“You have to eat to live, not live to eat.” That’s something a family member used to say to me when I was younger and insisted I didn’t care about nutrition. I wanted to eat purely for the flavor of things. What did she mean I couldn’t just eat potato chips and black olives all day for the rest of my life?
This single-serving prepared-meal delivery service is owned by HelloFresh. It has plans ranging in price from $84 for six meals per week to $207 for 18 meals per week—all just heat-and-eat. That makes each meal range from $14 per serving to $11 per serving, depending on the plan you choose. There’s a weekly rotating menu with 35 or more selections to choose from, plus various add-ons for things like breakfast and juice. You can select from among different types of meals such as keto, calorie smart, vegetarian, and vegan. Factor (sometimes referred to as Factor 75) emphasizes health and nutrition heavily in its marketing, and there are dietitians you can speak with for free to figure out which meals to order. (Probably see an actual doctor if you’re considering changing your diet to meet a perceived need.)
I tested this service a few years ago for our meal kit subscription guide. When testing it a second time for this review, I was happy to find that the ready-made meals have improved … somewhat. But take those words with a hefty grain of salt, because even though it might be an OK choice for some people, I still can’t recommend the service.
Texture Issues
Factor’s meals are fresh, not frozen, and arrive fully cooked and chilled. All you need to do is pop them in the microwave or oven and, in two-ish or seven-ish minutes, respectively, your meal will be complete. They’re served in recyclable individual plastic containers, TV-dinner style.
Photograph: Louryn Strampe
My partner and I tried a few different meals for this round of testing, including Chicken Alfredo Pasta, Filet Mignon and Mushroom Risotto, Grilled Steakhouse Filet Mignon, Sun-Dried Tomato Chicken, Louisiana Shrimp, and Tomato Chicken Risotto. We also tried two of the add-ons—Banana Walnut Overnight Oats and the Cold-Pressed Juice Variety Pack. Keep in mind that these meals are a bit bulky, so you’ll need to clear out some fridge space.
I don’t have a microwave, so I heated each meal up in a 375-degree Fahrenheit oven (be sure to remove the plastic film first). And every single one of them was … mushy. I felt like an oversize baby, or a companion animal that eats only various pates and meat chunks. Even when items tasted good, they still felt like mush. Factor meals have always reminded me a bit of sad airplane food.
The side dishes have vastly improved since I last tested them—I’d happily eat that Tomato Chicken Risotto on a regular basis. Most of the veggies and sides had good texture and flavor. And every single meal was super filling. But unfortunately, there’s just no way to enjoy a precooked, reheated steak. The meat hunk that was supposed to be a filet mignon mushed when I cut into it. It crumbled apart in my mouth. And it both tasted and felt as if some Star Trek–esque prototype device had been instructed to replicate a steak—vague hints of pepper and caramelized meat, but served in such a way that chewing wasn’t required.
Prep like a pro: If you’re hosting and want to do more than one course, then soup (hot or cold) is your easy solution. Any seasonal veg sweated and boiled down with softened onion, garlic, and stock forms the perfect base. Then blend with a little cream, crème fraîche, coconut milk, or toasted nuts for super silky texture. It can be made a day ahead, then blended and adjusted for seasoning and taste in your own time. Then reheat and serve.
Perfect your sauces: What often separates chefs and home cooks are silky smooth sauces, condiments, and purées. Vibrant in color and packing a punch, they’re best made in a blender. Try a dollop of smooth spiced apple chutney on a plate with a liver parfait (also made in a blender). Or homemade ketchup to accompany BBQ grilled meats. A good blender helps takes your presentation to a whole new level.
Enjoy cocktail hour: When the sun’s out, your blender is ideal for cocktails. Try making a Pisco Sour in a blender with Peruvian Pisco, fresh lime juice, sugar syrup, egg white, and ice. Done by hand you’ll get two portions at a time, but the blender will give you that frothy consistency with 10 portions at once.
Freeze to avoid food waste: Make smoothies with fruit that is on its last legs. Chop fruit such as pineapple, mango, peach, and banana, and lay it on trays to freeze. Once frozen, put them in a sandwich bag and you’ve got small enough pieces to blend up with fruit juice or milk whenever you need.
Clean up effectively: If you’ve been blending strong flavors such as garlic, be sure to give your blender a good clean before putting it away. Blend a cup of warm water up with a drop of citrus juice. The acid from the citrus cuts through grease, garlic, and stains, and this will get rid of the worst of the mess inside the blender, now ready to rinse with hot soapy water.
