It’s no secret to my family and closest friends that not only do I hate to cook, but when I do cook, anything goes and it’s not in the “delicious” column. Measuring? Not likely. Baking materials such as a rolling pin, flour, baking powder, pan for the dough, and the little gadget that measures teaspoons and tablespoons — no, none in my kitchen.
However, all this doesn’t mean that I don’t appreciate what’s coming down the pike in kitchen gadgets. Anything to make the kitchen more enjoyable and help make the chore of cooking fun and easy is of interest to one who has exhausted her love of preparing a meal a couple of decades ago.
So, I read with interest an article in www.fastcompany.com about new kitchen gadgets that promise to change the way we cook (even if we don’t like to cook). Sure, we all know that tech companies are working hard to transform the kitchen with AI and robots that do the cooking. The goal is that chef-like robots, AI-powered appliances, and other high-tech kitchen gadgets are promising that humans don’t need to cook — or mix drinks — for themselves anymore.
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There were amazing sights at the food and beverage world at CES 2024, the multiday trade event put on by the Consumer Technology Association. Displays included cocktail-mixing and ice cream-making machines similar to the operation of a Keurig.
For starters, some of the newest tech that’s transforming the way meals are prepped, cooked and delivered include a “no smoke” indoor smoker. Around the size of a toaster oven or microwave, the GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker can fit a full brisket cut in half, 40 chicken wings or three racks of ribs. It still uses wood pellets to achieve a smoky flavor, but its technology traps the smoke inside, making it perfect for people who live in urban environments, like high-rise apartments. Cost? Around $1,000. But if you enjoy the smoky flavor in your meat and don’t want to brave temps in winter, it’s a super alternative.
As a mostly vegetarian diner (I cheat with an occasion meatball), another product that caught the eye of kitchen connoisseurs using generative AI technology was Brisk It’s new smart grill, the NeoSear. This promises “to make the art of barbecuing foolproof.” How? You can ask the grill all kinds of questions to create the perfect recipe such as what seasoning goes best with a New York strip or get the perfect recipe for a tangy BBQ sauce for ribs or chicken.
Then, once you’ve programmed in a recipe and prepped the food, Brisk It’s InnoGrill AI 2.0 technology will command the grill to cook it.
“It’s everyone’s smart grill,” said CEO Christopher Huang. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a skilled enthusiast, if you’re busy, young, or old.” The grill is not yet available but will cost around $2,000, Huang said.
Freezing your own ice cream at home takes hours, but with tech startup ColdSnap’s no-clean ice cream machine, your frozen treat is ready in two minutes. Yes, two minutes! Like a Keurig we use for coffee, this is sort of a Keurig for ice cream. You can choose from flavors like salted caramel and coffee, then put the pod in the machine and it will dispense your cold treat in minutes after scanning the pod’s QR code. ColdSnap can also whip up frozen lattes, ice cream treats, and protein shakes.
And for all you fry-babies that can’t get enough fried anything, tech startup Chef AI is unveiling what it calls a “real one-touch” air fryer. Unlike the air fryer you might have on your kitchen counter right now, Chef AI’s take on the popular appliance doesn’t require any tinkering with settings. “Just place the food in the air fryer, press Start, and it uses artificial intelligence to detect what type of food it is cooking,” says the company’s CEO Dean Khormaei. He added that the air fryer would turn even the worst cooks into chefs (a ray of sunshine for me). Chef AI will be available in the U.S. in September for $250.
And for James Bond enthusiasts who still can’t prepare a perfect dirty martini, Bartesian’s cocktail-mixing appliance takes the guesswork out of bartending. Its latest model, the Premier, can hold up to four different types of spirits. Using a small touch screen on the appliance to pick from 60 recipes, you drop a cocktail capsule into the Premier and, in seconds, you have a premium cocktail over ice. It retails for $369 and will be available later this year.
For those who desire a gallon of homemade beer and can wait 9 to 13 days for it to brew, iGulu’s new automated brewing machine lets you make your own beer — a pale ale, an amber lager, or a wheat beer. Just pour a premixed recipe into the machine’s keg, add water, and scan the sticker that comes with the beer mix.
Cheers to the creative minds behind this new technology!
Peg DeMarco is a Morganton resident who writes a weekly features column for The News Herald. Contact her at [email protected].
