Smart Money
September 2004
Section: Expert Shopper
Author: Ryan Malkin
Photographs: Squire Fox

Smart Spending:THE WIRED CHEF

Refrigerators that search for recipes. Ovens that decide when the roast is done. TV cook Sandra Lee asks whether America is ready for the kitchen of the future.

As the host of her own cooking show, Sandra Lee has made her strawberry-banana bread pudding hundreds of times. But this is the first time she's using a computer to do it. With a special bread maker, she pours in all the usual ingredients, but then lets the machine decide how long to mix and bake the bread. Ninety minutes later the bread is done, sans chef. "This stuff is literally out of The Jetsons," says the host of the Food Network's show Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee.

Think your kitchen's a little outdated? To hear the appliance industry tell it, if you don't have an Internet-connection kitchen, you're way behind the cutting edge. In the past year alone, the number of so-called smart appliances sold — those with an internal computer and/or Internet connection — has more than doubled. For $2,550, Miele is selling an oven that tells you how long, and at what temperature, you need to cook those herb-crusted lamb chops (25 minutes at 400 degrees). Electrolux is designing a refrigerator that will not only track how much milk and butter you have but will generate a shopping list too. And then there's the $150 Beyond Bread Maker, which uses a handheld scanner to read the bar codes on packaged bread mixes, to determine how long to bake them.

Indeed, many of these kitchen tools operate on the notion that "modern" home cooks will use a lot of packaged foods to make their meals. Many have scanners that, by reading the packages, figure out how to zap something in the microwave or oven. Other appliances have become virtual cookbooks, with databases of hundreds of recipes to help the 2lst-century chef; pick a meal and it will do the cooking based on those instructions.

But judging from the flashing "12:00" on your VCR, it's clear that not all technological advances work as simply as they claim. And the kitchen in particular presents plenty of opportunities for things to go wrong. So we gathered a crop of these Jetsons-esque appliances and set up our own kitchen of the future at the ultrachic Bulthaup studio, a kitchen design and cabinet manufacturing company in Manhattan. Then the queen of semi-homemade cooking (translation: using packaged foods to speed the preparation), Sandra Lee, came in to whip up a six-course meal using a high-tech blender, bread maker, refrigerator and ovens. Her challenge: feed us dinner without using a single appliance that predates this century.

Clad in her trademark white pants and a white sleeveless sweater, Lee begins our meal with a pineapple-mango salsa using the Oster In2itive Blender ($102). The gimmick with this gadget: It has a stored database of 40 recipes, including margaritas, smoothies and sauces, so Lee just has to follow the list of ingredients and press start. The blender roars for just under a minute and stops on its own. "This is easy to do even if you're not computer savvy," she says, inspecting her concoction, careful not to splash any on her cocktail-hour attire. Still, she wishes she could modify some of those recipes. "Everyone has their own favorite recipes that they're attached to — you need to be able to program your own." Oster, however, disagrees, saying it has no plans to launch an upgradeable version anytime soon.

Next up is her strawberry-banana bread pudding and the Beyond Bread Maker. Like a regular breadmaker it does all of the mixing and baking by itself, but with a twist: Instead of programming in the time, you use a built-in laser wand that scans the bar code on the box of bread mix and automatically sets the cooking time. In all, it can read nearly 350 packages this way, which Lee finds pretty cool. "I used to work at a checkout counter in high school — I loved scanning the coupons," Lee says, wielding the scanning wand. But soon she discovers that the machine mixes poorly; it starts baking the bread while there are still big clumps of liquid and dry ingredients. "The paddle arms are too short — you need a spatula to mix it properly," she says.

