Some professional chefs may claim they only need their chef’s knife to accomplish the bulk of their work. But passionate home cooks usually don’t share this disdain for kitchen gadgetry. They welcome new tools that make it easy to try new techniques, new foods, and new recipes. Kitchen gadgets of all kinds and price ranges make excellent gifts for your favorite home cooks. The best kitchen gadgets can inspire creativity in the kitchen, bring out your inner chef, and enhance the joy and satisfaction you experience in the kitchen. It’s also great fun to share the experience of trying them out with friends and family.
Product FAQ
1. What Devices Qualify as Kitchen Gadgets?
A kitchen gadget can be any accessory in the kitchen. Merriam-Webster defines a gadget as “an often small mechanical or electronic device with a practical use but often thought of as a novelty.” Another way to look at this concern: A gadget isn’t a pot or a pan, nor a standard type of knife. It is often a tool or device that you could live without, but the addition of such a gadget to your kitchen arsenal makes cooking more fun, efficient, creative, or all of those.
2. What Makes the Best Kitchen Gadgets?
In our view, the best kitchen gadgets are the ones that have multiple uses or are so fundamental in purpose that you can use them every day or almost every day. This is in contrast to those ultra-exotic kitchen gadgets that end up at the back of a drawer or cupboard, where you may rediscover them when you are looking for something else and remember you made that unfortunate purpose. The best kitchen gadgets will be ones that you put to use soon after you get them, find them useful and interesting, and continue to use often enough to justify your investment.
3. What Kind of Gadgets Will Bring Out Your “Inner Chef?”
That inner chef often may be encouraged by something that makes life easier. It almost certainly will be brought out by something that opens new possibilities for preparing foods you haven’t cooked before or for using new techniques.
How We Chose & Evaluated Today’s Best Kitchen Gadgets
In addition to striving to provide a broad selection with a broad range of price points and purposes, we selected the entries in this rundown of the ten best kitchen gadgets based on their appeal to a lot of home cooks. Some, we feel, are highly likely to bring out that inner chef in the aspiring home cook. Some are very practical and handy; others open up new possibilities in more dramatic ways. We chose products that have received high marks from people who are using them. Finally, these products are all offered by companies that stand behind their products and have a good reputation in the industry.
Overall Price Range
Our ten best kitchen gadgets range in price from as low as about $6 to around $190 or more. We then used a $/$$/$$$ rating system as follows: “$” indicates a product typically available for under $20. Products in the 20-to-50 dollar range are rated “$$,” and the higher-end items will display a “$$$” rating.
Further, the lowest-priced options among these appealing kitchen gadgets are typically tools that make things you already do go faster and be easier to do. They may not be life-changing, but they will brighten the day for you or for the cook you give them to. The mid-range gadgets are the kind of tools that may not be impulse purchases. They may make it to your gift registry or be something you think about a while. The most expensive options covered here may open up new possibilities like making your own sparkling water or being able to have and serve espresso at the drop of a hat.
What We Reviewed
OXO Good Grips Grape and Tomato Slicer & Cutter Guide
This OXO slicer & cutter guide may be the solution to a problem you didn’t know you had. But like the entire line of OXO Good Grips products, this handy tool ranks as one of the best kitchen gadgets among its loyal users. The idea behind it is to better handle hard-to-cut foods like cherry and grape tomatoes, grapes, pitted olives, and pitted cherries. With this handy tool, you can make precise cuts of a whole one-cup batch in a single slice with a serrated knife instead of cutting them one at a time.
This entry on our list of the best kitchen gadgets has clear walls with convenient markings in both cup-portion and milliliter measurements. The walls are flexible enough to accommodate and firmly hold larger fruit while you slice it. This gadget has a non-slip base to hold it steady while you cut. It comes apart easily for washing and is dishwasher safe.
Gadget lovers will be familiar with the popular OXO brand. This OXO product was inspired by a chef’s trick that involves positioning a tomato between two lids to hold it firm for cutting. The company prides itself on providing innovative tools that address even marginally frequent and significant, but still annoying, problems and challenges for home cooks and pros alike.
