- [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)
