For some home cooks, making meals would be a lot easier with just a little help. LG announced today two of its new kitchen appliances now come with cooking guidance, recipe automation, and even shopping assistance built in.
LG’s InstaView Double Oven Gas Slide-in Range and the Over-the-Range Microwave Oven connect with the LG ThinQ Recipe app which will allow owners to find recipes and cook thousands of step-by-step recipes with guidance from their appliances.
Going a step further, the LG appliances will also have built-in shopping features that will order groceries from Walmart or Amazon Fresh so you can execute those recipes flawlessly with all the right ingredients. Plus, a feature dubbed Scan-to-Cook lets users scan the UPC bar code from select ready-made meals to automatically set the temperature and cooking time right on the appliance.
When it comes to the range, there’s also convection cooking, an air fry setting, and what LG calls Air Sous Vide which allows for more temperature precision. The range also has two separate cooking ovens which let you prepare two different dishes at two different temperatures. Up top there’s LG’s UltraHeat Power Burner technology that LG claims increases power to the stovetop, making for faster cooking.
To keep any heat from escaping when you want to peek in and see how things are coming along, you can knock twice on the door and the interior will light up, a novelty called LG InstaView. It will be interesting to see if customers find this feature appealing, since pushing a button to turn the light on never seemed like a real hardship that needed fixing.
On the microwave side, the LG Over-the-Range Microwave Oven will nuke your food, of course, but it also adds steam capabilities too, making it just a bit more versatile. Steam ovens aren’t a new thing, but having steam and microwave technology all in one unit is a space saver to be sure.
Anyone who’s ever had an “OTR” microwave knows they often aren’t the best at effectively clearing cooking smells, smoke, or steam, as they often don’t extend far enough over the average range to pull from the front burners. LG says it’s tackled that pesky problem with its Slide-out ExtendaVent which pulls out over the front of the range to more effectively clear the air. (As someone who just bought a fairly ineffective but brand new OTR, I’d love to see this in action and find out if it would truly make a difference.)
There’s no pricing or release date for these new appliances yet, as they’re being officially launched as part of CES 2022.