped earlier this month in Chiba, Panasonic showed us just what we can look forward to. CEATEC stands for Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies, and this year’s theme was “Connecting Society, Creating the Future.”

Kitchens aren’t just for cooking the food, this is now a place where families gather together to socialize. Touchscreen tech is everywhere, too. For example, a touchscreen “wine cellar” shows you the current temperature, and will also recommend the best dinner to serve with your wine, by popping up some recipes on the glass.

Here’s some cool tech that will really catch your eye — or your taste buds. You take your plate with the food on it, set it on the table, place a glass cover over it, and it begins to cook your meal. Even the worst cook in the family would have a hard time messing this dish up.

There’s a bit of Zen in this look, too — the clean spareness of these looks is no doubt meant to convey a feeling of serenity and comfort, as the kitchen morphs into another high-tech gathering room for the family; one that also happens to serve food and beverages. In other words, not the kitchen you see on Brady Bunch reruns. As homes get loaded with more smart tech, these features will become more commonplace. As seemingly everything is on the way to being connected, perhaps the kitchen is the last great piece of the connected-home puzzle.