The smart kitchen product market has exploded. Everything from your kettle to your cutting board now wants to connect to WiFi and send you notifications. Most of it is unnecessary. Some of it is genuinely useful. Here’s my honest assessment after testing a range of smart kitchen products over the past year.

Worth it: smart meat thermometer

Product tested: Meater+ wireless thermometer (~$130)

This is the single best kitchen gadget I’ve bought in years. A wireless probe that goes into the meat, connects to your phone via Bluetooth, and tells you exactly when it’s done. No more guessing, no more cutting into a roast to check, no more overcooked chicken breasts.

The app estimates finishing time based on the current temperature trajectory, which means you can time the rest of your meal around the meat. For barbecue low-and-slow cooking, it’s genuinely transformative — I can monitor a lamb shoulder from my couch instead of standing next to the grill.

Verdict: Buy it. It improves your cooking measurably.

Worth it: kitchen scale with nutritional data

Product tested: Drop Kitchen Scale (~$80)

A scale that connects to an app with recipes and adjusts ingredients based on the number of serves. The nutritional tracking is surprisingly useful if you’re paying attention to what you eat. The recipe integration means you can scale recipes up or down and the app recalculates everything.

It’s a scale that does more than weigh things, and the additional features are actually useful rather than gimmicky.

Verdict: Worth it if you bake regularly or track nutrition. Overkill if you just need to weigh flour.

Worth it: sous vide immersion circulator

Product tested: Anova Precision Cooker (~$180)

Sous vide isn’t new, but the latest circulators are better, cheaper, and app-connected. The WiFi connection means you can monitor and adjust temperature remotely, which matters when something is cooking for 24 hours.

The cooking results are consistent and excellent. Perfect steaks every time. Chicken breast that’s juicy throughout instead of dry on the outside and barely cooked in the middle. Eggs at exactly the texture you want.

The downside: you still need to sear after sous vide for colour and flavour, which means dirtying another pan. And the setup time (bagging, pre-heating) makes it impractical for quick weeknight meals.

Verdict: Worth it for serious cooks who meal prep or entertain. Not necessary for everyday cooking.

Not worth it: smart fridge

Product tested: Samsung Family Hub (display model, not purchased — $4,000+)

A fridge with a screen. It can show you what’s inside without opening the door (cameras), suggest recipes based on your ingredients, and display your family calendar. In theory, it reduces food waste by showing you what you have.

In practice, the cameras don’t work well once the fridge gets full (which is always). The recipe suggestions are basic. The touchscreen is slow and clunky compared to your phone. And for $4,000+, you could buy a very good regular fridge and a new phone.

Verdict: Wait several product generations.

Not worth it: smart kettle

Product tested: Breville Smart Kettle (~$220)

It lets you set the exact temperature and start it from your phone. This matters for tea enthusiasts (different teas want different temperatures) and pour-over coffee (where water temperature affects extraction).

The problem: by the time you’ve opened the app and set the temperature, you could have just walked to the kettle and pressed the button. The time saving is negligible. And if you’re not particular about water temperature for your tea, a $40 basic kettle does the same job.

Verdict: Only for dedicated tea or coffee nerds. Everyone else, skip it.

Not worth it: AI-powered recipe apps with camera

Product tested: Several apps that claim to identify ingredients via camera and suggest recipes.

The concept is appealing: point your camera at your fridge contents and get recipe suggestions. The reality is that the image recognition is inconsistent, the recipe suggestions are generic, and you end up typing in your ingredients manually anyway.

The underlying recipe databases are fine, but the AI camera feature adds very little. A simple text-based ingredient search (which most recipe apps already have) is faster and more reliable.

Verdict: The AI camera feature is a gimmick. Use a regular recipe app.

The general principle

The smart kitchen gadgets worth buying are the ones that solve a specific, real cooking problem. A thermometer that tells you exactly when meat is done solves a real problem. A scale that adjusts recipes solves a real problem.

A fridge that shows you the inside on a screen solves a problem that didn’t exist. A kettle you control from your phone saves you a five-second walk. These are solutions looking for problems.

Before buying any smart kitchen product, ask yourself: would I still want this if it didn’t connect to my phone? If the answer is no, you probably don’t need it.

Cook more. Buy less tech. Unless it’s a meat thermometer. Buy that.