Boxes are $34 with $8 shipping and with the option of delivery every month, three months, or six months. You can subscribe monthly or sign up for three, six, or 12 months, but unlike most other companies, there’s no discount for signing up for a longer subscription.
Best Hidden Gem
BBQ Distro is the pride of Grand Prairie, Texas, and it’s the key to making the best Texas-style barbecue in your backyard. BBQ Distro is run by pitmaster and chief smoke officer Joe Zavala of Zavala’s BBQ, an award-winning barbecue joint, and it distributes sauces and rubs from Texas Monthly’s Top 50 Texas Barbecue Joints, which is regarded as the Oscars of Texas barbecue. You are receiving the best of the best Texas-style barbecue sauces, which includes Zavala’s—his Sloppy Juan BBQ Sauce is the best sauce I tried for this list.
There are two size options for a BBQ Distro subscription. You can choose the “Fatty” box, which includes two primary products (say, a sauce and a rub), or the “Lean” box, which includes just one. To get your smoker going (if you have one), every monthly box also includes tumbleweed fire starters from Nomad Grills. Many pitmasters consider Nomad to make the best-quality tumbleweed. Boxes also include a small bag of authentically smoked potato or corn chips from Dallas-based Low and Slow Snacks. They also have swag, like keychains and koozies from partners like Topo Chico.
However, a membership with BBQ Distro is much more than the box you receive in the mail. It gives you access to full-length videos of Zavala and other pitmasters providing invaluable education about grilling and smoking, including a three-hour brisket smoking class led by Zavala. This is in-person at Zavala’s BBQ, and yes, people travel from across the country to attend. This typically costs $200, but you can attend one time for free with a subscription.
The Fatty box costs $39 for one month, $109 for three months, or $399 for a year (saves you $6 per month). The Lean box costs $24 for one month, $64 for three months, or $229 for a whole year (saves you $5/month).
Best Hot Sauce Customization
Scovilled is the only company on this list from which you can get both barbecue sauce and hot sauce. It’s also the best service for customizing your subscription, because you answer questions about your preferences. You can select your preferred heat level, flavors (like blueberry or garlic), and your food pairings (like burgers or chicken). I also requested barbecue sauce.
I was amazed at the accuracy of what I received, which included a delicious Chipotle Blueberry BBQ Sauce. Being able to customize your preferences means that you’re less likely to be surprised. However, you are more likely to enjoy the sauces, because you provide guidance on what you know you like. If you don’t care, you can always choose the “Surprise me!” option.
Scovilled gives you the option of subscribing to three bottles or one bottle per box. If you choose to pay as you go, the subscription costs $30 or $12, respectively, whether you choose to have a box sent to you every month or every three months. You can also choose to pay for six months at a time, which saves you 5 percent, or one year at a time, which saves you 10 percent.
Most Interactive Hot Sauce Box
If you’re a fan of the wildly popular YouTube series Hot Ones, you may be inclined to pick Heatonist as your hot sauce subscription box of choice. Heatonist has a partnership with First We Feast, the company that produces the show, so you can film your famous (or not-so-famous) friends with the entire 10-sauce lineup as their throats catch fire and their eyes become waterfalls. You can even buy bottles from previous seasons.
I received a monthly subscription box that included Butterfly Bakery of Vermont’s Cucumber Jalapeño Chermoula hot sauce (native to Morocco), Seed Ranch Flavor Co’s NashSeoul Hot (with a gochujang base) and Chili Lengua de Fuego’s Me-So Hot (with a miso base). I loved the inclusion of international flavors and fusion that made up this incredible variety with flavor combos that I didn’t know I needed. (My favorite here is the cucumber jalapeño—a solid kick that cools on the way down.)
Not all cookware is created equal. Anyone who has purchased a cheap starter set of pots and pans will know—after a few years (sometimes months), the nonstick coating flakes off, the handles loosen, or the entire surface becomes warped and uneven. Buying cheap gear only to replace it is a waste of time and money. It may be some of the most expensive kitchenware you can buy, but All-Clad comes highly recommended by WIRED reviewers and culinary experts. They’re spendy, but these pots and pans are reliable and practically last forever. Like, forever forever.
So how do you snag this coveted cookware at stomachable prices? One surefire way to save money on All-Clad is by shopping its Factory Seconds sale, which comes around every few months. We go into more detail and list our favorite discounts below. The current Factory Seconds sale is live now and ends on May 28 at 11:59 pm ET.
