By Lorrie Baumann

Manufacturers are eager to put their smart home devices in home kitchens, and consumers who are eager for help with their cooking are embracing some of the new technology, according to digital lifestyle expert Carley Knobloch, who made her case in the Innovation Theater during the International Home + Housewares Show. “It’s reached a point at which there’s a lot of interest from manufacturers. Brands and big companies are vying for countertop space and control – which brand is going to be the remote control for the kitchen,” she said.

The airwaves are crowded with commercials advertising new smart home devices ranging from smart speakers to home security technology and thermostats that save energy, but the devices have been slow to penetrate home kitchens. Manufacturers, though, have woken up to the possibilities of inserting their technology into the operational center of the home. “It’s not just a place where the family congregates, it’s also the place where generations interact and memories are formed,” Knobloch said. “The kitchen is also a hub to a lot of struggles exacerbated by our lack of time to feed ourselves.”

Consumers are most excited about technology that either makes them better cooks or that will take over the cooking for them to produce restaurant-quality results without requiring culinary training for the home cook, according to Knobloch. “A lot of companies have chefs working side by side with engineers to design these products,” she said. “Ovens and induction burners are being engineered to recognize the food and then cook it to the user’s preferences.” One example of this is Miele’s Dialog oven, which exists now in concept form. It won’t be appearing in home kitchens any time soon, according to Knobloch, but the oven uses electromagnetic waves, similar to what a microwave oven uses, paired with sensors that monitor how the food is cooking and shift the wave frequencies to adjust as the cooking progresses. Miele says that the Dialog oven cooks foods uniformly rather than from the outside in, so that meats end up moist and uniformly cooked and breads have enhanced texture. The oven even lets the cook control browning and crust development of breads. “The result is that you have restaurant-quality food without having to do anything but press a button or two,” Knobloch said.

The Joule sous vide tool from ChefSteps is another example of a smart device that will allow the home cook to achieve better quality. The tool circulates the water in the water bath to gently bring the food up to temperature and hold it there. It pairs with an app that allows the home cook to select a degree of doneness and then press go to control the device. The device even features voice control.

Voice assistants have the ability to really help in the kitchen because the home cook often has his hands full there. They can add things to a grocery list or set a timer or pull up a recipe. Yes, Chef! is a voice-controlled app that will walk the cook through a recipe using voice in a conversational way. Now available only for iOS devices, the app currently offers more than 350,000 recipes, and Knobloch predicts that it will be acquired in the near future by a powerhouse like Amazon or Google, since their virtual assistants don’t yet have that skill level.

While the Joule and Dialog products are designed to make cooking easier, manufacturers are also developing products that solve the problem of kitchen inventory, even decreasing food waste by helping home cooks figure out what they can cook for dinner from the ingredients they have on hand before it goes bad. “This could be for the kitchen what the Nest thermostat was for the rest of the home,” Knobloch said. “It takes a process that’s rather opaque and makes it transparent so that people can use it.” Yummly unveiled an app this year at CES that will enable users to scan the food in their refrigerators and recommend recipes based on the food that’s available. It can even take into account the user’s preferences and dietary needs. Paired with a Whirlpool range, it’ll even be able to control the oven. Whirlpool expects to release the free app this year.

Pantry Chic manages inventory by dispensing foods by weight and keeping track of what’s left in the bin. “You can see how the cycle will complete itself when a device like this will say, ‘Do you want me to order another bag of flour for you because you’re running low?’” Knobloch said.

These inventory control devices will give both consumers — and the device’s manufacturers — a real handle on what’s in their house and how to use it. “It isn’t just a benevolent act — they want to be the ones replenishing these goods as they’re needed,” Knobloch said. “Whoever owns the screen in your kitchen or the appliances listening for commands are going to be the witnesses to your food needs and the likeliest to fulfill the orders. Consumers are typically showing that they’re relatively comfortable exchanging privacy for this kind of convenience, but manufacturers will need to make sure that they’re having a continuing conversation with consumers about trust and making sure that they’re taking seriously their responsibility for their customers’ privacy.”

“They’re going to figure out how to monetize that one way or another. As long as they’re providing value, consumers are continuing to buy in,” she added. “Who’s properly pondering the concerns of the consumer is going to decide who’s going to succeed … Ultimately, computers don’t cook; people cook. Even if the computer is doing a lot of the work, it’s the person who’s having the experience of the food.”