Price: $
Where to Buy
OXO Good Grips Grape and Tomato Slicer & Cutter
- Halve up to 1 cup of small fruits such as grapes or cherry tomatoes with a single slice
- Great for kumquats, pitted cherries, pitted olives and more
- To use, simply fill Slicer with fruits and use any serrated knife to slice through
OXO stands behind its products with its OXO Better Guarantee, assuring satisfaction with the product. There is a limited lifetime warranty against defects in workmanship and materials. Specific warranty information is furnished with the product.
Hamilton Beach Open Ease Automatic Jar Opener
This automatic jar opener solves a problem almost everyone experiences at one time or another, but one that is a constant issue for people with arthritis and other such limitations on grip strength. This handy gadget will open a wide variety of glass jar sizes. It is designed to open those jars even when every other method attempted has failed. You simply place the opener on top of the jar and press the push-button. One push of the button activates the tool’s twisting action, and then another push releases the lid. Note that this opener is only to be used for glass jars and should not be used on plastic containers.
Hamilton Beach designs its tools to respond to consumer needs and feedback. This Open Ease opener features a handgrip that is both comfortable and easy to control. This device is compact for easy storage in a drawer or cupboard, but you won’t want it too far out of sight. It will come in handy over and over again.
Price: $$
Where to Buy
Hamilton Beach offers a one-year limited warranty on this appliance.
WonderVeg Strongest and Heaviest 5-Blade Vegetable Spiralizer
Description
This WonderVeg spiralizer is truly a gadget with the potential to bring out your inner chef… or inspire and satisfy that enthusiastic home cook on your gifting list. With this handy tool, you can create an array of new twists on familiar vegetable dishes. This is the ideal tool for making interesting foods that will suit the criteria of paleo, keto, Plant Paradox, low-calorie, and gluten-free diets. You can create vegetable-based pasta alternatives that are delicious, low-calorie, and beautiful.
This spiralizer is genuinely fun to operate, but it also is a real workhorse. In just minutes, or maybe even seconds, you can spiralize a head of cabbage or substantial quantities of items like carrots, beets, parsnips, sweet potatoes, broccoli and more. This device’s blades are made of 420 stainless steel and will stay sharp for years. These blades provide plenty of food preparation options in terms of size and shape. The unit is compact for easy storage, and it comes with an included brush that makes it easy to clean the blades after each use.
Price: $$
Where to Buy
WonderVeg Perfect Vegetable Slicer and Spiralizer with 7-Stainless…
- Save Time and Enjoy Your Meal: With the vegetable slicer and spiralizer you spend less time in the kitchen and more time…
- Creativity at work! Make healthy and great looking dishes that WOW your guests at parties and events, ideal for making…
- The included cleaning brush makes it easy to clean and wash the blades after use, and its unique design make it simple…
Wonderesque, the manufacturer of this WonderVeg Spiralizer, offers lifetime support to purchasers of this product. This is a very customer-oriented company and they back their products for life.
Nespresso Pixie Espresso Maker
This espresso maker brings the famous Nespresso high-end coffee-maker technology to a Keurig-style espresso machine that is super-fast and easy to use overall. It even comes packaged with 16 Nespresso coffee capsules offering an assortment of flavors and aromas. The Nespresso Pixie has a 24-ounce removable water tank that can hold 10 used capsules.
The heating element on this unit preheats in just 30 seconds, and you’ll find programmable buttons for brewing either espresso or lungo, which is an Italian-style coffee beverage that uses more water than traditional espresso. Coffee volume can be set on automatic or programmed. This is an elegant, streamlined machine with built-in storage for the power cord.
Price: $$$
Where to Buy
Nespresso offers a two-year limited warranty for the Pixie Espresso Maker.
