- [Barry] We are Sorted.
A group of mates who have your back
when it comes to all things food.
From cooking battles,
to gadget reviews. - Ben, it's not worth it.
- [Barry] And cookbook challenges,
to a midweek meal packs app.
- [Jamie] Crack your eggs, bake.
- [Barry] We uncovered the tools that'll help us all
cook and eat smarter.
Join our community,
where everything we do, starts with you.
- Hello, welcome to fridge cam.
Now it's been a while since we've done one of these.
- There are certain tools and gadgets in the kitchen
that we, as chefs, think are absolutely essential,
and today we're going to test a few variations of those.
- So today, we've got a selection of kitchen tools
that have caught our eye for a number of reasons.
We're putting Jamie in the hot seat to try it.
- Don't worry.
I'm a normal, just like you.
Maybe even more normal.
I'm going to test them exactly the way I think we should.
- You've done well to avert your gaze so far,
but do you want to lift the cloche on number one?
- D'you know what?
It's a smart garden.
This smart garden will grow plants for you.
No yard, no problems.
Our smart garden will help you grow food indoors year round.
Just plug it in, fill the tank, and grow any plant you want.
- An innovative, indoor garden that cares for itself,
and grows fresh, flavorful, herbs, fruits, and vegetables
for you, no matter where you live.
It comes with an app.
You can pick up to 50 different edible capsules
that you can grow in your smart garden.
We'd like you to grow the ones that it comes with,
basil.
- Okay.
- So we like to think having a few fresh herbs to hand
is ideal,
and a herb garden, therefore, is perfect.
Not everyone has the space, the capacity,
or the memory to keep on top of it.
- I reckon one of the easiest ways to add
to a dish
is to have fresh herbs on hand.
And I'm very guilty personally of buying a packet
of fresh herbs every time I need it.
This is good solution.
- So they'd come with coffee pod-like capsules.
You've got three there that are basil.
It comes with the seeds and all the nutrients in it
you need so you can plant it,
and then it does its thing.
- Have you got pen?
I need to name my plants.
(Ben sighs)
So the first one, basil,
we'll call the next one Huttles,
and the third one, Spaffy.
And now I've a completed step two,
I've named my plants.
Step three, fill the tank.
- So in theory, if you are away for a few days,
there's enough water in there that it will naturally water
what is required.
- Step four, plug the garden in.
That is bright.
There's not much I can say about this yet.
- What I'm confused by,
but you've not told that machine what you're growing.
- Yeah.
- Now, if I was growing basil in one, chili in another,
and rosemary in another,
they want different watering levels.
So how does that know what you're growing?
- Does that have anything to do with the app?
- No.
The app does not connect to that.
- So just to clarify, it has an app,
but the app doesn't connect to the device.
We've put three basil plants in it.
It says that it knows how much light, water,
and nutrients the plants need,
but we've not told it that we're using basil,
and not chili plants or strawberry plants.
At the moment, I am perplexed,
but thanks to the power of editing,
we'll now skip forward a few weeks time
to see what's happened.
Whoa, hello.
Look at that!
Here we are.
Three weeks later.
- Between us, we've topped up the water reservoir
a couple of times, two or three, four times
across three weeks,
but otherwise it looks after itself.
It's remained plugged in,
it's given it 16 hours of light a day.
We have basil.
- It's definitely worked.
It's worked to varying degrees.
- So it says that it's going to germinate
in a couple of weeks, which this did.
It says it then has a growing cycle of about 10 weeks.
So for 10 weeks you can keep kind of picking
and allowing it to re-shoot, the lower ones to regrow.
So you'll get basil, fresh, in your home
about 10 weeks or so.
How's it taste?
- It's delicious basil.
Doesn't punch you in the face basil,
'cause sometimes you could eat a leaf of basil
and be like whoa.
- Quite peppery sometimes.
- Yeah, but this is mellow, but delicious.
- So, you know I love a comparison.
So on the same day, I bought a supermarket pot of basil
for £1.25, and I did what you've just done.
