This time of year it is hard to keep food off the mind—with the thought of turkey, sweet potatoes, stuffing—and all of those delicious pies. That makes the kitchen a busy place. Lucky for amateur chefs, several appliances are being upgraded—like most of today’s technology—to a be a little smarter and make your time in the kitchen less hectic.
Microwave Oven: Meals Tailored to You
The MAID is more than just a microwave oven—it is a smart kitchen assistant and personal dietician. Its 6-inch touchscreen can even walk you through a recipe thanks to its Interactive Cookbook feature, while its companion app tracks your activity and can recommend when it might be the time to go for a run based on calories consumed. The oven even learns what you like to cook and how, and automatically customizes recipes, cook time and temperature to meet your needs. MAID is currently being crowdfunded and may be released next year.
Crock-Pot: Remote Cooking From Your Phone
It’s not easy to cook homemade meals when you spend so much time on the go. But as long as you have a smartphone, you can control Belkin’s Crock-Pot Smart Slow Cooker with WeMo ($130) from anywhere. By syncing the free WeMo app to the Crock-Pot you can change or adjust the cooking temperature, turn the device on or off and monitor the cooking status—all from your phone or tablet. Of course, you still need to find the time to prep your roasts, soups and other one-pot meals.
Food Scale: The Baker’s Best Friend
A lot has to go right in order to bake the perfect treat, and Adaptics’ Drop ($100) helps make the process as smooth as possible. This iPad-connected food scale pairs with a recipe app and does practically everything. It will help you to find the perfect recipe, easily resize the ingredient requirements to fit your needs, quickly find a substitute for a missing ingredient and, finally, precisely measure everything out—in a single bowl. So not only do you end up with a delicious treat, but clean-up will also be a breeze
Coffee Maker: Handcrafted Coffee At Home
Bruvelo is a WiFi-connected coffee brewer that delivers fine, handcrafted, pour-over coffee. Buy fresh roasted beans and select one of three built-in flavor profiles (Delicate, Balanced and Robust) and let the Bruvelo do its thing. Or if you have more refined tastes, take complete control over the brewing process: Download the app, and select the temperature, ground-to-water ratio and steep time for that particular bean. The Bruvelo will even save that profile for the next time. Currently, the Bruvelo is being crowdfunded online.
3D Food Printer: Insert Fresh Ingredients Here
Do you love homemade ravioli, but hate the process of assembling and filling each piece before cooking? Then Natural Machines’ Foodini may be the device for you. This 3D food printer doesn’t completely automate meal making, but does make it easier. To make ravioli, you simply make the dough and filling and insert them into the Foodini, which prepares the ravioli for you. The same goes for pizza, burgers, cookies and even edible plate decorations. The Foodini is expected to be available sometime next year.