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What Are Factory Seconds?
The Factory Seconds Sale is run by Home and Cook Sales, an authorized reseller for All-Clad and several other cookware brands. The items featured in the sale (usually) have minor imperfections, like a scuff on the pan, a misaligned name stamp, or merely a dented box. Every product on the website lists details about the imperfection. You’ll need to enter an email address to access the sale.
While the blemishes may vary, the merchant says all of the cookware will perform as intended. Should any issue arise, nearly every All-Clad Factory Seconds product is backed by All-Clad’s limited lifetime warranty. (Electric items have a slightly different warranty; check individual product pages for details.) We’ve used a dozen Factory Seconds pots and pans, and they’ve all worked exactly as advertised. Just remember that all sales are final.
The Best All-Clad Factory Seconds Deals
Below, we’ve highlighted noteworthy discounts from the broader sale. The “before” prices are based on items in new condition. Also, check out our cooking buying guides, including the 7 Essentials for Every Kitchen, Best Chef’s Knives, Best Blenders, and Best Air Fryers.
All-Clad D5 Essentials Pan
Photograph: All-Clad
The Essential is one of our favorite pans. It’s, ahem, essential in the kitchen. We like that it works well for all kinds of tasks. Its high walls prevent grease from splattering on your countertop, and it can double as a flat-bottomed wok or even be a Dutch oven substitute. It’s also dishwasher safe.
If you tend to splash your sautéed vegetables out of the frying pan, a deeper sauté pan is just what you need. It’s got a large base to cook in, but tall sides to keep your ingredients inside the pan and off your stove. Plus, the sides are flat, so you can use them for leverage if you’re flipping something with a spatula.
Everyone needs a good, large, stainless steel frying pan. It’s not nonstick, which does take some getting used to—make sure your grease or oil is hot before you add food—but once you get the hang of cooking on stainless you’ll never want nonstick again. Good quality stainless provides an even heat, with fewer hot spots, and makes cooking easier once you master it.
Photograph: All-Clad
All-Clad’s melding of copper, aluminum, and 18/10 stick-resistant stainless makes for one of the best heat-conducting pans WIRED reviewer Scott Gilbertson has used (aside from cast iron). He uses a smaller version for sauces, boiling potatoes, making bourbon-bacon bark, and countless other tasks. This is a kitchen workhorse. The included lid reduces evaporation (if you wish).
This basket is awesome for grilling items like asparagus or fruit. The bottom has perforations to allow smoky, charcoal-y goodness to flavor your food, without the danger of losing items down the grate as they cook.
Photograph: All-Clad
These little oval-shaped dishes are great for portioning out side dishes or individual servings, but if you’re like me and you don’t own a microwave, they’re also fantastic for heating up leftovers on the stove or in the oven.
A stockpot is a niche item, but sometimes you just need a gigantic cooking vessel. This is designed for that purpose. It includes a steamer basket and a colander, so you can prepare multiple ingredients at the same time. Pro tip: If you ever want to make a seafood boil at home, this pot is basically perfect.
If you are in the market for a stockpot, this eight-quart vessel will be right up your alley. It’s got melding of copper, aluminum, and 18/10 stick-resistant stainless we love as a part of the D5 collection, and you’ll want great heat conduction with how much cooking volume it has.
Photograph: All-Clad
These measuring cups are super durable. Your grandkids’ grandkids could probably get some use out of them. I like that they’re deep. When I’m pouring out a quarter-cup of oil for a recipe, I don’t have to worry about keeping my hand steady as much as I do with shallower, wider measuring cups.
Since shipping costs $10, these wouldn’t be a great deal on their own, but they could make a solid add-on if you’re placing a larger order. It’s hard to say a lot about potholders. They either work or they don’t. These do, and they’re easy to clean.
All-Clad makes great utensils. Cooking utensils are a strange category—the bad ones usually work fine, but you end up needing to replace them sooner. All-Clad utensils hold up over time. This set would make a good Father’s Day gift or addition to your camping gear. It includes tongs, a fork, a spatula, and a basting brush, plus a nifty, durable carrying case to pack them all up. If you don’t care about the carrying case, you can get just the tools for $50 instead.
Nothing says summer like cooking over an open flame. Whether it’s the salty sweetness on that lightly charred corn or the rich smoothness of smoked meat, warm weather begs us to get outside and light a fire.
This is time of year when, like a groundhog, the grill starts to poke out of the snow and show its rusty, neglected self. If you’re in need of a new grill this year, here’s our guide to the very best portable grills. We’ve researched and tested dozens of them to see which can brat the best.