Star Cupcake Liner
This entry on our list of the best kitchen gadgets is a silicone mold that can be used for star-shaped cupcakes and as a mold for chocolates, candles, hard candy, frozen treats, and more. It has a wide temperature tolerance ranging from -40 to 450 degrees F. Made of 100% food grade silicone, this mold is flexible, BPA-free, non-toxic, environmentally friendly, easy to clean and just plain fun to use. You can bake in it, freeze concoctions in it, or pour hot liquid into the molds to cool. It’s dishwasher-, microwave-, and oven-safe. Just don’t put it on the stove top!
Our review team loved the fact that there is no need to grease or oil this mold before each use. It is designed to heat quickly and bake evenly with no dark edges or burned bottoms. The molds are easy to empty simply by twisting slightly. Oven temperatures required to get good results with different foods are essentially the same as they are for standard bakeware.
Price: $
Where to Buy
Reusable Silicone Baking Cups, Star Cupcake Liners (3 in, 12 Pack)
- REUSABLE BAKING CUPS: These reusable silicone baking cups are a great alternative to disposable paper cupcake liners….
- NOT JUST FOR CUPCAKES: These versatile cupcake liners can be used for a variety of different treats. Use them to hold…
- HIGH-QUALITY: Made from 100% food-grade silicone material; BPA free, flexible, durable, eco-friendly, and non-toxic
2-in-1 Smoking Gun Cold Smoker & Vacuum Sealer
This versatile smoker /sealer performs two very different kitchen tasks, and it can’t help but add new dimensions to the home cook’s repertoire. Used in the vacuum seal mode, it lets you prepare veggies, fruits, or salads for storage in the refrigerator and use throughout the week. Cooked foods can be prepared ahead of time and packaged for storage in the freezer without worries about freezer burn.
Smoking various foods is a popular trend, with chefs and today’s most adventurous home cooks smoking items such as ice cream and even cocktails as well as meats. This gadget’s simple, one button operation allows you to choose from three smoke levels. It has a flexible extender hose and nozzle, detachable burn chamber, and a removable smoking barrel. The smoker operates quietly and is portable for indoor or outdoor use. All parts are dishwasher-safe.
The starter kit includes the smoke gun with an integrated stand, nozzle extender hose, vacuum hose, USB charging cable, replacement smoke screens, tweezers, and instructions. Woodchips are not included, however
Price: $$
Where to Buy
NIA 2-in-1 Professional Smoking Gun Cold Smoker & Vacuum Sealer -…
- ✅ 100% SATISFACTION GUARANTEE Your satisfaction is OUR upmost PRIORITY! Buy with COMPLETE CONFIDENCE!
- ✅ VACUUM SEAL MODE can preserve your food for optimal freshness. Use it for freshly sliced veggies, fruits or salads…
- ✅ NO MORE Freezer Burned food filled with ice crystals which goes straight to the garbage. MEAL PLANNING & COOKING…
Warranty
The 2-in-1 Smoking Gun is backed by a 100% satisfaction guarantee.
Wilton Easy Pour Funnel
This funnel by Wilton is a worthy item in this innovative company’s line of tools for candy making and cake decorating. This funnel is useful for a lot of foods such as pancake batter and thin icing, but it is especially good for pouring hot candy liquids into molds or onto a sheet. This tool features push-button controls to control the flow of liquid precisely. It is made of food-grade quality materials. Candy makers will especially appreciate the one-handed operation of this funnel and the control it gives them when dispensing liquids at high temperature.
Price: $
Where to Buy
Wilton Easy Pour Funnel
- Produced with the highest grade materials
- Manufactured to the highest quality available
- Manufactured in Hong Kong
Warranty
Wilton provides a limited warranty against defects in materials and workmanship.
Presto 03430 Pizzazz Plus Rotating Oven
The Presto Pizzazz Plus is a countertop oven that introduces a fast and easy way to bake pizza and other foods like chicken strips and nuggets, egg rolls, cinnamon rolls, cookies, and much more. Its rotating tray turns continuously to assure even baking. The oven has top and bottom heating elements to bake from both sides at the same time. There are separate heating controls so you can choose to engage and use only the bottom element, only the top one, or both simultaneously.