Took off a lot of the longer stalks,
put them into water, waited for them to re-shoot,
and then have planted those out separately,
and I've ended up with about five that size.
Now you can see, not as tall in the same length of time.
They haven't had that continual light.
I have had to water them more regularly
than the reservoir does with Click and Grow.
And the other caveat is we're in the middle of summer,
so they've had lots of lovely warmth and natural light.
And the other caveat I would say
is basil's really easy to grow.
I'd be fascinated to see what Click And Grow does
with strawberries, chili plants, edible flowers,
and the other herbs,
because they are much more difficult to do at home.
- What I really like about the Click and Grow
is the put it in and forget about it.
There's no thinking required.
The big deciding factor here's gonna be price.
- You know what I like a bit of maths.
That that's been plugged in for three weeks.
The UK average pence per kilowatt, is 19 pence,
and the power consumption of that per month
apparently is four,
which means it's going to cost you about 75, 80p a month
to run,
which actually is a lot less than I was thinking.
How much do you reckon for that bit of kit?
- £30.
- It's nearer 90.
€99.95, so it's about £90.
- Wow.
- And the replacing capsules are about three quid each.
- I really like it, because it's solving a problem
that I have at home
in terms of killing herbs.
I don't know whether that problem is worth £90,
plus £10 each time you wanna do something new.
- I'm in the same quandary as you.
For me, it gets interesting when you can grow things
in that, that I wouldn't dream of growing.
- Yeah. - Tomatoes, chilies,
strawberries, edible flowers.
One last question,
useful or not?
- Definitely useful.
It works.
It does a really good job of it.
I can't spend that much on that solution for me personally.
Back to past me three weeks ago!
Hey.
(upbeat music)
- You must be wondering what's under the cloche.
- That's generally how this works.
- [James] Well, lift it and see.
- [Jamie] A precision vacuum sealer
- Initial reactions?
So you have previously seen James and I
put sous vide to the test.
As a normal, what d'you think?
- I am still yet to find a reason to have sous vided
in my own kitchen at home.
However, I am still also intrigued by the process,
and want to do it at some point.
Strangely, I hadn't even considered that I would
potentially need a vacuum sealer to make that happen.
- You don't necessarily need a vacuum sealer
to make that happen.
You can do it with Ziploc bags, but this'll generally
give you a better result.
I think it's fair to say that even as chefs,
it's not really an essential in a home kitchen,
but, it does help out in certain circumstances.
Jamie, this is the Anova Precision Vacuum Sealer.
- Now the reason we picked this,
there's a number of benefits to cooking things
under sous vide.
One, it traps in the flavor.
Two, it traps in all the nutrients.
Three, you get the precision temperature cook,
which means you get the perfect consistency.
And it comes with a bunch of the bags too.
- It looks like a Bluetooth speaker or a soundbar.
- [James] It's quite sleek, isn't it?
- Yeah.
That would look good on a kitchen work surface.
As someone who's never vacuum sealed something before,
I like that it's got three different settings.
- Would you like to try it out?
And you can use any of the settings you want.
- Great.
This doesn't feel like the best, use does it?
- There's a very well-known thing you can do,
which is of course the perfect steak.
But everyone's doing that, you know?
- Yes.
- Don't worry though.
There's something we've done ahead that we can give you
to try later on.
- [James] So what it does say, that this product is
that it doesn't do liquids,
so you don't want too much liquid in the bag.
We want you to rub it with a bit of oil,
season salt and pepper,
chuck it in the bag.
- Pop that down,
and then, oh, what should we go for?
Should we go for a vacuum and seal,
or a pulse?
Let's go for a vacuum and seal
- Okay, yeah. - [Jamie] Yeah.
- [James] Let it do all the work.
- The metal bar's heating up,
and the double rib design
is going to seal it in extra tight.
- Have you started doing your shopping channel?
- I honestly don't know when he has time
to learn all of these facts.
(Jamie laughs)
- I mean, I just read the same thing you did.
And the double rib design
caught my eye.
- The air seems to have all gone.
