Category — Books, Guides & Kits

Gourmet, the Magazine of Good Living was put to rest last year by publisher Condé Nast, but like a soufflé softly rising from having fallen, it lives again. In digital form.

Designed for tablet devices, Gourmet Live promises to be a modern rethinking of the classic magazine. With video clips, slide shows and social interactivity features, the new Gourmet looks forward to the future, while drawing on the experience of being the first magazine (1941) in the U.S. dedicated to food and wine.

Coming in Fall 2010.

Now, for only $49.99 you, yes, you could be the proud owner of… some seeds and a bowl. Somebody here was thinking (just not for your benefit): pretty packaging with some gardening “secrets” thrown in, and the salad-in-a-box is sure to be this summer’s hot item.

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It can take years to be properly trained as a sushi chef. Or, with the help of a little magic, it can take minutes. Promising to “put the ‘U’ in sushi” (um, eww), Sushi Magic offers fresh-fish lovers an easy-to-use kit that gives everyone the ability to make sushi at home. The kit contains a mold for making nigiri sushi, and a non-stick silicone mat for creating rolls. Included is a ‘sushi handbook’, which includes tips for selecting sushi-grade fish, and cooking sushi rice.

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It’s coming: the future of the kitchen is coming. We may not have jetpacks and flying cars yet, but the connected kitchen is right on the horizon. Kitchen appliance manufacturers still see a future where the refrigerator talks to the microwave and tells people what to eat for dinner, but for the meantime, a more realistic goal seems to be popping up.

Small internet-friendly devices are going to be key to the kitchens of the future. Companies have been producing small ‘cookbook readers’ for some time, but so far it doesn’t seem to have taken hold in the public’s imagination quite yet. After all, with laptops and netbooks being so small and portable (along with Bing now offering recipe searches), a new recipe or an old favorite is only a click away.

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Have a hankerin’ for milk and Pepsi but hate Pepsi? Well, if you’ve been suffering through the ultra sweet taste of that suspect combination just to get bubbles in milk, it’s time to let science lead you to better living. The U-FIZZ Drink Carbonation Kit consists of little more than a couple of plastic tubes and a hose (luckily with a $6.99 price tag to match—good job ThinkGeek), but manages to turn any beverage into a bubbling fountain of nose-tickling goodness. Whether it be juice, coffee, tea or the aforementioned milk, your favorite beverage can now be made better. How? Science. By using baking soda and vinegar to produce carbon dioxide, the gadget captures the escaping gas and puts it into your drink. Better living through chemistry, indeed.

There’s a new breed of pizza-maker out there: one that appreciates the tradition and culture of pizza. Like what microbrewing did for beer drinking, artisan pizza-makers are doing for the classic pie. Restaurants are popping up dedicated to the craft of pizza-making, and the results show in a quality menu. However, for all this attention heaped upon dough, sauce and cheese, the average slice still lacks soul. To be able to partake in this new pizza culture requires a commitment of an entire pie; sometimes I just want to go down to the corner and grab a slice.

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