Can’t control your binge eating? Nick Tseng has a solution
THINKING INSIDE THE BOX | Nick Tseng and his partners invented the perfect gadget to force self-control on yourself: The Kitchen Safe.
Most stories about food deal with the delights of eating — even when something’s bad for you. But this one is about not eating.
Nicholas Tseng was an electrical engineer working at Texas Instruments, enjoying his life at the ilume, when his brother Ryan called from California. A mutual friend, Dave Krippendorf, had an idea for a product and needed some help with the design.
The problem was this: “Dave was overeating and kept snacking throughout the day,” Tseng says. He couldn’t exercise any self-control when it came to sweets. Was there a way of keeping the temptation just that — a temptation — with no chance of adding calories? And thus the Kitchen Safe was born.
Tseng sympathized with Krippendorf’s dilemma (“I keep my Dove chocolates in there sometimes,” he admits) and saw the potential for a useful product.
It works this way: There’s something in your house you love but just can’t eat right now: M&Ms, donuts, cookies. Just take the food, drop it in the 3/5 quart tub, and spin the dial on top, which can be set for anywhere from one minute to 10 days. Press the button and voila! You’re locked away from the temptation for as long as you selected … with no backtracking.
“We toyed with the idea of an override,” says Tseng, “but when we gave them to people that way, they just used it, undermining the whole concept.” Instead, once you push the button you have five seconds to change your mind; after that, the die is cast.
Tseng got heavily involved in the product about a year ago while he was still working at TI, then “went fulltime [on Kitchen Safe] six months ago, when we reached a turning point,” he says.
Part of the turning point was the decision to launch a Kickstarter campaign (an online crowd-funding site), which ends Saturday; they have already taken in more than $40,000, $10K above their goal. (There’s still time to contribute.)
“That’ll pay for all our manufacturing and tooling costs,” Tseng says. They expect to get their first big shipment from the manufacturer — about 2,000 units — in September.
Until then, there are “a million little things” to work out. In addition to design tweaking, there’s the question of whether to launch as a retail product, through informercial or exclusively online. And there’s the issue of whether it’s really just for food.
“The original concept was to limit impulsive eating, but all these other ideas started coming up,” Tseng says. Put your credit cards, or cell phone, or cigarettes, or Xbox controller in it. The most creative suggestion?
“Weed,” he says. “I have had a few of my college buddies say having [the Kitchen Safe] would have been great during finals to keep that away.”
Best of all? It would probably also help control the munchies.
To contribute, search “Kitchen Safe” at Kickstarter.com.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition July 19, 2013.