chef

A safer, greener pan

My mother's always warning me to be careful with my Teflon-coated pans. While Teflon is mostly safe, the chemicals used to create nonstick pans can be harmful in certain circumstances. In some cases, doctors even recommend their patients stay away from Teflon--and therefore most nonstick -- cookware. But, Teflon is not the only way to go if you want a nonstick pan.

Starfrit's Eco-Chef Fry Pan has a nonstick surface. Instead of Teflon, though, Starfrit uses Ceram-ECO, a proprietary ceramic powder that uses no chemicals to create a nonstick surface. Ceram-ECO is made entirely from natural sources and … Read more

Can your GeoSpot give you an orgasm whenever you want?

Someone has to say it.

These days, people are getting far more lasting satisfaction from food than from sex.

While the latter's public face is becoming ever more seamy rather than steamy, the former expresses its glories at every public level--from the sensual to the visual to the televisual.

There will never be a reality show called Top Pimp.

Top Chef, on the other hand, is the cause of more reheated emotions than Sex And the City and Deep Throat combined.

Perhaps this explains a new venture called GeoSpot.com.

GeoSpot is not just a directory that tells you … Read more

An egg-cellent innovation

One of my favorite things to cook for a group of people is brunch. For one thing, I love getting up early to be industrious (hence my love of Thanksgiving). I also like the idea of cooking a meal without the added pressure of planning a series of board games and movies. But if you think beyond the straightforward French toast and fruit, you'll get to the part of the meal that's the most difficult to coordinate: the eggs.

I'm a fan of medium-boiled eggs, but in an effort to prevent myself from disappointment, I've learned … Read more

Spice your dishes in a shot

I was cooking pasta Alfredo the other night and I grabbed the big container of garlic powder I keep by the stove. Somehow, I got the two pour spouts confused. Rather than adding a teaspoon or so of garlic powder, I wound up with two or three tablespoons in my sauce. I've been looking for a spice dispenser capable of preventing a repeat performance, and I think the SpiceShot Spice Dispenser fits the bill.

With SpiceShot by Chef'n, all you have to do is pick it up and click a button. A quarter of a teaspoon will fall … Read more

Mixed review for TurboChef Speedcook

TurboChef's Speedcook oven has grabbed some serious attention over the past year, nabbing Sex and the City co-star Kim Cattrall as its spokes-actress and the support of top chef/kitchen stuff endorsers like Charlie Trotter. Fawning articles in Forbes, the New York Times, and Business Week are piling up faster than the oven can roast a chicken.

And boy, can this oven cook fast--up to 15 times faster than any other conventional oven, finishing a rack of lamb in about the time it takes me to shower. It looks pretty spiffy, too, while dusting the competition. (Take that, slow … Read more

I, Kitchen

If you think about it, the kitchen is not really a safe place. Even the simplest of recipes calls for playing with fire (or heat at least if you're into microwaveables). Introducing control to a noncognitive entity might be inviting a recipe for disaster. Especially one comprised of metal alloys. I assume any robot working in my kitchen can withstand hot soup burns of a much higher degree that I could. I would hope my personal robotic chef has a keen sensitivity to my human heat tolerance.

That's exactly what the research team at Bristol Robotics Lab is … Read more

Robot cooks so you don't have to

To paraphrase the T-shirt: This was supposed to be the future. Where is my robot chef for days when I'm too tired to cook?

Turns out, the future is just around the corner. Liu Changfa, a retired professor in Beijing, has grabbed headlines with the prototype of his "food robot." The 5-foot-tall iron chef comprises a base that houses a computer, a gut that contains an induction cooker and a pot, and a chest that frames a screen. The chef also has a robotic arm to help with stirring as well as a C-3PO-esque mien that's … Read more

Two new Irish video startups: one tasty, one viral

An almost uncoverable number of Web sites launch every day. While many come out of Northern California, several parts of the world have been cropping up as hotbeds for new developments, including Israel, Russia, Canada, and the U.K. Two new Irish startups that launched this month are iFoods.tv and Little Ireland.tv.

iFoods.tv, similar to other Web video cooking sites, is a series of semiprofessionally produced how-to videos on how to make single and multidish meals. There's also a user-submitted video contest going up in the near future that will pit user against chef, hopefully Iron … Read more

Accessories that go a Wii too far

To all the makers of insane Wii accessories, we say thank you. Why? Because we were on the verge of actually thinking that the "Bass Fishing Wii" sounded like it actually made sense, but then the latest entries to the market jolted us back into reality.

The cooking utensils featured on Gizmodo--complete with "frying pan, knife, fork and spatula"--are disturbing indications that people have gotten a wee too close to the Wii. These, by the way, come hot on the heels of the screw-on pool cue.

If people must spend all their waking hours with … Read more