Nothing beats gathering around a table filled with food, taking in the sounds and smells of cooking, dishing up and sharing something you have made.
That's the part of the kitchen we love at Good Food. Cooking can be therapeutic, creative and social. It's also one of the ways we show care – whether that means making your partner’s coffee exactly how they like it, or cooking a favourite meal for your family.
But, as technology continues to move into the kitchen, it's worth asking how much of the cooking process we actually want to hand over.
At IFA 2026 in Berlin, one of the world’s biggest trade shows for consumer electronics and home appliances, I saw ovens with built-in cameras, hobs that followed pans around the surface and fridges that could recognise the food inside them.
There were even robots stirring pots and helping with meal prepping. It was impressive, but also slightly unsettling. What would this look like in a real home? Would it give people more time to enjoy cooking, or would it eventually push them aside altogether?
The most useful technology could take care of the boring, repetitive parts of cooking, leaving more time for choosing ingredients, developing flavours and sharing food. It could also make the kitchen more accessible for people with mobility or dexterity issues, those who lack confidence, older people who still love to cook but don't have the stamina, or anyone trying to prepare meals around work and children.
But there's a line between taking away the tedious parts of cooking and taking away the human parts. With that in mind, these are the kitchen trends I found most interesting, useful and occasionally, a little bit unsettling.
Coffee machines that do almost everything
Coffee is one of the only ways many of us can start the day. For some, it even beats having a proper breakfast.
At Good Food, we know how much our readers love a good coffee machine, as shown in our guide to the best coffee machines to buy. So, it was interesting to see what was brewing for 2027.
Machines can prepare drinks quickly, offer lots of settings and customise the strength, temperature and milk to suit your preferences. Integrated appliances can also be controlled through an app, so you could theoretically start brewing before you've even left bed.
I tried the Haier I-Master Series 5 multi-beverage hot drinks machine and the wider I-Master range, which includes appliances like a toaster with memory function, helping turn your coffee station into a dedicated breakfast bar. Siemens also showed the EQ600 iAroma, a fully automatic coffee machine that can be controlled by voice using Amazon’s Alexa+ assistant.
The Bosch HomeCafé Series 4 offers a more hands-on approach. It has an integrated grinder, 30 grind settings and five dosing options, allowing you to customise the flavour while still being involved in the process.
AEG also showed how coffee appliances are becoming part of the kitchen’s overall design, with a built-in and integrated compact range designed to sit neatly alongside other appliances.
But, this was one of the trends that made me question whether convenience is always necessary. You still need to put the cup underneath the machine, so can't really have it ready before leaving bed, unless you prep the night before. And, does making a cup of tea really take so long that you need to control it from your phone?
There's also something lovely about making a coffee for someone else. It's a small, everyday gesture, but one that feels personal and human. A machine remembering your order could be useful, particularly for someone with limited mobility or dexterity, but for everyone else it may be technology solving a problem that does not really exist.
Ovens that can see what you are cooking
The most futuristic appliances at IFA were those that aimed to interpret what was happening in the kitchen.
Haier’s ID Ultimate Series 6 cooking range includes a wi-fi and Bluetooth-connected oven with an internal camera. It can recognise food, monitor its progress and stop cooking when your desired result has been reached.
The camera did seem a little spooky though. Also, do you really want to watch how crispy your pizza is becoming from another room? And, are you dedicated enough to monitor your food cooking on your phone when you could simply stand next to the oven?
Then again, life gets busy. We get distracted by work calls, children, pets and everything else that needs our attention. At Good Food, we already love our air fryers, but an oven that can detect when food is beginning to burn could be genuinely useful. It could also provide extra reassurance for anyone who finds it difficult to stand at the oven or keep track of cooking times.
In fact, my brothers and I often joked about our mum's home cooking when we were kids, which usually was burned, so I understand where it could be useful for families.
The connected cooking set-up also includes an active induction hob that recognises where pans are placed. Power Follows the Pan allows the cooking settings to move with the cookware, rather than requiring you to reset the temperature each time.
I liked the hob – it looked tidy and almost completely flat, so it did not feel as though it was taking up space with raised burners. The ability to set the temperature for different foods could also be helpful for someone who is less confident in the kitchen.
But, one chef I spoke to at the event was visibly less impressed while a robot stirred a pot nearby. I understood why: if cooking is your job, watching a machine take over the hands-on part must feel a little disheartening.
Can a hob really replace a family recipe?
AEG’s 7000 OnePot pasta hob takes automation a step further: users add the ingredients, select the number of portions and allow the hob to manage the cooking process. The pasta is designed to be ready in around 15 minutes without constant stirring or monitoring.
Some Italians may faint at the thought – can a hob really produce pasta better someone armed with a family recipe that's been passed down through generations?
There is something slightly bleak about technology taking the fun out of a simple meal. Making pasta is not difficult for most of us, but stirring the sauce, tasting it and adjusting the seasoning is part of the pleasure. It's also how people learn to cook.
