5 ways to embrace tech in your kitchen

This is sponsored content for Smeg

It's all very well trying to cream butter and sugar with a wooden spoon. Back in ye olde times, that's how it would have been done. Then, sometime in the mid-19th century, the wire whisk was invented and both biceps and triceps the world over breathed a sigh of relief. Our point? That bringing in a bit of technology to the kitchen makes your life easier.

Here are a generous handful of ways to adopt a bit of the modern world into the busiest room in your home, the kitchen, so that you get more time with the people standing by the worktop, rather than spendings hours chained to the stove.

Induction cooktops

Induction is at the cutting-edge of cooking right now. It's far less wasteful than gas because it uses all of the heat generated, so you're only heating up the pan and the food rather than letting all that energy go to waste licking up its sides. And if you're setting up your home with some renewable energy sources (solar panels and the like), you may not even be hitting up the grid at all.

Induction cooking is also insanely fast – once you've boiled a pot of water on an induction cooktop you will never look at gas again. And did we mention how easy an induction cooktop is to clean? Just wipe and go, whereas cleaning a gas cooktop has to be one of the most irritatingly fiddly jobs in the kitchen.

Digitally-optimised ovens

When your oven does more than just heat stuff, you reap the rewards. Smeg Galileo multi-cooking technology is here to change your life. The new Smeg Omnichef oven is basically your new at-home cook, doing everything from alerting you as to when to put each ingredient into the oven so dinner doesn't run late, to combining microwave, steam-oven and regular oven technologies, in up to seven combinations, to ensure your food stays as juicy on the inside as it does crispy on the outside. To up the ante even further, there's all in-oven barbecue, air fry and stone cooking.

All in all, it saves up to 70 per cent of your cooking time – think a whole roast chook in 30 minutes – so you can dedicate that time elsewhere.

Stand mixer

The best thing about a stand mixer over a manual or electric whisk is this – you can walk away. When you're using an electric whisk and the recipe says, "whisk for 10 minutes," you have to stand there the entire time. With a stand mixer you can set and forget, returning to glossy meringue, fluffed-up butter and sugar or bouncy bread dough while you get on with whatever else you've got to do that day.

Use it to whip-up potatoes with the flat beater, or to knead dough – it's more than just a cake-maker. Best to try and get a nice colour one too, so it looks good on your worktop, making it a feature in your kitchen.

Seamless refrigeration

You think you don't need an integrated refrigerator until you get one and then wonder how on earth you ever lived without one. Smeg have a nifty offering whereby the three models in their integrated refrigeration collection – bottom-mount fridge-freezer, fridge and freezer – can be mixed and matched to your heart's content. You can even move the hinges to whichever side suits the configuration of your kitchen. Ever suffered fridge mould? Forget about it, because these fridges boast their very own antibacterial gasket, thus preventing the growth of bacteria and microorganisms. Plus, there's a humidity-controlled crisper which reduces waste by elongating the life of your food, while the interior of the fridge is fitted with an electronic touch display to ensure an accurate temperature with advanced air circulation throughout. No food gets left behind; this fridge means business.

Hand blender with food processor

Meet your culinary allrounder. You can shred, slice, whip, mash, whisk, blend and chop your way through meal preparation like a pro. Think of all the time you'll save while your extra pair of hands creates dips, pastes, sauces, smoothies, salads, ice-cream, cake and more.

Anyone who has tried to make hummus in a blender (the maddened shaking of the jug; the adding too much fluid, turning it into a sauce…), we've been there, friend – and it's enough to make you want to chuck the entire lot in the bin. It can also break down nuts into nut flours and even into butters or milks. Sure, the parts can be annoying to clean, but that's what dishwashers are for – and, yes, definitely get yourself one of those while you're at it; life's too short to be chained to the sink.

Discover how Smeg Galileo multi-cooking technology can help you create culinary masterpieces at home, sure to impress family and friends: galileo.smeg.com.au