Word: kitchener
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...tough living on a rice diet. But for Zojirushi, a Japanese kitchen-gadget maker, grains have been golden. The company specializes in rice cookers that fetch as much as $1,000. Its high-end devices, which look more like computers than pots, have enticed the class of techie epicures who like $10,000 stoves and fridges. With a series of innovations - from induction-heating advances to sleek, vacuum-sealed containers designed to serve rice at its most succulent, Zojirushi has cooked up a following that yields $600 million in annual sales...
Founded in 1918, Zojirushi long relied on Japan for the bulk of its sales. But as the recession tamps down luxury spending, competitors' cheaper models are making inroads against Zojirushi's luxury offerings. So Zojirushi has rolled out a wider range of tricked-out kitchen tools - from oddly small bread machines to too-smart toasters and wired teapots - that have allowed the company to expand sales overseas and well beyond rice. (See pictures of what the world eats...
With clever gizmos like that one, Zojirushi has fashioned itself as the Nintendo of kitchen gadgetry. Both companies have crushed much larger competitors in narrow markets where their engineering talent has yielded marketable product improvements. And both have remained lean - with about 5,000 employees between them and small, stable management teams. Both have leaned heavily on slick industrial design. And just as Nintendo has become hip again with its underdog approach to video-game design, Zojirushi has been brewing up its own cult following with its sleekly crafted gizmos...
...their friends again instead of spending all their private time in public places [like restaurants]. Michelle Obama out there planting a garden on the White House lawn is a wonderful message. For someone like me who's spent my whole life trying to get people to go into the kitchen...
Lewis' books in particular are an antidote to overstimulated nerves. The Amish (who number about 230,000, mostly in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana) are notable for what they reject - from televisions to electric kitchen appliances to zippers - which means a quiet environment for readers. The pace is slow and soothing; no conversations in Bird-in-Hand are interrupted by a ringing cell phone...