For those who can't stand the washing up, help is at hand with one of the strangest culinary inventions in years - the bread bowl.
A Birmingham food firm has started making bowls and plates out of dough. The idea is that diners enjoy a soup, chilli or curry, then eat the bowl too.
David Williams, the managing director of Butt Foods, which has developed the idea, admits: "Our banks, our investors all thought we were crackers. But we've now proved them wrong."
The company already supplies a chain of pubs with prawn cocktail-filled bread bowls and says that later this year a leading supermarket will stock its microwavable naan bowl filled with chicken tikka masala.
Mr Williams says Butt's bowls hold their shape for eight hours without going soggy.
No extra ingredients have been added to the dough to make it sturdy. Instead, the firm has developed an industrial oven that is able to bake the inside of the bowl at the same time as the outside, giving it a "double crust".
Elaine Watson, from the magazine Food Manufacturer, said: "The bread bowl is one of the most innovative product launches in recent years."
