oven

Smeg and Marc Newson bring color back to the kitchen

In the '70s it was hip to decorate your kitchen in colors that would otherwise blind a normal human being. You couldn't go into a kitchen that didn't have chartreuse, guacamole, or squash yellow ovens and refrigerators. In today's sleek modern world, we've leaned more toward the stainless steel brushed look that makes our kitchens seem cold and lifeless. Designer Marc Newson wants that to change.

At the recent EuroCucina kitchen appliance and design show in Milan, Smeg debuted its new line of high-end ovens and cooktops designed by minimalist designer Marc Newson. Known for his … Read more

Killer Download: Find holiday recipes using cooking database apps

With Thanksgiving only two days away, people are bringing out their favorite recipes for turkey, gravy, stuffing, and pumpkin pie. How do you keep your recipes from year to year? My father's method was to put his favorite recipes into notebooks that would be brought out every year. But even with laminated pages, eventually his notebooks got pretty messy. My mother used index cards to store recipes, but over time the ingredients would fade, especially if the recipe was popular with the family.

In the search for a better method through software, I discovered some good recipe database programs anyone can use. These handy apps let you store all your favorite Thanksgiving recipes (along with all your other recipes) in a searchable database which you can quickly print out for easy access in the kitchen. You can also catalog things like spices and ingredients on hand, and then search for results using those and other parameters. Some of these apps let you explore other databases online with countless recipe variations and varieties of foods to choose from.… Read more

An oven fit for an astronaut

The age of the digital kitchen has arrived. Not only are "smart" appliances finally making their way into homes (and not just Tomorrowland exhibits at Disneyland), but they're multitasking as well.

Take, for example, the "Intelligent Oven" by TMIO: It can refrigerate and cook in the same space, which can be controlled over the Internet or cell phone. And lest you think all this is some cheap parlor trick, Gizmodo says the uber-oven employs "NASA-based command and control engineering," as well as "green" technologies developed by the space agency. If you'… Read more

What's cooking? Not you

You know how punching in a cook time on a microwave is just too much work? Not only do you have to unwrap your pre-packaged meal, but you have to put it on a plate, and on top of that, you have shut the door. By then, anyone would be exhausted.

Samsung's response: "Dude. We know." Or something like that. But the company is selling the Smart Oven, a combination conventional oven and microwave that reads the bar code on a package of food and knows how long to nuke it.

While this may be a boon … Read more

It's a Webcam, not a blender

When we first saw a picture of this USB Webcam on I4U news, we almost passed it up after mistaking it for a countertop kitchen appliance. Instead, we learned that it's a Cam Optia from Creative, a plug-and-play device with a "precision lens" that can be mounted on just about any type of monitor or a flat surface. It also comes with a stereo headset and a swivel base to make it more versatile--but not versatile enough for baking or any of this, so far as we know.

(Photos: Creative Technologies, KitchenAid)