CookingPal debuted Julia, its connected countertop cooking device, at CES yesterday — though to call it simply a cooking device is a bit of an understatement. Julia is akin to a Thermomix, with 10 culinary functions that include weigh, chop, knead, mix, cook and steam. The device also comes with its own guided cooking system.
The brains of Julia is its Smart Kitchen Hub, which is an accompanying tablet with an 8.9 inch screen that offers step-by-step guided video recipes, recipe adjustment based on the number of people eating or preferences, and a built-in camera and computer vision to recognize food and suggest recipes. If you’re missing something, you can order ingredients for delivery straight from the device.
The Smart Kitchen Hub has a touchscreen as well as a large jog dial to control it. If your hands are too greasy or gummy from food prep, the Hub will respond to voice control as well.
Here are the Julia’s full specs:
Features – Smart Kitchen Appliance
- Size: 440 x 310 x 370 mm, with a stainless steel 3L bowl
- Scale: accurate to 5g
- Motor: 10 speeds up to of 5200 RPM
- Heating unit: cooks up to 130 degrees Celsius/265 degrees Fahrenheit
- Modes: Chop, mix, blend, knead, weigh, boil, emulsify, steam, grind, grate, whisk and cook
- Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.2 and Wi-Fi a/b/g/n (2.4GHz, 5GHz)
- Cleaning and Care: Julia’s bowl is dishwasher safe or can self-clean by adding dish soap and water to the bowl and setting it to mixing mode
The whole point of the Julia is that the device can do most of the work so novice and time-pressed cooks can make actual meals and not just zap food in a microwave. All a user has to do is add ingredients when Julia says to; the machine does the rest. Julia even cleans itself (well, kinda, see specs above).
As mentioned earlier, Julia is similar to the Thermomix, which is wildly popular outside of the U.S. Thermomix released its latest iteration, the TM6, which also features guided cooking and a forthcoming collaboration with Drop for appliance control and grocery ordering. And while the TM6 is $1,500, the Julia, which CookingPal says will ship in Q3 of this year, will retail for less than $1,000.
CookingPal also said in its press announcement that it will be announcing more hardware in the coming months that work with its Smart Hub Platform, including a smart oven and smart pressure cooker.
This post has been updated to more accurately reflect the relationship between Thermomix and Drop.
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