Who’s got time to eat dinner around here, let alone cook it? 

"We’ve moved away from the time that every day at 5:30, the wife put the food on the table," says Calisa Cole-Gouyet, 37, high-tech marketeer and mom. 

Far away. Cole-Gouyet never cooks. It’s been a year since she’s been in a supermarket. Her husband, Albert Gouyet, 36, loves to cook, but he’s riding the Netscape rocket and can’t swing a dinner more than once a week. 

They rely on carry-in and the nanny. She orders groceries online to be delivered to the family’s Palo Alto home, where she makes a few dinners a week. 

"It’s just kind of there when we get home from work," Cole-Gouyet says. 

Ah, work. Siliconians do a lot and would rather not cook when they’re finished. Families here spend more of their food budget on restaurant food than families anywhere else, American Demographics reported in 1996. 

We’ve created an industry of people who will bring food to you, and we’ve encouraged time-saving strategies that inspire awe. 

"They’re sitting there on the phone. They’re driving and reading the menu at the same time," Fernando Hidalgo says of those who call his South Bay Waiters on Wheels while racing to beat their order home. "These are talented people." 

Craig Cohen and Michael Adelberg’s [Waiter.Com] takes carry-out and delivery orders over the Internet. The service will even send e-mail reminders that it’s time to eat. 

"My body usually reminds me to eat by itself," says Clark Warner, 33, an engineering manager at Apple, who, nonetheless, is a regular customer. He works long days, is active in his church and lives alone in Mountain View. It doesn’t make sense to cook. So, what was the last dish he made for himself? 

"Maybe spaghetti and meatballs a month ago?" 

Nino Marchetti would like to cook for his wife. 

"It’s hard to talk about the events of the day," he says, "if you’re standing in line at some pizza place waiting for your food." 

But he staffs the help desk at Yahoo! His wife, Heather, 27, counsels troubled kids. They’re busy. So, they carryout and dream of calmer days. 

"I’m taking cooking classes right now," says Marchetti, 26. "I just haven’t had time to practice very much."