For your other outdoor needs, check out our guides to the Best Camping Gear, Best Tents, Best Rain Jackets, and the Best Binoculars.
Updated May 2024: We’ve added the Skotti grill, some accessories for the Nomad grill, and the Ignik propane growler, and we’ve updated prices throughout.
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If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism.Learn more.
The Best Portable Charcoal Grill
Of all the charcoal grills I tested, the Weber Jumbo Joe strikes the best balance of affordability, features, and ease of use. It’s big enough (18.5 inches in diameter) to smoke two racks of ribs or to fit burgers and corn for six people (admittedly, this was crowded) but small enough that you’ll still have room in the trunk for a cooler and camping supplies.
It’s one of the most versatile grills I tested. Grilling, barbecuing, smoking—you can do it all with ease. Thanks to its dual-vent system (one at the bottom, one at the top), you get the same fine-grained level of temperature control you’ll find in Weber’s full-size kettles.
It weighs 22 pounds and has a handle with a bar that fits over the top to keep the kettle and lid together for easy carrying. I tossed mine in the back of the car for trips to the lake and the park and it never tipped over. The ash catcher at the bottom makes cleaning less of a hassle by allowing you to dump the excess without removing the grill grates.
The Jumbo Joe has a considerable following on the internet. Fans have added thermometers, fastened knobs to make it easier to open and close vents, attached hanging ashcans, and come up with creative ways to cook taller items, like beer-can chicken.
It’s not perfect, though. No thermometer is included, and Weber does not make a storage cover for the Jumbo Joe. If you want to do any indirect-heat cooking, you’ll want to buy the hinged grill grate for $40 so you can feed in fresh fuel without removing the top grill, and the $26 charcoal basket is also useful. Do yourself a favor, throw away your lighter fluid and get a charcoal chimney starter ($28).
Smaller Alternative:
The Weber Smokey Joe Premium costs $46 at Amazon and $57 at Weber. This is our top pick for anyone who doesn’t need the larger Jumbo Joe. The downside is you lose the lower vent, which means less temperature control. That’s not a huge deal unless you’re slow-cooking. The Smokey Joe was also more difficult to clean. But if you want a smaller kettle, this is a good option.
Best Luxury Upgrade Charcoal Grill
Nomad’s striking, suitcase-style cooker (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is to grills what the Yeti is to coolers: better in every way, but expensive. The Nomad is well built, sturdy, and easy to carry. It is heavier than the the Jumbo Joe at 28 pounds, but the shape and large handle actually make it easier to carry in my experience. Like the Jumbo Joe, the Nomad uses a dual venting system to achieve good airflow even when the lid is closed. The vents, combined with the raised fins on the bottom of the grill (which elevate your charcoal allowing air to flow under it), allow for every precise control of both high and low temperatures.
The Nomad ships with a single grate, giving you 212 square inches of cooking space, slightly less than the Jumbo Joe above. In practice, this isn’t a big difference. I managed to smoke nine chicken breasts, and another time I fit two racks of ribs. If you need to grill for a crowd, pick up the second grill grate for $158, but even without it I never felt cramped while cooking for five (two adults, three ravenous children). For 2024 Nomad has introduced some new accessories, one of which is essential: the ash and coal shovel ($88). The shovel greatly simplifies cleaning out your Nomad and frankly should be included when you buy one. The other thing I really like is the Carbon Steel Griddle ($168). It requires seasoning, but once you have it set up it turns your Nomad into a flattop that would make a Waffle House chef proud. Ventilation holes around the sides of the griddle help keep the air flowing and the heat up. Nice as it is, using the griddle made me realize what I’d really love is a half-grill, half-griddle option for maximum cooking flexibility. (Technically you can get this by using your grill plate on half the grill and griddle on the other, but that requires double the charcoal.)
Several years ago, a blurb in a food magazine caught my eye. In it, a chef recommended a unique-looking Japanese chef’s knife with giant dimples on only one side of the blade, designed to keep food from sticking to it. Knives with little dimples are common, but these were enormous, and it made me wonder if the manufacturer was on to something. That knife turned out to be as interesting as it looked. While it appears to be specialized equipment, it can help any level of home cook. Whether you are looking for your first nice chef’s knife or your forever blade, this Japanese gyuto fits the bill.
