Clear the Kitchenaid Mixer and the Toaster oven off the counter, you might want to make room for the kitchen PC. ExtremeTech has the plans on Building a Kitchen PC.
So why would you want a PC in the kitchen? Well the obvious one is that Food Network would be very nearby. Other reasons include: managing your pantry and refrigerator inventory, having a database of recipes, and a multitude of other ideas. One way the PC can be used in the kitchen is to track oven and food temperatures with sensors and probes:
There’s no end of things a temperature probe can do for you when connected to your Kitchen PC. You can track meat internal temperature as you roast it to know when it’s done, track the oven temperature to know if the temperature distribution is even and if the thermostat is accurate, verify thawing poultry or fish stay in safe temperature ranges. The PC can do more than beep when it hits a set point; it can log the readings as often as you want, and using a modified version of the software in Chapter 4 can send you email or SMS messages when cooking’s done or a threshold’s passed(emphasis added).