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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

June Oven

First Look: June’s Forthcoming UI with Expanded Instructions

The biggest complaint I had about my June Oven was the lack of instructions. At times they were so sparse and provided so little information that my smart oven left me dumbfounded, not sure what to do next.

June CEO Matt Van Horn had told me that updates to the UI and instruction set for the oven were in the works — and now we know a little bit more about what those changes will look like. June gave us the exclusive look at the forthcoming UI changes for us to share here with you. They didn’t provide any other details, but we can glean a few things from the image above.

  • Frontloading information. After selecting your food pre-set, the first screen displays all the items you need to cook (roasting pan/rack, food thermometers), as well as rack position and post-cooking needs.
  • Resting instructions. After cooking your meat, June will suggest resting time. It’s not clear if that will include more specific instructions like wrapping in foil, etc.
  • Steps are spelled out. Instead of just the progress bar at the bottom, it looks like June will explain what it is doing during each step (e.g. Step 1 – roasting at 500 degrees.)
  • Just a li’l bit. When food is done, it looks like there’s new messaging on the final screen giving users the option to tell the oven to “Cook a Little More.” I don’t know if this carries a specific time unit or internal temperature goal, but it replaces the “Continue Cooking” message that’s on that screen currently.

The update will be rolling out this fall. We’ll be sure to ask Van Horn all about it at our upcoming Smart Kitchen Summit in Seattle October 8 and 9th, where he’ll be on a panel about “The New Cooking Box: Ovens, Robots & More.” Get your tickets today to hear Van Horn and tons of other great food tech execs!

I Got the June Bug. Now I Want to Cook Everything with the Smart Oven

“This alone is worth the money.”

That was my wife sitting on our couch eating day old pizza she had reheated in our recently purchased (and now sold out) second-generation June Oven. Looking at the slice in her hand, she remarked “I can’t believe they have engineers working full time to algorithmically figure this out — but it is [expletive] amazing.”

She’s right. If there is a killer, groundbreaking feature of the June Oven, it’s reheating leftover pizza. This may sound like a small reason to pay a big price ($599) for what is essentially a second oven that takes up a lot of countertop space in your kitchen, but it is actually quite [expletive] amazing.

But let’s back up.

Since I write about food technology for a living, people often assume that I love to cook. I do not. It intimidates me, I’m not good at it, and the process gives me no cathartic joy. The June seems to be custom built for someone like me. It’s a connected countertop smart oven that recognizes your food and can cook it automatically using a variety of pre-set programs (or just be used as a regular oven, or air fryer, or toaster, or dehydrator, or slow cooker…).

After spending a week with my new June, I can say that now I actually like cooking! (Though to be fair, using June may not be considered “cooking” at all.) All I have to do is insert the meat thermometer, make a few taps on the touchscreen and June does the rest. I can check in on the dish via the live video feed on the June mobile app if I want, or just wait for the notification that everything is done.

In my first week using June, I made:

  • Salmon
  • Broccoli
  • Flank steak
  • A whole chicken
  • Re-heated pizza
  • Bacon
  • Toast
  • Chicken breast

The Good
The June immediately recognized almost all the above items, displaying a small picture and caption of the food you placed in it (it only missed the flank steak). I used the automatic pre-set cooking program that popped up for each food, and because of improvements made to the June, there was never any pre-heating necessary. This means that I cooked a salmon filet in 10 minutes and it was done to perfection.

When we first wrote about the new June, company CEO Matt Van Horn told us there were 64 pre-sets for bacon. While I didn’t put that full number to the test, the bacon I made was also cooked just right; as a bonus, I did not have to stand over a griddle, getting splattered in grease.

But it was the pizza re-heating that captured the hearts and minds of the Albrecht house. The problem with re-heating pizza is that if you do it in the microwave, the crust turns weird and there are still hot and cold spots. Putting it in a pan with a splash of water works a bit better, but requires more work and the results still aren’t that good. By contrast, the June, using whatever combination of underneath, overhead and convection heating magic it has crafted, creates a hot slice with just the right amount of crisp to the crust. It really is a revelation.

The Not So Good
Not everything went smoothly with the June, however. The directions are so sparse that it can actually make cooking with it harder in some instances.

