Top tech for your kitchen

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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Waste not

One of the downsides of co-parenting an effervescent toddler is the quantity and variety of food we tentatively present to him, only for it to be refused and pushed away on a whim. There are only so many times you can refrigerate and re-present it before binning it, and as a consequence our composting caddy has never been so full. More diligent and ecologically conscious parents may have developed sophisticated strategies to minimise this waste, but frankly I’m tired and need it to be made easy. The DRO!D – effectively a clean, efficient vacuum-packing system – does just that.

The company behind it, B!POD, is an offshoot of the Italian firm SAES, which has been at the forefront of vacuum tech since the early 20th century. Its knowhow has been incorporated into televisions, particle accelerators, medical instruments and quantum computers – and now, perhaps unexpectedly, a range of attractive, microwaveable bowls and lids made from ocean-bound plastic. The lids contain a small valve through which air can be sucked out, and that’s done using a small, cordless unit (the “DRO!D” itself) about the size and shape of a pair of mini-binoculars. The food goes in the bowl, the lid goes on, you place the DRO!D on top of the valve, press its button, and it vacuum-packs the contents to 150 mbar (or 50 mbar for longer preservation, if you wish). A screen on top of the DRO!D tells you when the job is done (around five-10 seconds of vibration and hum, similar to the sound of a blood-pressure cuff inflating).

It deals with all kinds of foodstuffs – cooked or raw, liquid or solid, dry or fresh – and according to B!POD prolongs their life by up to five times. It certainly worked for me; slices of fruit that would have been scraped into the caddy got to fight another day, ditto pasta sauces and salads. Apparently, vacuuming also speeds up the marination process, although the time I used to spend marinating stuff is now generally given over to playing with toy vehicles while singing “Wheels On The Bus”. 

Mop it up

My house has a kitchen with a black slate floor. Crumbs and small spills are immediately conspicuous and I spend more time than I would like on my hands and knees with a sponge. This, the first Dyson product to be designed for cleaning both wet and dry dirt from hard floors, eases that burden. Crumbs are swept into an internal debris tray, while rollers mop the floor with four selectable levels of intensity. The two external water tanks display evidence of your work; post-clean you just detach them, empty the dirty one, fill the clean one ready for the next go-around, and leave it to charge. Mopping robots may be the future, but in 2024 they’re no match for a human with a WashG1.

Get the juice

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why a food-grade stainless-steel juicer might feel more satisfying to use than a standard one – but it does, unquestionably. Part of the appeal is the absence of any unsightly plastic parts that invariably lie around on the draining board. Here, metal juicing screens, chute and auger all slot together easily, and I was keen to put it back together after use, purely because it looks great on the countertop. It goes quietly about its business (four motor speeds to choose from), dispensing juice and pulp into separate containers, and is easily disassembled for cleaning. No other bells and whistles; just a durable, solid (just under 8kg), beautifully constructed appliance.

Hot shots

In the mid-1950s, celebrated Italian designers Bruno Munari and Enzo Mari collaborated to create an extraordinary-looking coffee machine characterised by its diamond panels and dazzling golden hue. That machine (known as “Concorso” or “Diamante”) was made famous by espresso pioneers La Pavoni, and this, the Diamantina, is its new, scaled-down, semi-professional cousin. This is no bean-to-cup, one-button unit – its dual boilers can be connected directly to mains water or run from a refillable tank, and manually adjustable brewing pressure and temperature controls facilitate endless experimentation. You just have to provide the beans, the grinder, the enthusiasm and the time.

Hit the gas

Whoa, a gadget that doesn’t require mains power: in this case, just a screw-in CO2 canister. It’s a user-friendly carbonator, all based around a one-litre capacity bottle into which you put your water, juice, tea, or (if it’s gone 6pm) cocktail mix. On screws the “Fusion Cap” with its built-in valve, and the whole thing clamps into the carbonator. A series of one-second long presses on the die-cast lever fizzes the drink – and there’s no chance of overdoing it, as the valves will release any excess. Fusion Cap off, normal cap on, and into the fridge where it retains the carbonation until you’re ready to pour. The CO2 canister was still going after three weeks, and seriously, I was carbonating the bejesus out of everything.

@rhodri