Food

Have a techy Christmas: Gadget gift ideas for the home cooks in your life


Stop me if you’ve heard this one before — someone you know (or even yourself) can’t get enough of watching cooking videos on YouTube and may or may not have made more than a little mess in the kitchen trying to replicate gourmet recipes. 

As citizens of a food-loving nation, it’s only natural that some of us are bonafide home cooks. Regardless of the, er, actual edibility of the food we make from scratch. 

We’re only as good as the tools we have, and cooking at home without the right gear can be as frustrating as slicing beef with a butter knife. 

I mean sure, that’s not to say that better equipment equals better cook, but at least it’ll give them a fighting chance to craft something impressive for the next dinner party. If not, well, they’re still pretty awesome toys to have around the kitchen. 

With Christmas right around the corner, we’ve got a list of gift ideas that can let that home cook in your life level up to become a home chef. 

Recipes not included. 


Chef’sChoice knife sharpener

PHOTO: Amazon

A proper knife is the single most important tool in any kitchen (home or otherwise), and a sharp knife is even more pivotal. While it’s a no-brainer that having a sharp knife makes things easier to slice or chop, not a lot of people know that sharper knives are actually safer — dull ones tend to slip (causing bloody accidents, yeesh) and require a lot more pressure to cut into something. 

Thus the importance of having a good knife sharpener. To make it impossible to mess up the process, get an electric sharpener capable of turning a cheap, blunt knife into something akin to a high-end Japanese sushi chef’s knife (i.e. bloody sharp). For that, we recommend the Chef’sChoice Trizor XV (from $146.78 via Amazon). It’s a little pricey, but it’ll be an invaluable piece of equipment in any kitchen, capable of sharpening both straight edge and serrated blades. Not to mention absolutely user-friendly. 

Anova Precision Cooker

PHOTO: Anova Culinary

If you’d like to turn any home-cooked meal into something worthy of being served at a high-end restaurant, look no further than sous vide precision cookers. For those not in the know, sous vide involves cooking food in a low temperature over a (much) longer period of time — this ensures that the item gets cooked evenly at a precise, regulated temperature with all the moisture locked within. 

Arguably, it’s one of the most fuss-free types of cooking that anyone can execute should they have the right equipment. Inexpensive and perfect for beginner home chefs, the Anova Precision Cooker Nano ($128 on Anova Culinary) lets everyone achieve perfect results every single time, with no overcooking. One would simply need to pop the device in a pot of water, submerge meats and/or vegetables (which have to be sealed in plastic bags) in the bath, and let the cooking begin. Pair the device with an app and it’ll even tell you how long you need to cook the meat for and alert you when the food is ready to be taken out. Easy peasy. 

Instant Pot 

PHOTO: Instant Pot

Speaking of fuss-free cooking, here’s another appliance that’s formidable enough to command a cult following worldwide. Say hello to the Instant Pot, an all-in-one fusion of everything you need to make great food in big batches — a pressure cooker, a slow cooker, a steamer, a rice cooker, a food defroster (and warmer), a stew maker, and a sauté machine. Throw a bunch of ingredients in the pot, close the lid, press a button, and the result comes out tasting delish in no time at all. 

What’s even better now is that the Instant Pot can now hook up to your Wi-Fi ($170.34 via Amazon), making it a programmable multi-cooker that you can control and monitor from your phone. With all the guesswork taken out of things, you really can’t go wrong with this miracle on your kitchen counter.

Infrared thermometer

PHOTO: YouTube screengrab

Cooking is all about understanding how to manipulate heat — temperature control is essential in transforming food, and not knowing how often ends up burning amateur chefs. 

Thus the importance of a thermometer in any respectable kitchen. Sure, you can buy one of those fancy thermometer needles, but why bother when you can get a decent infrared thermometer gun? Just point the laser and get an accurate reading of the temperature, all without even touching the food. They go for less than $20 on Lazada

Drop Scale

PHOTO: Drop 

In the old days, kitchen scales are pretty straightforward machines to get accurate weight readings. It’s a must-have for any kitchen though, especially when it comes to baking recipes that demand precision in proportions. 

Nowadays though, kitchen scales are smart enough to guide people through hundreds of recipes. At its most basic, the Drop Scale ($129.13 via Lazada) provides accurate measurements. But it goes beyond that when it gets hooked up to an app, which will offer step-by-step on-screen instructions to whip up a variety of meals. The scale will even take note of the ingredients you put in the mixing bowl, making it a breeze to blaze through prepping food. And cocktails too, so that’s a plus. 

Google Nest Hub

Not so much a specialised cooking tool, the Google Nest Hub ($189 on the Google Store) makes for a pretty awesome screen to sit on your kitchen counter. Even if you don’t have things like Internet-connected lighting and temperature control, Google’s smart display is your personalised assistant in the kitchen, offering recipes with step-by-step instructions that can be read out loud or shown on-screen via YouTube. 

It can stream music and podcasts through decent speakers as you chop chives; it can cast content from YouTube while you wait for the chicken to finish grilling in the oven. While your hands are dripping with oil and herbs, use your voice to set timers and alarms, or find out how many ounces are in a cup. Leave it alone and it’s a digital photo frame. 

Thermomix TM6

If you really, really want to go big with the gifting, look no further than the Thermomix TM6 ($2,320!) a smart space-saving device that claims to do the job of over 20 kitchen appliances. This one device is able to stir, mix, grind, knead, whisk, chop, weigh, steam, simmer, emulsify, sous vide, ferment, slow-cook, and probably find the cure to cancer too. 

The latest version has a bigger touch screen display that offers step-by-step guided cooking with access to an online library that holds over 50,000 officially-tested recipes by Thermomix. The price tag is hella steep though, but probably worth the money if you’re cooking in the kitchen every single day. 

ilyas@asiaone.com



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