In the case of the flank steak, June said the cooking was done, but gave me no indication as to whether or not the cooked meat needed to rest and for how long (something the Meater thermometer does expertly). There was no pre-set for flank steak, so I’m not sure if I should have used the generic “steak” cooking program or just tried it manually (I used the steak pre-set). Also, though it does have a broiling feature, steaks should be finished on a hot grill or pan for a nice sear on the outside to truly finish it. Honestly? For something like flank steak, I would just grill it, given how little time it takes to cook.

The idea of expanded instructions would have also come in handy when cooking the whole chicken. I thought I stuck the thermometer in properly, but the June said the cooking was done and the internal temperature of the chicken was still only 158 degrees. Safe cooking temp for chicken is 165. There was no indication as to whether thermal inertia would bring the chicken up to the right temp, how long I should wait for that to happen, or how to make it work best (wrapping in foil? Leaving it in the June? etc.).

Also, I naively assumed that since there was a broccoli setting, if I just put broccoli in the machine it would turn out as good as everything else I cooked. I was wrong (again, I’m not a great cook). I threw a bunch of raw broccoli florets on the pan threw some salt on there and hit the cook broccoli button. The result was severely burned and bitter broccoli that was inedible.

I tweeted out about these issues and Van Horn actually replied to me saying that the company is aware of the undercommunication issues and has an over-the-air update in the works that will address them. So there’s that to look forward to.

Unexpected Bonus
My seven year old actually loves cooking with the June. Though, if we’re being honest, it’s because it has a touch screen. Regardless! He can read and after a couple tutorials will be able to make a decent chicken breast on his own without my worrying about his burning either himself or the house down.

Overall
I recognize that $599 is not cheap for many people. For my personal situation as someone who doesn’t enjoy cooking, it’s worth every penny. Using it has a sense of practical permanence, it’s not fad-ish like the sous vide wands I rarely break out any more. Soon enough, June’s cooking smarts will be built directly into more traditional ovens eliminating any space issues. But until then, I’ll be to make some [expletive] amazing pizza, and pretty much anything else I want.

Second-Gen June Oven Sells out (for Now)

He (or she) who hesitates is lost, especially if you were hoping to score the second-gen June Oven before school starts. According to the company’s website: “Batch 1” of the newest June is “SOLD OUT” and batch 2 won’t ship until late October.

The new version of the eponymous connected smart oven was attention-grabbing for the $599 price point ($499 during a launch special), which was far less than the $1,500 price tag for the first-gen oven. The June has a built-in HD camera to automatically identify and cook food you place in it, as well as a vast array of presets (64 just for bacon!) to make cooking hands-off, often with no pre-heating required.

What’s notable about the first batch selling out is that June just announced and started shipping their new oven a week ago, on August 7th. We first came across the sold out sign over the weekend, so the company hit that milestone in less than six days UPDATE: A June rep said the company sold out in two and a half days.

Now there are a few things to keep in mind here, of course. We don’t know how many units were in the first batch; it could be 20,000, or it could be 20. (It’s probably not 20.) But the drastic price reduction could have been just the thing wary consumers were waiting for before pulling the trigger.

The number of June Ovens sold could actually have a bigger overall impact than just better sales numbers for the company. If June can establish a large enough beachhead on consumer countertops now, that will leave less room (literally) for other countertop cooking appliances that haven’t hit the market yet.

If you have a June sitting on your counter, how likely are you to buy a Suvie or a Brava? I realize it’s a big market, and each of these appliance makers would probably tell you that competition is good — and they each have a unique technology/solution, and they are paired with their own food delivery service.

But in a world of finite countertop space, it kind of is a zero sum game. I ordered a June (thankfully before they sold out), and assuming it works as promised, I can’t see myself getting a second countertop oven.

We reached out to June to see if we could get any more details and will update this post as we hear more.

June Ships 2nd Gen Smart Oven, Reduces Price to $499

June, the company behind the eponymous countertop connected cooking oven, today announced the release of its second generation June Oven, which is available and shipping immediately for $499.

This is a pretty drastic drop in price for June, which debuted its first generation oven back in 2016 for a whopping $1,500. While expensive, the June was among the first wave of connected cooking devices that could use its HD camera to automatically identify food placed in it, as well as a host of presets to basically do all the cooking for you.

