CES 2024: the Coolest Smart Kitchen Tech We’ve Seen
I test a lot of smart technologies and am an avid home cook, so I know the difference between a truly useful innovation and an added gimmick. I don’t want a remote control for my ice maker: I want the ice maker to know when I need ice, what kind of ice, and how much I need in a glass.
That’s the problem with a lot of kitchen technology on the market: it doesn’t really add much convenience beyond connecting the device to the Internet. In fact, sometimes I find that smart kitchen appliances can rob me of what I love most about cooking; process and human skill.
Companies are lining up at CES 2024 to try to prove me wrong, and while there are too many devices to name them all, here are the ones that stand out.
Cook the thing and cook it faster
For a long time, we were all obsessed with the slow food movement, which implored us to spend more time thinking about food, our relationship to it, its source, the way we cook and eat, and to try to bring more thoughtfulness to the process. Apparently we’re already done with this, because several devices at CES promised to use artificial intelligence and lasers (!) to cook food at a rate that some might find alarming.
Sharp has unveiled a high-speed oven with grill, convection, inverter microwave and “AI cooking” (apparently it analyzes what you’re cooking and then applies the appropriate cooking method), promising to cut cooking times by two-thirds. . Likewise, Seer Perfecta wants to cook your steak in a minute. Literally a minute. Using infrared burners, it’s essentially a two-sided toaster, but it roasts meat at over 1,600 degrees for $3,500.
It’s more than just a device: Sevvy unveiled cooking technology at CES that it hopes to license. Thanks to homogeneous cooking, food not only cooks faster, but also better, at lower temperatures and using less energy. It uses built-in heating, which is similar to sous vide, but without sous vide. Instead of heating and circulating water, it uses electrical currents that pass through the food itself. Because it cooks food in less time than other methods, Sevvy claims that cooking food this way requires less fat, salt, and sugar (without explaining why or how ), which will then result in “healthier” food. It’s definitely interesting, and last year Sevvy won a top award for her smart cooker, so they’ve got some teeth.
There are so many branded smart ovens on the market these days—June, Brava, Tovala, and many others—that I need to see something truly innovative to generate any enthusiasm. However, the Revolution Cooking Macrowave piqued my interest: This device promises to eliminate the need for a microwave, deep fryer, and toaster oven by providing all of those cooking methods in one neat little countertop box. Revolution already makes a high-end toaster set, so I’m inclined to think it’s worth a look, even if it’s priced at $1,800.
If you take the guesswork out of barbecue, will it still be a sport?
Wireless smart thermometers can take a lot of the guesswork out of grilling, but CES 2024 brought a slew of fully smart barbecues to the forefront. The Current Backyard Electric Grill ($899) is large and grills at 700 degrees, making it much hotter than most gas grills but still giving you two heat zones so you don’t burn the mushrooms. Interestingly, it also cleans automatically and you can control everything through the companion app.
Weber is probably the most respected name in barbecue, and for that reason, I want to try the 2024 Weber Summit grill when it comes out later this year. At $3,800, it will have to prove itself, but the infrared broiler is a big plus.
What I’m most excited about is the GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker . Smoking is an art I’d like to perfect, and traditional methods don’t give me the control I crave. What’s more, the GE smoker brings the technology inside so I can keep an eye on it and smoke it in the dead of winter. For the second time in a month, I’ve fallen in love with a device from GE’s incubation lab called FirstBuild . Clearly, GE has taken the right step forward by creating an incubation space that will help it innovate. Yes, the Smart Smoker can handle multiple racks of ribs and large roasts, but I’m just here to cold smoke salmon.
Your kitchen appliances are getting smarter
Air frying eludes me, mainly because I can’t see what’s going on in my air fryer; it’s a trust exercise with a countertop device, and I fail at it regularly. For this reason, I’m interested in Chef AI because it claims to take the guesswork out of using AI to figure out what you’re trying to cook and handle the cooking itself. Apparently he’ll do it for $250, which at CES seems totally affordable if you can track them down. I couldn’t even find the company’s website, so the jury is still out.
The secret kitchen hood , while not the most glamorous piece of technology, is also an iconic device. It’s 80% smaller than most downdraft hoods and promises to use a cooling system that will make it more efficient than its bulky siblings. CES was also impressed and sent him home with an innovation award.
Almost every major home appliance brand has connected kitchen appliances these days, but few have impressed me with their feature set better than Samsung. Their Bespoke line of home appliances offers more than just Wi-Fi connectivity. At CES, Samsung showed off a feature that lets you stream live video from inside your oven. (Anyone want to come and watch the turkey cook on the big screen?) While I’m skeptical of the new AI feature that notifies you when you’re low on food in the fridge, I’m still impressed by the idea.
What is the end goal here?
What I saw at CES 2024 was cool, but it didn’t convince me that I need to spend thousands of dollars to revolutionize my entire kitchen with smart technology. Even though I’m a smart tech enthusiast, I’ve historically been slow to embrace cooking technology because, at the end of the day, I still believe I can do it better myself.
For me, the process of cooking is not an obstacle – it is what I enjoy. Sous vide ribs may be more accurately cooked, but they don’t fill the house with the warmth and smell of caramelizing meat. Maybe I don’t actually want my steak to cook in 60 seconds. If smart kitchen technology brings more people into the kitchen, that’s great, but I worry it will take away some of the magic.