Skip to content

Conversation topic has changed in an instant

Colleagues can’t say enough about Instant Pot
Barbara Gunn
Barbara Gunn

It’s all my colleagues can talk about — well, three of them anyway.

It used to be that the workplace chitchat centred around the offspring. The coming vacation. The latest series on Netflix.

Not of late.

The three colleagues all happened to receive an identical present under the Christmas tree a few weeks back — and they’ve been talking about it ever since.

It’s Instant Pot this. It’s Instant Pot that.

To the trio, the acquisition of an Instant Pot has been life altering, right up there with the acquisition, oh, of a first home or a first automobile.

“What makes it so special?” I asked the other day. I had found the three huddled in the lunchroom, eating leftovers they’d made in their you-know-what.

They stopped, forks frozen mid-air, and stared at me. It was as if I’d asked, oh: Do nine-to-fivers really need to take weekends off? Or: Was it really necessary for members of the working world to receive a paycheque?

“Well,” began one of the three Instant Pot owners. “To being with, there’s really nothing it can’t do!”

“Nothing!” said another.

“And it produces results in no time flat!” added the third.

OK, I thought. I unwrapped my boring, old tuna sandwich, which had been assembled with the assistance of only a knife, a can opener and a little manual labour, and nodded.

But I wasn’t particularly sold.

While it would be useful to have an electrical kitchen helper that can do it all, I am not generally in need of a small appliance that can deliver the goods in next to no time.

Heck, I don’t even want the goods in next to no time — and to start chowing down as soon as I’ve taken off the apron. Heck, whatever happened to the pre-dinner drink?

I wouldn’t, however, mind owning an instant coffee pot. Heaven knows, coffee is a beverage I want pretty much instantly every morning.

And yes, an instant dishwasher would be another tremendous appliance. Imagine how much of a help that would be following a dinner party for 25?

I also wouldn’t mind the instant dryer, which would work in tandem with the instant washer. How handy they would come in on those not-so-infrequent occasions when I’m about to head off on a trip, and my jeans are still in the laundry hamper.

Yep, it seems to me, there’s instant, and then there’s instant.

The colleagues may be on to something, but I think I’ll give the pot a pass.

The instant oven? Perhaps now and then — but only when cake is involved.