You may have seen dimples (aka hollows or “kullens”) on other knives and wondered whether they kept food from sticking to them, but on Glestain’s blades they are supersized, and they work. The Glestain’s dimples—two rows of them on the gyuto, no less—are extreme, like a neat double row of thumbprints on only one side of the blade. Lefties like me order theirs with the dimples on the left side and righties get them on the right. Lefties can use the right-handed version (and vice versa) and still love it; all they’d lose is the non-stick effect of the dimples. I was excited to put it to an extended-use test.
Hard and Durable
A gyuto is a type of chef’s knife that has a shape in between the curvy belly of a German chef’s knife and the near-flat cutting edge of the French style. There are two versions of Glestain’s gyutos, Professional and Home. I tested both and found them both to be pro-level equipment. The major differences are that the Professional has both a larger tang (the metal part that passes through the handle) and a metal plate on the butt of the knife. That makes it notably heavier–it feels a bit like a tank. Most home cooks and line cooks will prefer the Home version for everyday use.
Both versions feature a hard steel blade—59 on the Rockwell hardness scale—in a mix that includes chromium, carbon, molybdenum, and vanadium. That combination creates a hard, thin, and durable blade that resists rust and holds a mean edge. (For more knife nerdery, check out Chad Ward’s excellent reference, An Edge in the Kitchen.) The Glestains are Japanese-made Western-style knives, high-end Japanese blades with a handles like you’d find on a traditional French or German knives. It’s quite comfortable and evenly balanced and will keep you happy as you plow through piles of produce.
Photograph: Joe Ray
Really, though, we’re here for those dimples. It’s a “regular” knife, so there’s no special flick of the wrist to take advantage of them. It just took a minute to understand what to expect and how effectively they functioned.
The dimples are quite deep and much wider than on other knives. I own an old Mundial-brand slicer, and the Glestain’s dimples are much deeper and easily three times as wide. The real magic happens when what you’re cutting is wider than the dimples.
I got chopping, really happily so. Dimples or not, it’s a beautiful knife to work with. Dicing onions felt like I was doing it with a supremely nice blade, not a magic one. For those used to the curvy belly of a German-style chef’s knife, the flatter arc of the gyuto takes some getting used to. I cooked Moroccan chicken stew from Vishwesh Bhatt’s cookbook, I Am From Here, a favorite from 2022. It featured chopped dried figs, which did not stick too much. I loved the crunch-crunch-crunch feeling of chopping toasted pecans.
Pulling out the new Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Extra Good Things cookbook, I made a daikon version of its kohlrabi tonnato recipe. The daikon was about two inches across. I started out by making quarter-inch-thick slices with both the Glestain and my santoku, a more vegetable-focused Japanese knife. The slices lay down neatly next to the Glestain, but when I switched to the santoku, they stuck to it as they would to almost any other knife. I had similar results when I quartered and sliced the daikon.
More complicated was ginger soy fish which steamed, half submerged in a mix of lime, soy sauce, and sesame oil. The recipe instructs you to put a shallow bowl small enough to cook the fish inside the cooking basket. It also needs to be large enough to hold the fish, and your fingers will thank you for figuring out how to extract the hot dish before you hit the Start button. That said, it made for a surprisingly quick and lovely meal.
Mess of Both Worlds
Next came combo cooking, where I was hoping to get a bit of the best of both worlds: Steaming for tender interiors, then a hot blast to crisp the exterior. I learned quickly that using combo mode meant it would only steam, then cook. Programming it felt like trying to figure out a Konami code. The touchscreen controls look sleek but are a complicated jumble best overcome with brute memorization. Adding time at the end of cooking (steam or combo) means you have to reset the temperature, which defaults to 370 degrees at the end of every cycle. Then you punch in the extra time.
You’re either beholden to GoWise’s recipes or laboriously experimenting with times and temperatures cribbed from them if you want to cook something else. I came to wish that the book was titled 100 Basic Recipes, with times and temperatures and charts. I would happily take a basic instruction manual in exchange for GoWise’s mediocre or strange takes on broccoli—blasted, but counterproductively coated with yogurt—or Italian stuffed peppers with “low-carb marinara sauce,” whatever that is.
I made stuffed mushrooms, a throwback hors d’oeuvre, stuffed with three cheeses folded into cream cheese with Worcestershire sauce and garlic, which I kinda just wanted to slather on my Triscuits. After eight minutes of steam and another eight with a 400-degree blast of hot air, they came out well. There’s not much to not like if you’re a fan of cheese and mushrooms, but the mushroom caps were a bit waterlogged. I wish I’d preblasted them before adding the filling, but that seems to go against the simplified ethos of air fryer cooking.
