Italian kitchen-legend-plus-design-icon Smeg has announced a new oven technology called Galileo, that it promises will reduce cooking times by as much as 70%. The company is saying that these ovens can roast a whole chicken in 30 minutes, or knock out delicious roast potatoes in 20 minutes.
The trick is that these ovens combine traditional oven cooking with microwave and steaming, all in one. Smeg promises that steaming will ensure that nutrients aren't lost even when combining this tech for quick cooking.
There are integrated ovens of various sizes and budgets in the Galileo range, with increasingly illustrious names. You've got the remarkably affordable (and boringly titled) Classic traditional Multifunction Oven for £499, ranging up to the elite and magnificently monikered £3,299 'Dolce Stil Novo OmniChef'.
The new ovens will launch in January, so while it's a bit of a shame they won't be able to slash the time of this year's Christmas dinner, we'll see if all this technology can earn it a high place in our list of the best ovens in 2022.
This is the high-end version of the oven, with Smeg's VivoScreen panel for smart control.
The fancy technology here isn't just limited to the combination of all three cooking methods: the microwave functions don't require a spinning plate, for example. 'Inverter' and 'Stirrer' microwave tech ensures even cooking and not hotspots despite the lack of rotation – and not having a plate obviously means there's more space within the ovens.
There's also the option of multi-step cooking with the three technologies instead of using all three at once – Smeg says that you can put all the ingredients of a pasta bake in a pot, for example, pop it in the oven, and then the different cooking methods will trigger one after another so that you end up with a bake that cooked through and browned nicely, and you didn't have to stir or pour a thing.
There's also consideration for cleaning too. Yes, the ovens have a pyrolytic self-cleaning function, but Smeg also has a vapour-clean system, and the glass door is easy to remove so that you can properly give it a scrub.
We can't wait to try the range in the new year and see if it really does make good roast chicken in the time it takes to watch a single episode of Hawkeye.