In a phone call with June CEO, Matt Van Horn, he likened the first generation June oven to the first generation Tesla roadster. That expensive electric car only sat two people, but helped pave the way for improved versions in later years. In much the same way, the first June helped clear a path for the much less expensive new one.

The new June features the same cooking area size and carbon fiber heating elements as the first gen oven, but now includes faster cooking and a streamlined touchscreen interface. June touts its oven as a seven-in-one appliance that can bake, toast, roast, slow cook, keep warm, reheat, broil and dehydrate.

One of the more versatile aspects of the June is its ability to add new functionality such as air frying and dehydrating via over the air updates (just like a Tesla!). It can also add new presets for specific foods like steamed corn, or add improve and expand upon existing presets. The June has 64 preset options just for bacon (crispy, chewy, thick-cut, etc.). Because both the first and second gen Junes are on the same software platform, when a new cook program is released, both ovens will get it (Van Horn says the company is working on a rice cooker function right now).

For those who are a little more hands-on with their meals, the new June can act like a regular oven, so you can manually set the temperature and the cook times however you like. The June is also Alexa-enabled for those who want to control their cooking appliance with their voice.

In addition to a new interface, the June also comes with an improved sealed cavity to keep more heat in the oven, this allows the new June to cook faster than its predecessor. Van Horn told us that cooking a salmon with the first gen June took 12 minutes to cook, in the second gen June, it takes just nine minutes — and there is no pre-heating required.

That’s right, no pre-heating. “People don’t like to pre-heat,” said Van Horn, “One hundred percent of our one-tap cook programs have no preheat.”

Van Horn actually demonstrated this for us during our video call by cooking a steak in real time. He just placed it on the rack and it went through its baking and broiling cycles and before we finished our call he had a completely cooked steak.

Internally, here at Spoon HQ we had been wondering what was up with June in recent months. We had noticed earlier in the year that the company was no longer taking orders for the first-gen and we feared the worst. While the first-gen was a powerful device, $1,500 for a second oven that takes up countertop space was cost-prohibitive for most people.

So now we know the company was working on this second-gen device. But the introduction of this new June comes at a very different time in the connected kitchen space. June is no longer the only countertop heating appliance to make cooking your meals easier.

Since the first June, rivals have come to market such as the Tovala, and the Suvie, with its four-zone cooking, is on the way. The June may have an edge over these devices, however, as it is more versatile, being able to cook anything easily, not just food from an accompanying subscription. And while the June’s carbon fiber heating elements are neat, they’re still fairly conventional as far as heating technology goes, while a raft of new ovens from Miele, Markov and Brava boast entirely new forms of heat application and are making their way to market.

June will have the jump on the competition as it is shipping today. You can order it directly from June’s web site. The actual retail price for the base model, which includes food thermometer, solid core aluminum cooking pan, roasting rack, wire shelf, crumb tray and companion app, will be $599, but is $499 for a limited time at launch. The Gourmet package, which includes everything in the base package plus an extended 2-year warranty, 3-year recipe subscription and set of 3 air baskets will be $799, or $699 for a limited time at launch.

Beyond The Countertop: June Introduces Intelligent Wall Oven For $1,995

June, the company behind the intelligent countertop convection oven, has introduced its first wall oven, the June Pro.

The June Pro, available for sale today on the company’s website for $1,995, comes in a 24″ wall model, with other sizes to be made available soon. In addition to being the company’s first wall oven, the June Pro will have the same features which made the original June stand out, such as in-oven HD camera, fast-heat carbon fiber heating elements, app control, and automatic software updates. The June Pro’s internal dimensions are the same as the countertop model, with a height of 12.8 inches, 19.6 inches wide, with a depth of 19 inches. The June Pro, which is expected to ship within 30 days, comes with “white glove” installation service.

I caught up with June’s CEO, Matt Van Horn, by phone to talk about their new product. When asked about the biggest difference between the June Pro and other ovens, he didn’t hesitate.

“The best feature of the June is it’s the first appliance to get better over time instead of worse,” said Van Horn. “All the learning we are able to collect from consumers that make it available to us, all that gets pushed into software updates.”