Perhaps the best combo-mode success came with honey-soy chicken thighs. After muddling my way through the poorly written recipe and stealing a few techniques and cooking temperatures from other recipes, they came out exceedingly well. They were tender and moist, with a crispy flavorful exterior, perhaps the best thing I made in the GoWise.
As with all smart kitchen appliances with apps, I was skeptical of GoWise’s. Not to gloat or anything, but my opinion did not change here. I cringed when I noticed more one-star than five-star reviews in the app store, and little in between. The featured review happened to mention the biscuit recipe was “wrong.” I pulled up the app, figuring the company must have corrected whatever it was by now, but no. The ingredients do not call for butter, but the first line of the procedure does. Due diligence done, I deleted the app.
Modern Conveniences
Despite this, I enjoyed my time with the GoWise. It cooked well enough and is pleasingly quiet. I love that the basket and tray are dishwasher-safe. No need to muck up that simplified ethos with five minutes of standing over the sink scrubbing out crusty bits! Though there were plenty of duds, I appreciated that it comes with 100 recipes, especially the ones that help users take advantage of the steaming and combo-cooking functions. I would have been much more interested in the whole thing if I could have controlled the heat during the steam cycle. You can do a lot of interesting stuff in a “regular” steam oven, but pegging the temperature at 212 really hamstrings the fun you could have with it.
Photograph: Amazon
The bigger problem with this air fryer is shared with all dedicated air fryers: They only do one thing (or, in this case, two), take up a ton of counter space, and have surprisingly little space for cooking. If you like air frying, use the convection setting you may have on the built-in oven you already own, or make sure the next built-in you buy has it.
If you really want a countertop air fryer, get the toaster-oven style, so you can air fry, bake, broil, or toast, with a more ample space. (Yes, the toaster-oven style has an even larger footprint, can be harder to clean, and takes a little longer to heat up, but still.) If you’re convinced you want a stand-alone air fryer, the GoWise is OK. The company should first sunset the app as an act of mercy. Just grab a copy of Air Fryer Perfection instead of the company’s recipe book and have some fun.
Keep hearing about the joys of air frying? Providing a faster and healthier way to cook fried foods with little to no oil, an air fryer has become something of a kitchen staple. It works much like a convection oven to circulate hot air around your food—only it’s more compact and increases your time savings. Think guilt-free crispy chicken, homemade fries, and donuts that are not only simple to make but come with easier clean-up compared to using a traditional deep-fat fryer.
With smaller capacity interiors to heat and shorter preheating times, an air fryer can be a quicker way to cook than your standard oven—potentially saving you money off your energy bills if used wisely. (Just make sure it’s large enough to cook what you need, otherwise you’ll be using it multiple times—which will defeat its energy-saving purpose.) Multifunctional in design, some air fryers come loaded with preset cooking modes for baking, roasting, dehydrating, grilling, and reheating. They can tackle a range of meat, fish, and vegetables effectively, as well as sweet treats: steak and sweet potato fries, homemade apple crisps, a warm banana loaf. Here are WIRED’s top picks to suit a range of ingredients and price points.
Check out more of WIRED’s top kitchen tech and accessory guides, including the Best Electric Kettles, Best Latte and Cappuccino Machines, Best Chef’s Knives, and the Best Gear for Small Kitchens.
Update April 2024: We’ve included three new options including the versatile Ultenic K10 Air Fryer, added information on caring for your new air fryer and asked one of Europe’s best new chefs for her air frying tips and tricks.
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Snow is Melting, birds are migrating, and pitmasters are dusting off their smokers—just kidding, pitmasters never let dust get on a smoker. But grilling season is on the horizon. It’s time to think about getting out the grill, and maybe even replacing it. It’s a little overwhelming though. Which is the right grill for you?
We’ve been testing grills for years—searing, smoking, grilling, and even baking on them in all kinds of weather—to find the best choice for everyone. Below, you’ll find our top picks for each category (charcoal, gas, pellet, hybrid, and other types) as well as a few alternatives, plus general buying tips if none of these capture your fancy.
For all your outdoor needs, be sure to check out our other buying guides, like the Best Portable Grills, Best Grilling Accessories, Best Camping Gear, Best Tents, and Best Binoculars.
Updated March 2024: We’ve added some updated testing notes for various grills, a new section on high-quality charcoal, and updated links and prices throughout.
