Kitchen Toys and Gadgets

by Gabby Hyman
Face Your Kitchen Columnist

For those who love to cook, kitchen toys and accessories are fantastic. It can be great fun surveying the landscape of unique kitchen aids and gadgets that you'd buy if you had the money, the inclination--or perhaps even the need. Some toys seem completely necessary, and some ridiculous. One person's stainless steel bread maker is another person's boat anchor. Perhaps one or more of these kitchen toys will fire your imagination. Consider a coffee system by a German manufacturer that installs directly into your kitchen wall. There's no kitchen plumbing involved. The machine has a built-in removable hot water dispenser, a conical burr coffee grinder, and dispenses cocoa, tea, and espresso. And a lock keeps uninvited children from activating the system. Oh, it's pricey at over $2,000, but we're dreaming.

Are you into baking gadgets? There's a nifty 8-cubic-foot convection oven that will let you bake three sheets of cookies at a time without rotating pans. With cooking temperatures from 175 to 500 degrees, you can use this kitchen toy to subject the entire family to a sugar coma in no time. One model offered online goes for around $400.

Unique Kitchen Toys Crafted for a Single Purpose

If you've already bought accessories like salad whirligigs and hot-dog cookers, you won't find a stainless steel gourmet asparagus steamer a stretch. The gadget sells for around $40. Its basket holds a family-sized load of spears and cleans up fast.

There's a new blender that turns into a double-smoothie bar, blending two separate batches of healthy nectars and distributing seven-ounce servings through spigots. The price: $80.

Not all kitchen accessories are priced extravagantly. If you haven't been to the gym in months, you may want to invest in an under-the-counter jar opener--less than $10. Another handy kitchen toy is the dedicated hot-pocket/sandwich griller that cooks up two full-sized lunches in a single bound ($15-$20).

Go ahead. Splurge a little!

About the Author
Gabby Hyman has written for print and online media for more than 20 years. He has created online content for eToys, GoTo.com, Siebel Systems, Avaya, and Nissan UK. He has also been a web consultant to the Governor of California. As an author of fiction, journalism, and poetry, Gabby is a former English professor for the University of Illinois, University of Alaska, and Old Dominion University. He holds an MFA in fiction writing from the University of Alabama.