The June Pro wall oven

While some Wi-Fi capable ovens from other manufacturers such as GE have added new software features in the field such as Alexa compatibility, June takes it to another level. Van Horn pointed to a recent software update that June rolled out a few weeks ago that added slow cooker and warming drawer capability to existing June countertop ovens.

“We literally build new appliances in software,” said Van Horn. “We researched slow cookers and figured out how to do that with our current hardware.” The new slow cooker and warming drawer feature will be available in the wall ovens as well according to Van Horn.

One of the selling points of the June countertop oven was its ability to identify foods using an internal HD camera, which provided the necessary information for the oven to initiate an adaptive cooking program as well as monitor the progress of a cook.  When it first shipped last December, the original June could identify up to twenty-five food types, a number that was expected to increase over time.  While Van Horn wouldn’t tell me how many foods the original June could now identify over half a year after shipping, he did point to how continuous changes to the June OS allows the company to make improvements to the June’s adaptive cooking programs.

“One of the biggest complaints from customers was our bacon cook program,” said Van Horn.  When the company analyzed the data, they realized one of the most important variables when cooking bacon was the number of slices.  Cooking one slice of bacon required a completely different cook program than when cooking nine slices of bacon. Eventually, they adapted the program, so the oven automatically accounts for the number of slices (the internal camera will identify this) while also allowing for the user to input variables such as desired crispiness in the June app.

“We turned one a one sized fit all bacon program into 36 bacon programs,” said Van Horn.

One big positive with June’s new product is it is much more in line with pricing for its product category. While the first June oven had many features which set it apart from others in its general category, it was hard for many to accept a price point that was five to ten times more than other countertop convection ovens. At $1,995, the June Pro is a bit more pricey than some other 24″ wall ovens but doesn’t induce the same kind of sticker shock as the original June (which will, for now, remain priced at $1,495).

I’m also interested to see if and when the June Pro becomes available through brick and mortar retail. Like the June countertop oven, the June Pro will first only be available through the company’s website (the original June can now be bought through Amazon). While I realize going to brick and mortar retail would require the company to give up significant margin, I still think many consumers want to see how an oven looks built into a kitchen, even if that kitchen is a display unit in a Home Depot.

My biggest critique of the June Pro is its small internal dimensions. At the same exact size as the June countertop, it’s one cubic foot interior is much smaller inside than traditional 24″ ovens, which usually come with a five cubic foot cooking chamber. Consumers used to multiple oven racks or cooking tall items will probably pass on this device. Based on this, it will be interesting to see if future ovens offer a larger internal capacity.

Despite this, I think this is a big announcement for June. Simply having a built in oven product opens the company up to a whole new set of consumers.  Discriminating cooks who want access to high-end cooking features often available only in professional ovens that go for $10 thousand or more can now access some of those in an oven for two thousand bucks while not having to give up counter space to do it.

Hear June CTO Nikhil Bhogal speak at Smart Kitchen Summit in Seattle on October 10-11, 2017. Use the discount code SPOON to get 25% off of tickets. 

June Adds Multiple Pairing As More Kitchen Devices Get Over The Air Updates

Last week, June announced via email it had added the ability to pair and control the June Oven from multiple iOS devices. Prior to the update, June users were limited to a single device to control their smart oven at any given time.

According to the company, the feature was accelerated due to demand from the June user community.

Nikhil Bhogal, CTO for June, told the Spoon “The community spoke and the ability to pair multiple phones or iPads to June quickly became the top requested feature. We had slated to launch this during the second half of 2017 because it touches JuneOS, June Cloud and the companion app. After getting the feedback in early January we quickly prioritized the feature.”

One of the promises of connectivity is the ability to improve the products over time, and companies like June and PicoBrew are now iterating and adding features using remote upgrades, while large companies such as GE are also adding features such as Alexa voice control to their connected devices.

But these companies are more the exception than the rule in early 2017, as it’s still early days for the kitchen appliance remote upgrade. The ability to add features via software update is still largely a foreign concept for most consumers. However, as devices become more expected, consumers will come to expect an ever-improving consumer experience.