This oven bakes pizza in about half the time a conventional oven requires for the same task. Also, using this 1235-watt oven can reduce the electricity used for cooking certain items by up to 60 percent vs. using a conventional oven for the same cooking tasks. Its non-stick pan detaches easily for fast clean-up and storage.
Different styles of pizza will require different baking times and the use of various heating element options to produce optimal results. A baking guide for various styles of pizza is printed on the oven for easy reference. The oven’s timer will automatically turn off the heating elements when your cook time is up, and this Presto oven also will turn off automatically should it ever overheat. We liked that this compact countertop appliance can also serve as a second oven, which is a real plus when you need to use your primary oven for a different dish or task.
Price: $$
Where to Buy
Presto 03430 Pizzazz Plus Rotating Oven
- Rotating tray turns continuously to assure even baking.
- Top and bottom heating elements bake foods from both sides. Heating elements are separately controlled, allowing you to…
- Timer signals end of cooking time and automatically turns off heating elements.
This Presto Pizzazz Plus Rotating Oven has a two-year warranty against defects.
Peak Ice Works Silicone Crushed Ice Tray
This unique, tray-style gadget can produce enough crushed ice for a single 8-ounce serving. There are various packaging options, including some with multiple trays at a lower price per unit. Some report having tried the single tray and then decided to order enough additional trays to produce crushed ice for several drinks at one time. The flexible lid serves as a funnel for easily transferring your freshly crushed ice into a beverage glass.
The lid protects the ice from freezer burn and prevents odor absorption from other items when in your freezer. It also makes it easy to stack multiple trays.. This company offers and extensive range of unique silicone ice trays to produce high-quality ice in any home freezer.
Price: $
Where to Buy
W&P Peak Silicone Crushed Ice Tray w/ Protective Lid | Blue | Easy to…
- DESIGN DETAILS: Thoughtfully designed for ease of use. Small and slim for compact storage, the lid doubles as a funnel…
- TOP NOTCH MATERIALS: High-grade silicone manufactured in a zero-emission facility meets LFGB requirements (the highest…
- THE RIGHT ICE: Makes a full 8 ounces of crushed ice, perfect for cocktails that call for high dilution like mint juleps…
Warranty information accompanies this Peak product.
SodaStream Genesis Sparkling Water Maker
The SodaStream Genesis is a great gadget for anyone who likes sparkling water and other bubbly, refreshing drinks. This gadget is a machine that will pay for itself and provide the ability to have just the volume of sparkling water that you want whenever you want it. This device is powered by a reusable, refillable CO2 cylinder; it uses no electricity and does not require batteries.
With this gadget, you can transform ordinary tap water into sparkling water or flavored soda in less than 30 seconds. The pumping action of the machine makes a buzzing sound that is part of its charm. This machine can reduce what you spend on sodas and sparkling water while reducing or eliminating your use of plastic bottles. It’s a fun entry on our list of the best kitchen gadgets in part because of all the flavors and concoctions you can try creating.
Price: $$$
Where to Buy
SodaStream Genesis Sparkling Water Maker, Black and Silver
- This kit includes: (1) Genesis Sparkling Water Maker, (1) Mini CO2 Carbonator (makes up to 9L of sparkling water), (2) 1…
- Light weight sleek design with Twist-lock technology and doesn’t require electricty or batteries
- CO2 Carbonator Compatibility: 60L, which can be exchanged at several of your favorite retailers
SodaStream offers a lifetime limited warranty against defects in materials and workmanship.
The Verdict
Our rundown of the ten best kitchen gadgets on today’s market offers an interesting assortment of very low-cost items that can come in very handy and add some fun to your cooking. If you are (or want to be) an in-home confections master, the Wilton funnel or the star cupcake mold might be your top choice. The mid-range tools are great for adding brand new techniques to your kitchen routines, such as spiralizing and cold-smoking. The higher-cost gadgets on the list, such as the countertop pizza oven, the espresso machine, and the sparkling water maker we reviewed, are certain to get used again and again.