Smart displays were practically made for the kitchen, but the current offerings from Google, JBL, and Lenovo aren't made for the spills, stains, and smudges of a family's high-traffic, high-risk kitchen. There's no need to cry over spilled milk if it just drips on the floor, but if you spill it on a $300 smart display and fry it, I'd let slip a few tears. Nobody knows how chaotic a kitchen can be more than Whirlpool, and its KitchenAid Smart Display announced today at CES might be the best stab at a smart display that can survive the dangers of your kitchen.
The KitchenAid Smart Display is a 10-inch Google Assistant smart display that is IPX5 — "for resistance to faucet water" — and ready to help you control your smart home while you cook up something new with guided recipes, or entertain yourself with some Hulu episodes while you cook up your family's famous five-alarm chili for the church potluck. Google Assistant already has some pretty robust cooking skills for smart displays, but KitchenAid has partnered with Yummly to take the cooking experience to the next level.
Recipe resource and cooking planner Yummly has already shared recipes through Google Assistant for a while now, but Whirlpool — who acquired Yummly in 2017 — is launching a new Yummly Pro service that aims to bring Yummly's easy recipes and cooking help to Whirlpool's connected kitchen line, including the new KitchenAid Smart Display. These features include e-learning courses to help teach cooks new techniques at every skill level and special video "Guided Recipes" that will take you through the cooking process step by step visually, allowing you to see the way pros do it so you can attack new dishes with confidence.
KitchenAid told CNET that the KitchenAid Smart Display will run between $200 and $300 when it goes on sale in the second half of the year — sorry, guys, you'll have to find another gift for Mother's Day — but that's a lot of time for interest to pop and deflate like a souffle.
We'll keep this water-resistant display on our shopping list as we keep zipping through the aisles of CES 2019. Stay tuned!