I'm guessing it's now sealed.
Why is this better than a Ziploc bag?
- Might last longer if you're saving it,
it's space saving if you're putting it all in the freezer,
and I think it probably gets a bit more flavor in
if you're adding something like herbs, or butter,
or something like that.
- I think this gives you the confidence
that it can be in a water bath and not leak.
- So I suppose the next step is cooking this.
By the power of editing, we will be doing that.
Wow.
So this has been sous vided.
- This is a 44.5 degrees for about an hour.
I'm interested by the texture.
This is also a bit of an experiment for me.
- Well it looks, color-wise, beautifully pink,
and texture-wise really, really flaky.
- I cooked it so that it's halfway between firm sashimi,
and like really, really soft.
So it's not, it's nothing like salmon that you'd get
from like baked salmon
in the oven - No.
Chin up.
That's very odd,
in the loveliest way. - Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
- It is really like having sashimi on top of-
- And it's cooked all the way through.
And it's fully what I was hoping for.
- And the thing is, you'd never be able to get it
perfect like that without sous vide.
- That is something, yeah.
That is something you can never do with salmon
any other way.
- That is very decent salmon.
- [James] You can also compress food,
which kind of forces flavor into things.
So we've compressed some cucumber for you.
- What have you compressed the cucumber in?
- So they recommend not putting too much liquid in there,
but we put a tiny bit of Pimms in there.
- Pimms?
- Yeah, so this is like the best bit Pimms.
(upbeat music)
- There's a difference is, that isn't soggy.
That's still crunchy,
because it's still fresh.
- So you've heard our reasoning behind it,
but now that we've given you a couple of things
that are not steak,
would you see it in your kitchen?
- I can see that this would take my sous vide game
to the next level,
but I'd need the sous vide machine first, and then this.
The only other thing I was wondering about was,
it feels like a lot of plastic every time that you do it.
- No doubt.
And actually, obviously the bags have a ongoing cost
to have to keep buying even once you've got the machine.
The only counter-arguments that perhaps,
and certainly the industry is plastic isn't great,
but neither's food waste,
and this is really good at fixing one of those problems.
It heavily reduces food waste.
Portion control in a professional kitchen,
and you can do all that at home,
but it does come with the caveat of plastic bags.
- So let's move on to price.
If you're going to buy one of these,
how much would you be willing to spend?
- I'm really in two minds.
This is either gonna be
a £20 bargain,
or it's going £100 oh my goodness,
I'm not going anywhere near it.
I can't decide which one is going to be.
- What if I told you,
it's 79.99.
- [Ben] Plus 50p a bag.
- [Jamie] And the sous vide machine was how much?
- 120, 140 quid, depending on where you get it.
I mean, like with all these things,
there are cheaper options, but.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
For me, this isn't something that I need in my kitchen.
This is not a necessity in any way whatsoever.
But if I wanna improve my cooking in that direction,
this is gonna be
a big help along that journey.
- It's for the enthusiast.
- It's not for me,
but I can see why people would pay it.
(upbeat music)
(bell dings)
Do it.
Ooh.
- Feel like this is a bit up your street.
- Oh, I do like a good heavy pan.
- [James] This is the Alex Pole, 11 inch skillet,
and it's hand spun, carbon steel base
with forged handles and copper rivets.
It's perfect for oven, cooker,
or open fire, which I thought you might be interested in.
It comes pre-seasoned and it's naturally nonstick.
- I mean, the word that I'm going to use to describe this,
is sleek.
- It is sleek, isn't it?
- It looks and feels proper quality.
- So I think as chefs, we always have go-to pans,
like things you just know,
reliably are going to work.
Even heating, nonstick, quality.
- Me personally, I actually don't have anything
like this tucked away.
This is like something that I might aspire to,
as something that I would want to have
for the next 20 plus years.
D'you wanna chuck it on a heat?
We'll cook something.
- Yes.
Bit of pork.
- [James] So you're oiling the steak.
The chop.
- The only annoying thing about really great,
heavy-bottom pans, is that they take forever to heat up.