Special offer for Gear readers: Get a1-year subscription toWIREDfor $5 ($25 off). This includes unlimited access to WIRED.com and our print magazine (if you’d like). Subscriptions help fund the work we do every day.
You’ve got a dilemma. You love to cook, and you love to eat, but your kitchen has no room to prepare meals. Seriously, it’s like gerbil furniture. You could just declare all hope lost and rationalize eating out night and day. But you and I both know it’s a lot healthier and cheaper to cook for yourself.
As someone who lives in New York City, I know a thing or two about small kitchens. Over the years, my colleagues and I have tested various pieces of furniture and other kitchen gear to help make cooking in a small space easier (and saner). Don’t forget to check out our other buying guides, including the Best Cookbooks, Best Chef Knives, and Best Pots and Pans.
Updated March 2024: We’ve added the Umbra Tug paper towel holder, Oxo spatula set, Le Creuset Revolution scraping spoon, and PUR faucet water filter.
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Maximize Storage Space
Schmidt Brothers Acacia
Photograph: Crate & Barrel
Magnets are hidden beneath this wood, wall-mounted bar that can house your knives. That means they won’t chip or dull your knife blades like an all-metal bar. Skip the countertop knife block—not only does it take up counter space, but it also dulls the knife blades more quickly.
Photograph: Amazon
Getting those pots and pans onto the wall will free up precious drawer and cabinet space. This bamboo and aluminum rack holds up to 30 pounds, but mine has been rock-solid and sturdy even with a full set of stainless-steel cookware and cast-iron skillets. If you’re mounting into drywall and not studs, pick up some E-Z Anchors. If you don’t have room for a shelf, a hanging bar will still get skillets, saucepans, and woks out of your way.
Le Creuset Stoneware Utensil Crock
Photograph: Le Creuset
Store your cooking utensils in a ceramic container if you’re low on drawer space. This has enough room to hold all your spoons, spatulas, and tongs and is available in several colors. You can also get the 1-quart version for $35.
Photograph: Amazon
WIRED reviews editor Julian Chokkattu lives in New York City and has seen his fair share of tiny kitchens. He’s used this Simplehuman wall-mounted paper towel holder for years with zero problems. You can use a few simple screws to mount it into drywall (it’s easy to patch the holes with some spackle if you’re renting). Replacing a roll is dead simple too. Why take up precious counter space with a paper towel holder when you can mount it instead? If you prefer a countertop solution, I’ve used this Umbra Tug holder ($17) for years, and its weighted base and rubber-coated stem make it easy to tear a small amount with one hand.
Photograph: Amazon
Tight on refrigerator space? Swap from a pitcher filter to a faucet-mounted filter to free up quite a lot of space on your fridge shelves. The sales literature says it’ll filter 100 gallons, which should mean about three months of usage before it needs a replacement filter. You can buy a PUR Filter Replacement two-pack for $25. I cook a lot at home and make a lot of coffee, so my filters tend to last about half that, but knowing that it’s removing potential contaminants from my food and drinking water makes the regular filter replacements well worth it. A color-coded light activates whenever you run the filter, so you’ll know when to replace the filter. My previous model lasted more than seven years, and the replacement I bought last month looks nearly identical.
Photograph: Stove Shelf
WIRED reviews editor Julian Chokkattu has been using the StoveShelf for more than a year and loves it. It’s a smart way to save some counter space, and it’s easy to clean. This is just a sheet of metal with magnets at the base, and it sticks to the top of a stove, making it super easy to install. You’ll need to make sure this part of your stove is metal and not plastic, and that there are no buttons or switches that might be blocked (like an oven light). The rear guard ensures that nothing falls into that gap between your stove and the wall. I’d make sure to avoid putting any cooking oil there.
Photograph: Amazon
You don’t need to use precious counter space to store fresh fruit and vegetables. Leave your tomatoes, potatoes, and stone fruit out of the refrigerator and regain some prep space for knife handling and mixing bowls.
Function Home Kitchen Storage Cabinet
Photograph: Function Home
Here’s another one that WIRED reviews editor Julian Chokkattu bought in 2022. This pantry storage system will take up some floor space, but if you can swing it, you can save so much counter space, and it’s especially great for anyone with limited cabinets. It’s daunting at first because it comes in what seems like a million pieces; it took Julian around four hours to complete with no issues. But in the year he’s had it, it’s worked perfectly and has been a boon to keeping his kitchen less chaotic. The doors shut magnetically. Just measure the height of the shelves to ensure your spices and other pantry items will fit.
