I love cooking, and with the pandemic restricting me to my home at most times, I love experimenting and brewing up new and exotic dishes! They don’t always turn out to be a success, but my time in the kitchen is always enjoyable and an adventure by itself. I do appreciate nifty kitchen gadgets…A LOT. They can turn the most basic prep tasks and chores into something simple, easy, and fun! They can transform tedious cooking processes into short and efficient ones. A good kitchen gadget can really liven up your cooking experience, so we’ve curated a few of our favorite ones! These are YD recommended products that you can buy and will surely love!
Ordine is an innovative cooking solution designed for the modern user. Optimized for small spaces, the design eliminates the need for a bulky traditional stove, clearing the way for more cabinet and counter space. The design features two hob units that are mounted on a central power hub on the wall. Elevated neatly out of the way, the user must simply grab one or both hobs off the wall and set the desired temperature to activate. Clad in materials consisting of natural wood and copper, the design not only saves valuable kitchen real estate but is made to complement your interior aesthetic on display.
The Visual Measuring Cups turn textual references into visual references, helping us understand the measurements better. While most measuring beakers and cups use indicative lines to ‘tell’ you how much half a cup is, the Visual Measuring Cup ‘shows’ you how much half a cup is, giving you a quicker, better understanding of fractional metrics. Available in four sizes spanning a full cup, half cup, one-third cup, and quarter cup, the Visual Measuring Cups are easy to use and need literally no explanation. Their visual nature allows them to be used universally, without numbers or languages being a barrier… and just when things couldn’t get any better, they nest right into one another to make them easy to store!
Designed for better control, the Cheat Sheets don’t just allow you to segregate separate ingredients for the same dish, they let you simultaneously cook two separate dishes together too, separating them according to flavor. The most obvious instance is in desserts, where people tend to get picky. I, for instance, am a basic vanilla and fruit junkie, while others around me usually tend to gravitate towards decadent chocolate desserts. The Cheat Sheets allow you to simultaneously cook two separate dishes in their respective containers – as opposed to using rudimentary aluminum foil dividers, or running your oven for two separate cycles. The Cheat Sheets let you responsibly divide and utilize real estate on your baking tray, giving you the ability to be versatile, and still be in control of your cooking. In fact, each Cheat Sheet container-set comes with its own baking tray, as well as a handy guide that gives you cooking times and temperatures for all your food, so you never over or undercook any ingredient again.
Dubbed the Dome, this compact oven by Gozney is very versatile. It is a professional-grade outdoor oven designed to work effortlessly for experienced chefs and novice ones alike. Whether you have guests over on a Sunday afternoon or have a family dinner, Gozney Dome can be there to take care of the cooking needs as long you have wood to burn. Even though wood-fired cooking is ideal in an outdoor setting if that’s not what the kids want – turn the dial and switch to the built-in gas burner and continue cooking at temperatures up to 500°C. You can roast, steam, smoke, bake, or BBQ inside the 25- x 24- x 28-inch Dome that includes a digital thermometer – a big upgrade over gimmicky ovens designed for the outdoors!
COFFEEJACK comes from the folks at Hribarcain, famed for their great work in the EDC department. Now, they’ve set out to shrink the coffee machine to a form factor so small, you might as well carry it around everywhere you go along with the rest of your belongings. The COFFEEJACK works with any coffee-grind, enabling you to have your favorite espresso anywhere you go, while also reducing your dependence on those earth-polluting Nespresso and Keurig pods. Just add your coffee grind to the lower chamber and COFFEEJACK’s in-built tamper will level the grounds and pack them tightly. Open out the pump and pour hot water into the upper chamber and you’re ready to go! The espresso maker’s manual pump matches the high-pressure output of most coffee machines, giving you an espresso that is as deliciously thick and even has that layer of flavor-packed crema on top, just like the one your barista makes with professional equipment.
Perfect for a nice alfresco barbecue, the BBQ Toolbox comes in a handy, portable size, and is made entirely from steel and coated with heat-resistant red paint. An 8×15” main grilling area is large enough to serve up a meal for as many as 4 people. The secondary grill serves as a warming rack, letting you keep food like sliders or hot dog buns warm while you grill up patties and sausages. When you’re done with your meal, lift the main grilling platform to discard your coals and give the entire toolbox a quick wipe-down before folding it up and carrying it back home. I’d advise you to store this bad-boy in your kitchen, though… you don’t want to accidentally carry your screwdriver, hammer, and wrench-set to your barbecue!
MyCuppa makes the question “How do you like your coffee?” a little easier to answer! The cup, which comes with its own color-matching guide along the rim, helps you make consistent coffee every time by allowing you to visually judge the coffee’s strength. The color guide ranges from milky beige (which incidentally is how I like my coffee) to a strong, dark black. Just pour your coffee in and keep adding milk or creamer till you get the color your heart and taste-buds desire. There’s even a color-guide version for tea-drinkers, so you can calibrate your beverage’s intensi-tea! Designed by the fun-loving folk at SuckUK, the ceramic mug comes in a single standard size and is microwave-safe and dishwasher friendly. Makes a perfect stocking-stuffer for any coffee-craver or a tea-vangelist!
The THRONE celebrates the egg’s goodness by allowing you to admire it as you eat it. Its minimalist design does a mighty good job of holding the egg in place while also showing it off… hence the name. The simple form factor, apart from being unusual to look at, is also stackable, non-breakable, and works equally well with lemons, mandarins, strawberries, and perhaps a medium-sized avocado too. Designed in Denmark (that’s where the sense of minimalism and slight tongue-in-cheek humor comes from), the THRONE comes in a set of 4, available in red or black, and highly recommended by chefs around the world like Wolfgang Cluck and Henston Blumhenthal!
The ICEY is a nifty little container that’s tall enough to fit right into your freezer. Inside it is an automatic churner that works just like an ice-cream maker does. Pour your drink into the ICEY and stash it in the freezer for up to 90 minutes and the ICEY turns it into an instant granita. As the cold temperatures freeze your drink, the ICEY continuously churns it, turning into a flavorful snowy, crushed-ice beverage. It retains and amps up the flavors because you’re not adding any extra ice to it… you’re just turning it into ice instead… and unlike simply placing a bottle of juice into a freezer and turning it into a popsicle, the ICEY makes sure the resulting beverage is semisolid like a slushie and can be sipped through a straw.
The Anytongs were made to be a smaller, more universal alternative to the tongs you use and own. Its compact design lets it easily occupy less than half the space of your pair of tongs, while the ability to slot your own spoons and forks into it means you can use it for anything from grilling and flipping, to serving and stirring. A well-calibrated torsion-spring sits at one end of the Anytongs, giving it a wonderful snappy-springy experience that makes it incredibly easy to use, while rubber pads on its tips allow for comfortable use.