- Yes, it takes a while to heat up. Then it holds its heat.
But, it also has a very even heat,
so you don't get hotspots.
The whole thing is searingly hot.
And then when you throw cold stuff into a pan,
it doesn't lose that heat instantly.
You carry on
with that searing process.
- All right, I've heated it up.
It's got to smoking, so turned it down to three.
A medium heat.
- [Ben] Make sure your pan is searingly hot.
A couple of minutes on one side,
give it a flip,
another minute or so before you add in butter and aromats.
Baste, baste, baste, baste,
and into the oven to finish.
- You like it, don't you?
- I do like it.
- [James] Can tell.
- The design looks great.
Nothing had stuck, like the pork didn't stick to it.
From a very practical perspective,
how easy is that to clean afterwards?
And then, after you've used it five, 10, 20 times,
what does it look like?
That's why it's always really hard to test a pan
under these circumstances, 'cause we get it brand new,
and you use it once, and of course,
pans are great on the first five uses.
It's in six or 12 months time you go,
"Ah, this didn't last as long as I wanted it to."
That's the key test.
- So I think James is right.
This is a pan you aspire to,
and then have for a long time.
And I think if you're going to have this kind of quality,
you will also look after this kind of quality,
because that will need maintenance.
You will need to season it occasionally and look after it,
and that's what keeps it so good.
- And how would you, how would you season?
- Every so often, give it a good clean
and then a layer of oil and into a hot oven
to basically burn off that oil.
- It's interesting having a nonstick quality,
that's more naturally built into the material that's used
to make the dish,
rather than a synthetic material that's added
and then gets worn away over time.
It feels like that's going to last longer because of it.
- How long have you got? - It's probably ready, James.
- Resting time's good.
- Get it.
- Hello.
Look at that!
That looks amazing.
- While it rests, shall we talk price?
- Don't ruin it for me, Ben, I'm having a lovely time.
- So we know this one isn't gonna be cheap.
Would you like to hazard a guess at how much it might be?
- It's a really decent quality.
I'm gonna keep it for a very long time.
And is it £100?
- It's 95.
- Okay.
- What I also quite like about this Alex Pole,
is he is a blacksmith and it is made by hand,
and it is kind of playing into that
incredible artisanal skill that is somewhat lost.
So it's definitely quality.
- The only thing I can say is,
I would love to be able to spend £95 on one pan,
and at the moment, I can't.
But I aspire to.
- That is something that I think you'd treasure.
- Yeah. - [James] You gonna try it?
- [Jamie] Look at that.
- [James] That looks well cooked.
- I mean, weirdly enough, I don't think that's got anything
to do with the pan.
- It's got nothing to do with the pan as such,
but that is still a tasty bit of pork.
- Okay, Jay, so we've had the smart garden,
we've had the vac-pack sealer,
and we've had Alex Pole's skillet.
Which one are you most excited by?
- I think, hands down,
I'm most excited by the skillet.
I think that is something I really aspire to own
as a home cook who wants to get better.
Knowing that you want to take your cooking further
in a certain direction.
And you know, whether it's growing your own herbs or plants,
whether it's about vac-packing,
or whether it's the pan,
it's always about taking it to the next level
and becoming more enthusiastic about your cooking.
- Okay, guys, over to you.
What do you think?
Did you have a favorite today?
But also, are there things that you would love to invest in
and have in your kitchen
to take your skills to the next level?
Comment down below.
- You're gonna make me share this pork chop, aren't you?
- [Barry] Before we leave you with a hilarious blooper,
we wanted to let you know that season 12 episode one
of our "Feast Your Ears" podcast
is out right now and free for absolutely everyone
to listen to.
It's all about the fascination with fictional food.
So if you'd like to check it out,
head to the link in the description box below.
Now let's hope this blooper is indeed, hilarious.
(Jamie grunts)
- I don't know where the noise came from.
- The grunt was a little bit unnecessary.
It's like involuntary noise old people make
when they sit down, isn't it?
- And, hernia.
Right. (Jamie laughs)