The Spoon Smart Kitchen 2016 Holiday Gift Guide

It’s time for The Spoon’s first annual holiday gift guide! Since Black Friday and Cyber Monday madness have passed and it’s really the first year we’ve seen many anticipated smart kitchen devices hit the market, it seemed like the perfect time to roll out our guide. Picking this year’s selections was not easy – the food tech and smart kitchen spaces are packed with great stuff. But we wanted to limit the guide to stuff you could actually purchase (not pre-order or back on Kickstarter, with a few exceptions) and hand to your loved one around or shortly after the holidays.

Now you might be thinking – I’m the one who loves food and tech in our house! The beauty of this guide is that it’s easily forwardable – perhaps send to your spouse or loved ones with a wink emoji and some subtle hints, and you’ll find that smart kitchen gear you’ve always wanted under the tree.

High-Tech Kitchen Help

joule-sweepstakes-dinner-3If you’ve got an amateur chef on your list this year, you can’t go wrong with sous vide. Sous vide is an older cooking technique using warm water to slowly and evenly cook foods like meat, fish and vegetables. Recent devices like the Joule from ChefSteps have increased the popularity of sous vide and made it easy to incorporate into any kitchen.

The Joule itself is a long, cylindrical water circulator and can be easily dropped into a pot of water to prepare food. It looks kind of like a high-tech rolling pin crossed with an Amazon Echo – but the noticeable difference between Joule and other sous vide cookers out there is the lack of a screen. The smartphone app does all the work – including preheating the device to the right temperature. The only thing left for the chef to do is season, seal and place the food in the water. The lack of a screen makes it more lightweight and smaller than other sous vide cookers, an appeal for some who want to minimize space in the kitchen.

Once cooking is complete, the dish can be removed and seared or finished on the stove for a perfect crust. Reviews of the Joule sous vide cooker promise some of the juiciest, most tender (insert food here) you’ve ever had.

Price: $199 on ChefSteps.com
(ChefSteps say they guarantee shipping by the holidays!)

Turn A Beer Fan Into A Brewmaster

Craft beer, spirits and cocktail related gifts are popular for those who like to imbibe around the holidays (…that’s everyone, right?) You could go a step up and get the beer fan on image001your list their own at home brew system. The folks at PicoBrew created the Pico, a simple pod-based brewing device that allows amateur brewers to customize their favorite IPA, pilsner, stout or pale ale in a week’s time. The PicoBrew PicoPaks and unique system take the mess out of home brewing and fermentation and each contains a different combo of grains, hops and yeast for each craft beer.

The PicoPaks are sold separately but come in over a hundred varieties so it’s easy to pair a few favorites with the system for a killer gift. And unlike older homebrew systems, the Pico’s compact design is ready for prime time – it’s cute enough to sit on the kitchen countertop and has a built-in steam cleaning mechanism. The digital display screen allows the user to adjust alcohol and bitterness levels for any brew and it makes up to five liters of beer at one time.

The Pico is one of those smart kitchen gadgets that will probably win you coolest family member award instantly; you might even get to sample the new brewmaster’s first brew attempt. Check out our complete review of The Pico before you buy.

Price: $799 at Williams-Sonoma

Infuse The Holidays With Perfect Tea

Tea and coffee are common holiday gifts for hot beverage drinkers, but for those who have a special affinity for tea, the smart tea infuser Teforia can create a custom cup of tea brewed to the exact right temperature and strength. The infuser looks like a cross between a traditional coffee maker and a high-tech chemistry set and comes equipped with a propriety technology called the Teforia Selective Infusion Profile System terforia(“Teforia SIPS” ™). Sounds complicated, right? Basically, Teforia has created a device that knows the best way to brew tea, taking into account things like steep time, infusion temperature and the varietal of tea you’re using.

But who really needs a tea infuser? Tea is actually considered most widely consumed beverage in the world next to water and can be found in almost 80% of all U.S. households. Most of us, even avid tea fans (raises hand) use a kettle to boil water and a simple tea bag stuck in a mug. But Teforia claims not all teas are created equal, and consuming tea the typical way actually does the ancient beverage a huge disservice.

So bypass the specialty tea box in the gift shop this year as you’re picking out gifts – chances are, if someone is a fan of tea, the Teforia Infuser, maybe with some of their hand-picked varietals thrown in, will blow their mind.

Price: $1499, starts shipping December 1 if you order on Teforia’s website.