Lee decides to try her sesame chicken drumettes in Maytag's Ultimate 4-in-1 fast-cooking oven ($700), which operates as a convection oven, a microwave, a broiler or a combination of any of the three. The convection mode offers a very quick preheat. The combination mode, meanwhile, cycles between different cooking modes, allowing you to cook up to three times faster than with a conventional oven. Lee, though, opts for the convection oven feature. "You get a lot of functionality in this unit," she says. Versatile yes, but we learn quickly that the chef needs to know which mode is best for any given job. With the convection mode, our chicken turns out a bit rubbery. (A Maytag rep tells us chicken is ideally prepared using the broil or combination mode.)

Perhaps the most unusual product is the Whirlpool Polara Refrigerated Range ($1,800), the first oven with a built-in refrigerator. Sound like an odd combination? It does have some practical applications. Imagine putting cinnamon rolls in the oven before bed — the fridge keeps them cool all night — and then the oven automatically turns on and starts cooking so the buns are ready when you get up in the morning. Lee thinks there is too much of a get-used-to-it curve for this appliance; "personally, I wouldn't use it, it's just too foreign for me," she says, pressing the buttons. "When people can walk into Sears and buy something for $400 that they're used to, this seems a little expensive," she says, her voice trailing off as she looks at the mountain of steel across the room.

"But this is the coolest-looking appliance I've ever seen," she says, sauntering over to the Samsung HomePad Internet Refrigerator ($5,000). Samsung's side-by-side fridge has a 10.4-inch screen in the center of one door, which displays Internet, television or even a DVD if you hook one up to the fridge's inputs. Plus, you can remove the screen from the door and still use it up to 100 feet away from the refrigerator, thanks to a Wi-Fi connection. Lee does just that, wandering across the kitchen as she looks up her recipe for salad chinois on the Food Network site. She stops short with a surprised look: "They don't like my herbed pork roast? " she asks, noticing that a visitor to the site has given her dish only one star. "That's not possible, it's one of my best recipes." Snubbed recipe or not, the Samsung refrigerator is the hit of the kitchen. "Internet in the kitchen is becoming a big trend — I love that." The refrigerator itself is no slouch, with a water-dispensing system, digital temperature display and roomy shelves.

Finally, it's on to Beyond's scanning microwave ($150), for Lee's caramel corn. Similar to the breadmaker, the microwave has bar codes for packaged foods stored in its database — in this case 4,000 of them — and a pass of the scanning wand automatically programs the optimal cooking time. Of course, if you're just reheating leftovers, you can enter the time manually, as with any microwave. Lee is again a big fan of the scanning wand, but she does wonder how she'd know which products work with the scanner. Our box of Newman's Own popcorn makes the cut, however, and using the scanner we get perfect popcorn in two minutes. The bottom line: Our chef thinks that while these appliances take a little getting used to, "most of them I'd buy today." They just need to have her recipes, of course.

Maytag ultimate 4-in-1 Oven
$700
What it does: This ordinary-looking oven cooks food fast using convention, microwave, broiler or combination mode.
What we thought: A versatile second oven — just be sure you choose the right mode. Broiling would have given our sesame chicken a better texture.

Samsung HomePad Internet Refrigerator
$5,000
What it does: A 10.4 –inch, removable screen rests in the refrigerator’s door, letting you surf the Web or watch TV.
What we thought: Makes looking up recipes online a breeze.

Oster In2itive Blender
$102
What it does: Knows the proper blending speed and time for 40 stored recipes: the cook just adds the ingredients listed on the screen.
What we thought: Easy to use, but Lee wished she could modify the 40 preprogrammed recipes and add some of her own favorites.

Beyond Bread Maker
$150
What it does: Scanning wand automatically sets the mixing and baking cycle for 348 kinds of bread and cake mixes.
What we thought: Didn’t mix properly, and did little to cut the hands-on time of our banana bread. It's a better bet for yeast breads.

Whirlpool Polara Refrigerated Range
$1,800
What it does: The oven can also keep foods refrigerated until they’re ready to bake.
What we thought: Lee thinks most home cooks will have trouble adopting it.

Watch Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee on the Food Network.