23 Best Gifts for Cooks (2026): Vitamix, Frying Pans, Air Fryers

This Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro is the countertop oven that the WIRED Reviews team gives most often as a gift to themselves—an oven that replaces the need to heat up your oven at all, or subs in as a second oven when you’re cooking feasts. I like the autopilot functions on the upgrade Breville Joule ($500), my favorite accessory oven of them all. But this Smart Oven Pro is almost the same hardware at a slightly lower price.

Why’s it so good? It’s way more precise and diverse in its cooking functions than your regular oven, with 13 functions from air frying to roasting to dough proofing and plain old baking. Breville swears there’s enough room, one cubic foot, that you can cook a 14-pound turkey in it. I believe them: It’s remarkably roomy, without taking over your counter. Cleanup is easy, but you’ll want to be diligent, lest you bake grease spots into the drip tray.

There are many Instant Pots, but the Pro Plus (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is the best. The big difference is that the cooking surface is nice and flat (unlike most of the others, where the center is domed up slightly), which means your oil is distributed evenly and you can properly sear things in this model. The control panel is definitely the nicest of the Instant Pot line. There are eight programs, including pressure cook, slow cook, steam, rice, sauté, and warm. The Pro Plus also has a bit more power—1,200 watts to the 1,000 watts on many of the other models, which makes for better browning, a key component of many pressure-cooker recipes. Speaking of recipes, the one downside is the smart portion of the equation. We found it not that smart. Instructions are vague, and recipes did not come out well in our testing. Tell whomever you give it to to just ignore the app. —Scott Gilbertson