Coffee – Right From Your Phone

Onto the coffee lovers – if you’re a true java fan, you know that there’s not one temp fits all for coffee brewing. What makes a good cup of coffee, well, good, often has to do with extraction, or the process of hot water drawing the flavor from the grounbrewer-smds. It’s a delicate process and water that’s too hot will leave coffee tasting bitter. With the Behmor Connected Coffee Maker, that problem is solved through customizable brew profiles that all coffee drinkers to adjust the brewing temperature and pre-soak time before crafting that perfect cup.

And, as the name suggests, Behmor’s coffee maker comes with a connected smartphone app that allows you to program, adjust and monitor your coffee from the comfort of your bed. The app will even text you when your coffee’s done, thus finally giving you a reason to get out of bed on a cold winter morning. In addition to the custom brew control, Behmor’s actually build in some unique technology to optimize coffee extraction with a pulsed water flow and a grounds basket designed to saturate every single coffee ground.

Pair this with a local coffee blend and you’ve got every java lover’s dream come true.

Price: $234 on Amazon

Give The Gift Of An Oven That Knows Exactly What You’re Cooking

Credit: JuneAn oven might seem like an odd gift to give someone – unless it’s your spouse and you’re in the middle of a kitchen renovation, I suppose. But what if that oven was packed with enough technology to recognize the food you place in it and know exactly how to cook it? That’s exactly what the June Oven is designed to do.

Early reviews on the June are mixed – and some are even downright harsh – but we still think the June could be an interesting gift for those with money to spare who want the most cutting edge oven tech on the market.

Price: $1495 for pre-order on Juneoven.com

For The Person Who Actually Loves to Cook

So maybe you don’t want to spend over $1k on a magical oven, but you do have someone on your list who likes cooking and is always on the hunt for new recipes. The Drop Kitchen Scale with companion smart app is a good way to dip your toe into the world of connected kitchen gear without breaking the bank. The Dro1407862226-order_drop5p Scale looks like a basic kitchen scale, but when paired with the app, provides a basic guided cooking system that walks the user through a chosen recipe and helps them weigh out ingredients along the way.

One of the best features of the Drop Kitchen ecosystem is its adaptability. Within the app, you can find and customize a recipe for the exact quantity or taste preference you’d like and the recipe will adjust portions and ingredients for you. So no more guesstimating how much flour you should use for a cupcake recipe you’re trying to half, Drop will give you precise measurements for the amount you need. With so many people using their smartphones and tablets in the kitchen to read recipes, the Drop Kitchen Scale and app will make cooking that much more enjoyable.

Price: $78.98 on Amazon (product is being end-of-lifed as Drop transitions into platform based technology)

Alexa, Finish My Holiday Shopping

160517094422-amazon-echo-alexa-00003213-1024x576Ok, this might not technically be a kitchen-specific gift, but the vast majority of Amazon Echo users I’ve encountered (myself included) keep the device in the kitchen – and for good reason. Alexa isn’t just a helpful virtual assistant, she can also be a pretty handy sous chef. From the very advanced – enable the Allrecipes skill and get step-by-step walk-through of any recipe available on Allrecipes – to the basic – ask Alexa how many teaspoons is in a tablespoon (1 tbl = 3 tsp, handy when your tablespoon constantly goes missing), Alexa is a hands-free help during meal prep.

The other helpful kitchen-specific feature, aside from listening to a news flash, a podcast or Spotify with a simple request, is the shopping list feature. Ask Alexa to add things to your shopping list as you run out of it, ensuring the next trip to the grocery store will result in a full pantry restock.

The Amazon Echo is usually $179.99, but is often on sale (and out of stock) around the holidays.

Connect To Your Tea

Maybe you have a tea lover on your list, but the idea of 800 bucks for the Teforia Infuserappkettle isn’t realistic. Before Teforia, there was a device called AppKettle, a connected tea kettle with less bells and whistles, but an easier price to swallow.

AppKettle is a connected tea kettle with a companion app that allows users to heat water on demand, from anywhere. With a nice stainless steel finish and both app and native device controls, this is a nice little upgrade to your traditional tea kettle. With the ability to control the temp of the water, AppKettle might be a perfect gift for new parents on your list who are bottle feeding. There’s nothing worse than waiting for water to heat up while your new baby cries for milk.

