Samsung’s Chef Collection
WiFi-enabled, high-tech appliances that make your kitchen smarter
by Kyle Raymond Fitzpatrick
It’s likely that your kitchen can be a lot more sophisticated than it is right now. Sure, you can buy a fancy blender or smart tableware—but items like that are accessories in the creation of a kitchen. To really enhance the space, look toward the major appliances. Your refrigerator, for example, can be upgraded into a giant tablet with remote accessibility as Samsung has shown with their most recent Family Hub fridge. Spreading this technology accordingly, the brand has launched their new Chef Collection range of WiFi-enabled appliances that pair designer aesthetics with brainy technology.
There are numerous ways this fusion happens in the Chef Collection, with each effort intended to make your appliances a little more competent: the oven can be divided into zones with separate temperatures in one space and can be controlled remotely, via app; the cook tops offer visual cues to enliven induction cooking—and floating knobs to slide from burner to burner; the hood automatically turns on and adjusts to how hot your cooking gets; the dishwasher cleans with a “wall” of water and automatically sets itself ajar when drying for the most effective finish; and the refrigerator—like the Family Hub—can shift spaces from refrigeration to freezing with the click of a button and offers glances inside thanks to interior cameras.
These new additions debuted at the Pacific Coast Builders Conference in San Diego where Michelin-starred Napa Valley chef Christopher Kostow showed how easy the appliances are to use. Kostow is deeply familiar with the products as he helped Samsung perfect the line, imparting “some of the lessons learned in commercial kitchens” over the last few years in the hopes of bypassing “the challenges associated with going from a commercial kitchen to a home kitchen.” He’s one of the many chefs who have a hand in forming the collection.
Kostow prepared two dishes using the Chef Collection suite and illustrated the functionality of these commercially-able, home-focused products. One thing that stood out to him as a plus was the oven’s multiple abilities. “In a commercial kitchen, you have the ability to do combination cooking,” he said, noting how you can steam, bake, roast, and more in one place. You can do the same with the collection’s oven which is important because, as he says, “It creates a more even cooking at home.”
He’s also a fan of the visual cue on the induction cooktop, telling us, “It’s a pretty elegant solution.” While the refrigerator’s interior camera is great for forgetful cooks (“I never remember what’s in the fridge”), he’s most impressed by the ease with which Samsung engineers translated his advice into a product anyone would love to use in their home kitchen. “It’s remarkable,” he said. “That they’re able to absorb what we’re saying.” And then incorporate it all.
Images courtesy of Samsung
