Collection by David Glenn
New and Upcoming Gadgets You'll Want in Your Kitchen
The kitchen of the future just arrived a few minutes ago, and it’s brought some pretty interesting new gadgets along with it. Here’s a list of 10 new and upcoming tools for kitchen use that you won't want to want to be without.
This innovation is one that should have occurred at approximately exactly the same time that the fork was invented. But instead, the spork was introduced a while back, and it completely missed the point. Nobody wants ineffectual little tines on their spoon; they’re too short to stab food, and the spaces between them disrupt the integrity of something that could otherwise hold things like soup or cereal. The Knork is a fork with a knife edge on one of the tines—simple and elegant.
It just seems like an oversight that refrigerators don't automatically come equipped with locks. Disagree? See what happens when you help yourself to someone else's half carton of Ben and Jerry's Chunky Monkey that you found in the freezer. If you survive, you'll see why the Fridge Locker that can protect tasty morsels from food thieves, is a whimsical addition to any kitchen.
Soggy breakfast cereal is the worst. That’s not hyperbole; soggy cereal is literally the worst. To combat the despair of having to eat your bowl of Cap’n Crunch like a soldier late for drill practice, innovative minds have come up with the Obol. It’s basically two bowls in one. One side hold the milk, while the other holds the dry cereal. Just scoop up some cereal, dip it in the milk, and enjoy every bite as though it were your first.
Downing a beverage from a cup made of solid ice just seems somehow godlike. It’s as if you’re attending Odin’s birthday bash and the winds of the frozen North have supplied the drinkware. Unfortunately, unless you’re enjoying your drink someplace with an ambient temperature of less than 32°f, you’re going to be holding less and less of a mug as the party goes on. Still, it might be worth it.
If you’re not a fan of sparkling water, this carbonated water dispensing refrigerator may not be for you. But if you are, this will save many a glass bottle from hitting the recycling bin!
iGrill is a meat thermometer that wirelessly communicates with your smart device. This is pretty neat in and of itself, but the implications it represents are something even more interesting. Have smart devices finally made the jump into food preparation? Will the day soon come when your phone will be able to brew you coffee and fry you up some bacon with the touch of a button or a spoken command?
Sour milk can really ruin a meal. That's why Quirky and General Electric have joined forces to come up with a device that watches the milk when you can't. The Milkmaid is a jug that you pour your milk into. Inside the jug, pH and temperature sensors continually monitor the state of the milk. The information is relayed to an electronic base that can then send a message to your phone if things don't look right. If that sounds like a lot of work just to keep from getting an unexpected mouthful of yogurt, then how have you made it this far in the article?
Electrolux's Laptop Kitchen features a touchscreen display, but the word is still out on how well that will work if you’re wearing oven-mitts.
If they could have just fit the word “quantum” into that title, we would have had the perfect sci-fi trifecta. What is this contraption, you ask? Though not exactly on the market yet, the idea is that food will be suspended in a safe, biopolymer gel to keep it refrigerated at its optimal temperature all while using only a fraction of the energy required by today’s refrigerators. If this Bio Robot Refrigerator ever hits the market, the Star Trek food replicator can’t be too far behind.