Price: AppKettle sadly is only shipping in the UK for around $160, but the CEO told The Spoon they have plans to ship in the US in 2017 with added Alexa integration.

Celebrate The New Year With A Perfect Drink

The season of gift-giving will soon be over which means it’s not too early to be making New Year’s Eve plans. And generally speaking, the most vital part of a good New Year’s Eve at17509bc290a4e2ab8ed6ca1c193d86e6 home, whether you’re parenting a toddler and stuck home playing Cards Against Humanity or single and hosting a fancy dinner party with a DJ and a large crowd, are the beverages. And if you’re going to be at home, you want cocktails that taste like they were made by a professional mixologist at a swanky bar, no?

That’s why the Perfect Drink 2.0 Smart Scale and Interactive App make such a great gift – it’s the smart kitchen substitute for an expensive bartending course. The Perfect Drink scale has over 400 drink recipes and walks you through ingredients, letting you know when you’ve poured the perfect amount of each. And if you pour too much, let’s say, gin, Perfect Drink Scale will help you adjust the rest of the ingredients so you don’t ruin the drink. The Cabinet feature lets you keep track of what you have on hand and there are recipes for every season, along with tried and true favorites.

Price: $39.99 on Amazon

Make Spaghetti Out Of….Everything

Credit: Williams-Sonoma

Tech lover or not, everyone loves a good kitchen gadget that’s useful and helpful without many bells and whistles. I once asked a well-known chef what he couldn’t live without in the kitchen and he said – basically – a good pan and some heat. But the extras can be fun too, which is why we’re putting the spiralizer into our first-ever gift guide.

The spiralizer is one of those low-tech gadgets that has amazing utility and, as a result, has a huge following. It’s basically a handheld device that turns average vegetables into pasta, creating a healthy (and delicious) meal. The spiralizer is best known for its ability to make zucchini spaghetti, but pictures (and testimonials) indicate it can be used to create garnishes and turn other vegetables into a pasta shape, too.

For anyone on your list looking to eat healthier, add this to their stocking and tell them to look forward to a spiralized 2017.

Price: Depends on the model, this basic one is $12.99 on Amazon while this slightly fancier (maybe less labor-intensive version) is $39.95 at Williams-Sonoma.

Read Up On The Future Of Food + The Kitchen

One of my favorite gifts to give and receive are books – you can’t go wrong. And there are a few books in the food tech and food science space that would make excellent presents under the tree.

The Food Lab by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt – The Food Lab is a tour de force – the food bible for foodlabanyone looking to infuse science through simple techniques to enhance everyday cooking. The 1000+ page plus recipe book is quite a departure from ordinary cookbooks; authored by Serious Eats managing culinary directorJ. Kenji López-Alt, also a James Beard Award winner, The Food Lab focuses squarely on food science. Looking at the interactions between heat, energy & molecules and how they all work together to create truly delicious food. The techniques to achieving better food aren’t necessarily complicated, and for anyone interested in nerding out over the science behind your favorite recipes, this book is a perfect (and heavy!) gift.

Modernist Bread: The Art and Science by Nathan Myhrvold and Francisco Migoya – The firstmodernist Modernist Cuisine book series spawned a cult-like following of the brand and its founder, former Microsoft CTO and technologist turned food connoisseur, Nathan Myhrvold. These books – hundreds of dollars worth – are truly for the hardcore food science nerd, someone who wants to dive deep into the art, science, design, techniques and research on human diet staple: bread. Housed in a stainless steel case, the five-volume series delivers over 1500 recipes, a wire-bound kitchen manual and over 2300 pages of knowledge on bread. While it’s not available until 2017, the right person will swoon over the gift of a Modernist Bread pre-order receipt. 

sousvideSous Vide at Home: The Modern Technique for Perfectly Cooked Meals – From Lisa Fetterman, the founder of Nomiku, one of the first mainstream sous vide machines, Sous Vide at Home just hit the shelves in early November. Sous vide is becoming increasingly popular as a technique using the slow heat of a water bath (described above in our Joule write-up) and this cookbook is a guide to creating chef-quality food using any sous vide device at home. It would pair well with a brand new sous vide machine as a perfect foodie gift.

So there you have it – our first annual holiday gift guide! We hope you find something for every food and tech lover on your list.

Happy Holidays!