Gordon Ramsay said they’re “for lazy cooks” and Raymond Blanc once declared that using a microwave to cook food for your children was an “act of hate”. For many keen cooks they remain a dirty secret, and a certain kind of conspiracy theorist believes the leaking microwaves are slowly cooking our brains. (Don’t worry, they’re not – but they can interfere with your wi-fi signal.) a fixture Despite all the haters, microwaves have remained a fixture in most kitchens. In fact, ownership rose from 67% of British households in 1995 to 93% in 2018. These days it’s not a faux pas to admit to using one – and not just for reheating things and melting chocolate. Taste-maker Nigella Lawson used one proudly in Cook, Eat, Repeat (mockglamourising it as the “mee-crow-waavé”), and celebrity chef and restaurateur David Chang has professed his love for the “amazing, amazing machine”. There’s even a microwave sponge cake method created by the king of high-falutin’ molecular gastronomy, Ferran Adrià.