That said, efficiency has its place. A one-pot setting could be useful for a busy family, someone with limited mobility or anyone trying to prepare dinner while dealing with several other demands.
Miele’s CulinaryCoach takes a slightly less intrusive approach: its AI-powered app turns recipes into suitable oven settings, offering guidance without completely removing the cook from the process.
The Miele G8 Diamond dishwasher, meanwhile, uses a camera to recognise how full it is and what types of dishes are inside. It then adjusts the wash cycle, detergent dosage and drying settings automatically.
This is the kind of job I am happy to leave to technology. Few people want to spend time thinking about the best dishwasher setting. But then again, you still need to load the dishwasher? Can we get a robot for this job?
Smart fridges that help you use what you already have
If you're always forgetting about the salad and vegetables you bought to make a healthy meal, smart refrigeration could be useful.
The Haier Horizon collection was previewed ahead of its 2027 release, alongside the Maestro refrigeration prototype. Its AI Food Care System 2.0 can recognise stored ingredients and recommend suitable storage conditions.
Hydro Hub combines food storage with chilled and sparkling water, while Siemens showed an iQ700 oven that can identify more than 100 dishes and suggest appropriate settings.
Samsung’s Bespoke AI refrigerator also includes AI Vision, which can recognise food and help users manage ingredients and recipes.
The potential benefits here are easier to see: a fridge that reminds you about food before it goes out of date could reduce waste. Suggestions on the screen could also provide inspiration for people who lack confidence in the kitchen or struggle to know what to do with the ingredients they have.
That feels like technology working with the cook, rather than replacing them. It offers a nudge, but you still decide what to make.
Disappearing appliances could create more room to gather
As kitchens become more open-plan and connected to living spaces, appliances are being designed to blend into the room, rather than dominate it.
One of the most striking things I saw was a moving ventilation system from Haier. It moved down from the ceiling when needed, and disappeared back into it afterwards, leaving the space clear when cooking was finished.
This is space-saving technology that I immediately understand. It means there's more room to gather around the table and less visual clutter between the kitchen and the rest of the home. It makes the kitchen feel more social, rather than creating another appliance to work around.
The coordinated premium cooking collection shown at the Haier and Hoover stand used Aura Grey glass across ovens, hobs, hoods and microwaves. The anti-fingerprint finish and matching design made the appliances feel more like part of the kitchen furniture.
LG’s Fit and Max concept also focused on reducing visual clutter. Its refrigerators utilise flat doors, so they can sit close to cabinetry, while its dishwashers have a flush-fit design. Inside the fridges, AI Fresh learns usage patterns to help optimise cooling.
Samsung’s Bespoke AI refrigerator has slim doors and zero-clearance hinges to fit neatly into modern kitchens.
The same idea is already appearing outside the IFA show floor. The Doulton Kingfisher under sink water filter system moves water filtration below the worktop, keeping filtered drinking water accessible without adding another appliance to the kitchen.
But, the more appliances disappear, the less the kitchen can feel like a kitchen. There's also the less glamorous question of what happens when something malfunctions. If a built-in system becomes jammed or stops working, it may not be as simple as putting a pan on the hob or opening the oven.
There's something reassuring about appliances that are easy to see and fix.
One appliance doing everything
The AEG 3-in-1 pizza oven with air fry is a good example of the direction kitchen appliances are taking. One machine can cook pizza, air-fry food and work as a full-function oven, saving space and reducing the number of gadgets on the worktop.
That could be useful in a small kitchen – particularly for anyone who does not have the space or budget for several specialist appliances. It could also help older people or those with mobility issues who would rather manage one appliance than several.
But, should appliances perhaps do one thing each and do it well?
Having your finger in too many pies could mean that making a pizza is not as good as using a pizza oven designed specifically for the job. We have already tested the best pizza ovens to buy, and there's a reason specialist appliances exist.
The same question applies across the kitchen. Combining several gadgets can save space, but convenience is not always the same as quality.
So, where does kitchen technology go too far?
The kitchen of 2027 is likely to be more connected, personalised and automated. Some of the innovations I saw could make a real difference to people who are short on time, cooking around children, less confident in the kitchen or finding cooking more physically demanding.
The more unsettling technology is the kind that takes over the creative side of cooking. A robot stirring a pot may be impressive, but it also raises the question of what happens to the person who used to do it. An oven that suggests a setting is helpful. One that makes every decision for you could make cooking feel strangely passive.
The chef I spoke to at IFA had a point: too much automation could take away the joy of cooking, including the mistakes and experiments that help us learn.
The best kitchen technology should take care of the tedious parts without taking away the human side of cooking.
Some products shown at IFA are prototypes or are yet to be released in the UK, so final specifications, names and launch dates may change.
source https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/news-trends/kitchen-trends-for-2027
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