In the hustle and bustle of modern life, the kitchen can often feel like a battleground. We juggle work, family, and social lives, all while trying to put a healthy, home-cooked meal on the table. The promise of “smart” technology has often felt more like a gimmick than a genuine solution—do you really need a toaster that sends you a push notification?
But the landscape is changing. Today’s smart kitchen gadgets have evolved beyond novelty into powerful allies that can genuinely streamline your cooking process, reduce food waste, and ultimately save you both precious time and hard-earned money. Forget the gimmicks; these are the seven smart gadgets that deliver real, practical value to the everyday home cook.
1. The Wireless Smart Meat Thermometer
The Problem: You’ve spent a small fortune on a beautiful roast or a thick-cut steak, only to suffer the heartbreak of overcooking it into a tough, dry disappointment. You’re either tethered to the oven by a wired probe or constantly opening the door, letting heat escape while you guess with an instant-read.
The Smart Solution: A wireless meat thermometer, like the MEATER Plus, is a revolutionary game-changer. This completely wire-free probe is inserted into your meat and communicates with your smartphone via Bluetooth. It monitors both the internal temperature of the meat and the ambient temperature of your oven or grill. 7 Smart Kitchen Gadgets
- How it Saves Time: No more hovering. The app tells you the exact cooking time remaining and sends an alert to your phone when it’s time to remove the meat for a perfect rest. You can socialize, prep side dishes, or relax in another room with complete peace of mind.
- How it Saves Money: It provides foolproof results every single time. You’ll never again waste money by overcooking an expensive cut of meat. The confidence it gives you might even encourage you to tackle more ambitious (and cost-effective) large roasts.
2. The Smart Multicooker
The Problem: You get home late and the idea of spending an hour cooking is exhausting, making a costly takeaway incredibly tempting. You want the flavour of slow-cooked meals but don’t have eight hours to spare.
The Smart Solution: The multicooker, popularised by the Instant Pot, is already a time-saving hero. The new generation, like the Instant Pot Pro Plus, takes it to the next level with Wi-Fi connectivity and a guided cooking app. You can access over 1,000 recipes, and the app will walk you through every step, even programming the pot for you.
- How it Saves Time: You can remotely start or monitor your cooking from your phone. Stuck in traffic? Delay the start time. Need to release the pressure? Do it from the app without going near the steam valve. It combines a pressure cooker, slow cooker, rice cooker, and more into one lightning-fast appliance.
- How it Saves Money: Pressure cooking makes inexpensive, tough cuts of meat deliciously tender in a fraction of the time. It also encourages batch cooking and meal prepping, a proven strategy for reducing your weekly food bill and avoiding last-minute takeout orders.
3. The Vacuum Sealer
The Problem: Your freezer is full of mystery meats covered in freezer burn. You buy fresh berries and they’ve gone mouldy in two days. You want to take advantage of bulk-buy bargains at the supermarket but have no way to store everything properly.
The Smart Solution: While not “smart” in the Wi-Fi sense, a vacuum sealer like the FoodSaver V4400 is one of the most intelligent investments you can make for your kitchen. By removing all the air from a storage bag before sealing, it stops oxidation and freezer burn in their tracks.
- How it Saves Time: It’s the king of meal prep. Marinate meats in minutes instead of hours. Prepare pre-portioned meals for the week, ready to grab and go or cook via sous vide (the next level of precision cooking).
- How it Saves Money: This gadget is a money-printing machine in disguise. It extends the life of refrigerated and frozen foods by up to five times. Buy meat, cheese, and produce in bulk when it’s on sale, portion it out, seal it, and you’ve locked in freshness while slashing your grocery bill. No more throwing away fuzzy strawberries or icy steaks.
4. The Smart Coffee Maker
The Problem: Your morning routine is a frantic rush, and that daily £4 latte habit is draining your bank account. You’d love to wake up to the smell of fresh coffee, but you don’t always get up at the same time.
The Smart Solution: A smart coffee maker, such as the Hamilton Beach Works with Alexa Smart Coffee Maker, integrates with your smart home ecosystem. You can use your voice or an app to start brewing, change the brew strength, or set routines.
- How it Saves Time: “Alexa, turn on my coffee maker.” It’s that simple. You can start the brewing process from bed, the shower, or as part of your “Good Morning” routine that also turns on the lights and reads you the news. No more waiting around.
- How it Saves Money: The average daily coffee shop habit can cost over £1,000 a year. By making it ridiculously convenient to brew delicious coffee at home, this gadget helps you kick the expensive habit for good.
5. The Smart Kitchen Display
The Problem: Your hands are covered in flour, and you need to convert millilitres to cups. You need to set a timer, but your phone is across the room. You’re trying to follow a recipe on your tiny phone screen, which keeps locking.
The Smart Solution: A dedicated smart display like the Amazon Echo Show or Google Nest Hub is the ultimate kitchen command centre. It’s a voice-activated screen that can do everything you need, completely hands-free.
- How it Saves Time: Ask it to set multiple named timers (“Alexa, set a 15-minute timer for the pasta”). Ask it for unit conversions, substitutions, or to play a step-by-step video recipe right on the screen. Add items to your shopping list with your voice the moment you run out.
- How it Saves Money: By making it easy to follow recipes and manage your shopping list, it helps you stick to a plan, use the ingredients you already have, and avoid impulse buys at the supermarket.
6. The Smart Countertop Oven/Air Fryer
The Problem: Your main oven takes forever to preheat for a small meal, wasting energy and time. You want the crispy results of an air fryer but also the ability to bake, toast, and roast without cluttering your counter with five different appliances.
The Smart Solution: High-end countertop ovens like the Breville Joule Oven Air Fryer Pro or the Tovala Smart Oven are more than just fancy toaster ovens. They connect to your phone, allowing you to preheat remotely, monitor your food, and access a library of chef-tested cooking programs that automatically set the time, temperature, and cooking function for perfect results.
- How it Saves Time: They preheat in a fraction of the time of a conventional oven. The automated cooking programs take the guesswork out of everything from roasting a chicken to air-frying chips.
- How it Saves Money: Using a smaller, more efficient countertop oven for most meals saves a significant amount on your energy bill compared to firing up your large oven. Perfect cooking results also mean less food wasted from culinary mishaps.
7. The Smart Fridge
The Problem: You’re at the supermarket and can’t remember if you have milk. That jar of pesto has been pushed to the back, forgotten until it’s a science experiment. You’re constantly throwing away food that has expired.
The Smart Solution: This is the high-end frontier of the smart kitchen, but for a busy family, a smart fridge like the Samsung Family Hub can be a powerful organisational tool. Internal cameras let you see what’s inside from an app on your phone, so you can check your stock while at the shops.
- How it Saves Time: It streamlines family organisation with a shared digital calendar and to-do lists on the screen. The ability to look inside your fridge from anywhere eliminates extra trips to the store for forgotten items.
- How it Saves Money: This is its biggest benefit. By tracking expiration dates and allowing you to see what you have, it drastically reduces food waste—one of the biggest hidden costs in any household budget. It ensures you use what you buy, saving you hundreds of pounds a year.