20 Best Smart Kitchen Appliances

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Make your next meal, or sip, or munch—you get the gist—one for the books.

A man who wants to indulge himself in a full course by bitting into a succulent A5 wagyu steak, then packing on the carbs with a rice pilaf or crusty Neapolitan pizza, and then relishing in the brilliance of an air-fried Ahi tuna steak—that's most men, FYI—is deserving of a few smart kitchen appliances to make all the above happen.

And because "smart" can mean a mishmash of things in the category of smart kitchen appliances—WiFi-backed, app-connected, voice-assistant, auto-sensing, all-in-one, precise control, customization... Any cool technological stunts under their stainless steel sleeves—we’ve wrangled the best of the best kitchen appliances to shop that are rightfully smart.

For instance, there are those godsend smart cookers and air fryers, ingenious countertop add-ons for anything from baking to grilling and coffee-making, as well as straight-up nifty gizmos that'll make your life easier. Each of these 20 smart kitchen appliances below is the jack-of-all-trades in their respective camp, and can—with the help of your own culinary skills—make your next meal, or sip, or munch, one to remember.

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14 cooking functions, united under one lid. God bless Ninja! It packs every cooking method imaginable, from air-frying to yogurt-making, in just one pressure cooker. It's the kitchen appliance that'll rid you of the need for another kitchen appliance—not even a gadget like smart thermometer, because it's already equipped with one.

$130 at Bed Bath & Beyond

Air fryers are all the rage, and are as dandy as they are easy to operate. But Cosori's newer-gen, smarter air fryer takes the limelight; it churns out meals that simply is better—i.e., faster and crispier—through professional cooking mechanisms that you won't need to bother learning. It's also remote-controllable via voice assistant and app.

$400 at Williams Sonoma $400 at Bed Bath & Beyond

Pretty much every appliance in Breville's hoard is smart as a whip. Its smart air fryer oven can cook up a storm with 13 preset functions. Then, there's the Element IQ system that uses an algorithm of temperature and control to direct the heat to where and when it's needed—no cold spot is spared. To wit, you can rest assure that whatever comes out of this oven will be a Turkish delight.

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Paired with steam tech and heat control, Balmuda's toaster oven for anything involving searing bread—sandwich, pizza, pastry, croissant, bagel, etc.—can make the surface crispy while keeping the inner aromatic and juicy. That's some seriously heavenly-bite stuff to have at the kitchen counter.

$730 at huckberry $730 at food52 $730 at williams sonoma

Musui–Kamado brings time-honored craftsmanship and tech headway together—the poetry of cast iron cooking and the efficiency of induction cooking. Think of Musui–Kamado as a cast iron oven inside an induction cooker—which it basically is. You know what that means: Faster heating, safer handling, less energy consumption, and better heat retention brought to life in one apparatus.

With this, you're getting decent—or superb—dutch-oven-fixed meal for a reasonable price. Not only are you getting a cast iron cookware that looks ready to serve, you're also getting an appliance specifically made for sautéing, searing, braising, slow cooking, and precision cooking—all you really need in a dutch oven.

For hard-to-crunch food that seriously needs breaking down, this food processor is the genius helper. To start, it can shred through beef and chicken breast quietly into ground meat, or mix them with veggie to make purée or meatballs. Plus, it'll speed up the whole process, making meal prep a whole lot easier.

Yes, a smart skillet. One that you won't need to put on a stovetop, because it can cook on its own. It's basically an electrified cookware—a cookware appliance—that you can operate directly on the countertop for searing, stewing, stir-frying, or just making rice. Hell, you won't even need a kitchen. Just get the ingredients ready.

Those self-proclaimed grill masters who are also homebodies—weird combo,1 but okay—are now at the mercy of this indoor countertop grill. Because in this age, getting sizzling barbecue sans stepping over the threshold should be the new normal. And Ninja's Foodi grill comes with a smart cook system—four protein settings, six cooking modes, and nine levels of doneness—at the touch of one button.

This is a beastly blender, designed so that it can automatically adjust its blade speed and torque to the contents and temperature. Each cycle is also precisely timed to one minute. Just push the button, and watch those blades crush even frozen ingredients.

$350 at Williams Sonoma $350 at Bloomingdale's

If something has gone viral on TikTok, it's probably worth a buy. And we'll be damned if a smart toaster with a touch screen, first of its kind, hasn't gone viral yet. It toasts supersonically without drying the bread, and senses what kind of bread—bagels, waffles, muffins, Pop-Tarts...—is being toasted.

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If machines one day were to replace human labor, this Esquire Gadget Awards winner will likely lead that charge. RIP to all baristas, you'll be remembered well—after we pull a good shot or make a good cup from this fully automatic espresso machine, that is. Its screen will walk you through every step, including mighty customizable areas like pH levels, caffeine strength, or grind.

$230 at Bed Bath & Beyond

CREAMi is a no-holds-barred spice bomb of an ice cream maker—having it at home is the equivalent of getting your own Häagen-Dazs factory or Amorino counter. If that doesn't sound sweet enough, consider the smoothie bowls, milkshakes, and sorbets—in your own flavor, with your own toppings—you can make out of it.

We've documented the crux of using sous vides, so peruse through it. Basically, it's the magic of cooking vacuum-sealed food which turns out precise doneness, so you won't have to send a dish back to the chef because the steak is not medium-rare enough. And this sous vide can be connected to an app to ensure perfection at every step and parameter like time, temperature.

$400 at Williams Sonoma $400 at Amazon

Vitamix's composter might not be intrinsically smart; it won't automatically determine what your food waste should be broken down and turned into—diamond? Platinum? Vibranium? But having it to reduce food scraps into fertilizers at a tenth of their original volume, while doing so quietly, does sound like a smart way of life you should adapt.

No need to lift the lid up—any germaphobe's nightmare. Simply say "Open can" or gesture your hand above the sensor, and it'll be lifted. (No false trigger detected.)

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Few home drink mixer machines allow you to add the spirit of your own choice to cocktail capsules, but the Bartesian—as close to mechanizing home bartending as we can get—says "screw that". It allows you to pick your capsules, and your own top-shelf liquor, and whip up concoctions so good they make waiting in a long line outside award-winning bars no longer your Friday night ritual.

$170 at Breville $170 at Amazon

In another ode to Breville's own league of state-of-the-art-looking appliances, here's a smart tea infuser for those with their own Sunday high-tea time. It knows the right temperature and steep time to bring out the aroma of your leaves, with five presets to make juggling around the buttons and numbers much easier.

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For a pitcher, this Esquire Gadget Awards winner is a splurge, but it does not play when it comes to gratifying water drinkers—so, anyone?—with the most clean-tasting, contaminant-free aqua possible, courtesy of its dual-filtration system.

Take more guesswork out of cooking before even prepping the food with Samsung's top-of-the-line fridge. It does what a fridge does, albeit more stylishly than others. But Samsung's Family Hub—a tablet screen built into the fridge door—lends itself to the public eye. Think changing room temperature, streaming music, viewing content, and of course, controlling the fridge itself all from it. There's also the built-in camera that connects to your smartphone app to let you see if you need to stock up on certain stuff when you're out in the supermarket.

Maverick Li is the Style & Commerce Editor of Men's Health, where he covers clothing, footwear, watches, and grooming. He was previously the Assistant Commerce Editor at Esquire.

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