The kitchen of the future: self-cleaning cutlery and food pills The type of food we eat will also change. To illustrate the study's findings, Miele commissioned the chef Ben Spalding, 26, who has previously worked at Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck restaurant, to imagine a futuristic feast set in 2063. Spalding focused largely on the prediction that we'll have access to a much wider range of flavours in 50 years time, partly because by growing food at home, we will rediscover ingredients that supermarkets currently deem too costly to import commercially. He created an extraordinarily rich-tasting, 45-ingredient salad, sourcing each ingredient near his home, in London, to illustrate how hyper-locality might work. The salad included cress grown in a prototype "farmino" machine, one of only two in existence (the other is owned by the Fat Duck), which allows chefs and farmers to control the growth of plants by iPod. The machines will be "massive" in a few years time, Ben predicts. More unusual flavours such as aloe vera, fig leaves and tonka beans may all become the norm in our kitchens too, he says. Another development in the future may be the introduction of hand-held scanners that will automatically assess our bodies" real-time dietary needs. Once analysed, we'll be able to drink the necessary nutrients in one go in "functional food cocktails," and at some point, Ben believes, we may even reach the stage where we eat everything in pill form. Until then, our future diets will be lighter - steaming will be the healthy cooking method of choice - and generally more natural, although lab-grown meat will be accepted as normal. As will eating insects, a much more plentiful and sustainable source of protein than sheep and cows. There are currently over 1,900 species of edible insects and once we learn to conquer our squeamishness, says Ben, we'll find many of these have interesting flavours - he has already perfected a "bug syrup" that goes well with meat. "I want food to be more cave-man-like in the future," he says. These combinations may seem really out there and modern but what they'll become is something much more grounded, in essence. Steamed 3D tonka bean cocktail, anyone? Follow Ben Spalding on Twitter at @Benspalding1