Photograph: Gneiss Spice
Rather than use a wall-mounted spice rack, WIRED reviewer Louryn Strampe sticks magnetic spice jars to her refrigerator. She likes Gneiss Spice, which comes in several ready-made kits. You can also specify the spices you want.
Consolidate (and Downsize) Your Cookware
Lodge Enameled Dutch Oven
Photograph: Amazon
A Dutch oven can replace several single-use pots or machines. I’ve used mine to steam oysters, slow-cook stews, and make barbecue, and the durable, nonstick enameled surface requires less care and attention than bare cast iron, although I prefer a non-enamel one for baking bread.
How often do you use that quesadilla maker or steaming basket? One multicooker can replace several specialized machines. Aside from being a pressure cooker, steamer, sauté pan, rice cooker, yogurt maker, food warmer, and slow cooker, it has 13 customizable settings for pressure-cooking everything from beans to soup to poultry. Read our Best Multicookers guide for more recommendations.
Photograph: Amazon
These silicone Oxo spatulas come in three different sizes. All are nonstick and gave me no issue with clinging to even the stickiest doughs. Not once did one slip out of my hands—no doubt thanks to the extraordinarily grippy surface.
Photograph: Amazon
Plenty of recipes ask you to scrape the bottom of the pan or Dutch oven to dislodge all the delicious bits of ingredients that caramelize and stick to it, but your options for what to dislodge it with are somewhat limited. Metal spoons can scratch the finish off cast-iron or nonstick pans. Plastic is too slick for the job. Enter the beechwood Revolution, which is firm enough for scraping but won’t harm delicate pots and pans. Sure, it’s expensive, but its ergonomic handle is comfortable for long cooking sessions, and the flat edge meant that I didn’t once come up against a sticky layer that I couldn’t break free of the skillet bottom.
Photograph: Target
A stand mixer on the countertop is a powerful kitchen tool, but it takes up a lot of valuable space. Consider a hand mixer you can stash inside a cabinet or drawer instead. It’s not quite as able to power through the thickest of doughs, but I’ve had no trouble mixing up chocolate chip cookie dough and Irish soda bread dough with this KitchenAid hand mixer, and it spins fast enough for me to make whipped cream.
Ninja 8-Inch Chef’s Knife
You don’t need that many knives. Ditch the 10-inch knife set: An 8- or 9-inch chef’s knife, a smaller paring knife, a bread knife, and maybe a couple of specialty blades will suffice. This general-purpose chef’s knife is recommended as our top choice for most people in our chef’s knife buying guide, thanks to its ability to hold an edge and its near-nonstick surface.
Photograph: Great Jones Goods
WIRED reviewer Louryn Strampe makes most of her meals in this cross between a skillet, a frying pan, and a sauté pan. “It doesn’t shine in one area over any other,” she says, “but it’s sturdy, it heats up evenly, and the stainless-steel surface cleans up easily in the dishwasher.”
Photograph: Source Amazon
If you don’t have enough prep space to handle a knife safely, a food processor can slice and dice up to three cups of ingredients at a time. WIRED reviewer Medea Giordano loves using hers to make fresh pasta sauce.
Add Prep Surfaces
Catskill Craftsmen Maple Cutting Board
Photograph: Wayfair
Cutting boards take up a ton of room during meal preparation. Buy one that’s made to fit over your sink, like this solid maple cutting board. Hardwood is easier on your knife blades than bamboo, too.
Photograph: IKEA
Mounting a drop-leaf table to a nearby wall can free up space in the middle of your kitchen and make it easier to walk around. Aside from offering a place to eat, it’s 20 by 36 inches of additional counter space that swings down and away when not in use.
Photograph: Amazon
Burner covers add space to your cooktop by making a place to set down an extra cutting board or utensils. This bamboo workstation can cover half your stovetop. Get two for a continuous flat surface over all four burners.
Photograph: Wayfair
For a tiny kitchen, stick with a rolling kitchen cart that measures 36 inches (91 centimeters) wide or less, such as this one that measures just under 30 inches (76 centimeters). It has a solid butcher-block top, three hooks for oven mitts and hanging utensils, and locking wheels. You can tuck it into a corner of your kitchen and wheel it out when you need more counter space.
How to Move in the Kitchen
Photograph: photoguns/Getty Images
Here are some tips from WIRED senior writer Scott Gilbertson, who worked in the restaurant industry for six years and knows his way around tight cooking spaces:
