Joe Ray
Food & Travel / Words & Photos
Published Work
ARCHIVE OF THE YEAR 2018
WIRED—June 28, 2018
Kilner Fermentation Set Review: This cheap and easy-to-use kit is what you need to start fermenting
Fermenting makes for incredible food, but for beginners, finding the right equipment is tricky. Kilner’s new fermentation set changes that equation.
WIRED—June 10, 2018
Review: Meater—This Wireless Thermometer Pings Your Phone When The Rib Eye Has Reached Perfection
If it was up to me, my ideal grill would be one that could capably cook low and slow and and also be able to turn on the jets for a hard, fast sear. There’d be a nice-sized table next …
WIRED—May 18, 2018
Essay: You Need A New Kitchen Knife
If you do a bit of kitchen knife research, you will soon discover a recurring theme, as well as some odd advice. The recurring theme is that the three key knives everyone must own are a chef’s knife, a paring …
WIRED—May 10, 2018
Essay: Are Air Fryers Worth It?
I called in one of Philips new XXL models, which is both large and a good representative of the best of the industry’s offerings.
It arrived in the morning and, lacking other options in my fridge and pantry, I made …
WIRED—April 17, 2018
Essay: A Young Chicago Chef Pursues Wood-Fired Perfection
The James Beard Awards are often referred to as the “Oscars of the food world,” and while Chicago chef Erling Wu-Bower has been nominated for three of them, he’s lost all three.
“I’m like Susan Lucci!” he jokes, referring to …
WIRED—April 12, 2018
Review: A New Cookbook Takes Us Deep Into the World of the Instant Pot
A few years back, in that now-forgotten time before Instant Pots were a thing, I reviewed an electric pressure cooker and struggled mightily with it. It was supposed to be a safe, fast way to speed up cooking and promised …
WIRED—March 20, 2018
Review: SideChef—The Guided-Cooking App Has Thousands Of Recipes, But Needs An Editor.
The other day at my mother-in-law’s house, I roasted a chicken in her 20-year-old oven and, at one point, turned on the oven light with the flick of an analog switch. There were no beeps, no series of buttons to …
WIRED—March 7, 2018
Review: ThermoWorks Smoke and Smoke Gateway—No Kitchen Is Truly Smart Without A Great Thermometer
One of the best perks of being a gear reviewer is being able to borrow gadgets and the specialized tools to help test them. I don’t get to keep these things I test, but more often than not, that’s just …
WIRED—February 21, 2018
Review: Miracle-Gro AeroGarden Harvest Wi-Fi—An easy-to-use, app-connected hydroponic garden.
One of the enduring memories my New York years was seeing the blue glow of Times Square from 20 blocks south.
“That’s where the aliens land,” I’d joke. And now, for most of the day, my living room feels nearly …
WIRED—February 2, 2018
Mixtin Review: A New Spin On The Mixing Vessel Tries To Rewrite The Recipe For Stirred Cocktails
At a good bar, stirring happens inside lovely vessels called mixing glasses, but Cocktail Kingdom’s new Mixtin “mixing tin” promises better consistency through temperature control, swapping out thick glass for vacuum-insulated double walls made of stainless steel.
WIRED—January 25, 2018
Made In Cookware Pan Set—Welcome To The Problem Dome
The pans from a new company called Made In promise US-made, premium-quality cookware. The website claims that its direct-to-consumer sales model allows it to offer steep discounts for that quality, citing an example of a $69 pan from Made In which would cost $150 at a typical retailer. It’s a hefty claim.
WIRED—January 18, 2018
The Tasty One Top—Tons Of Potential, But Teetering On The Edge
The One Top is an induction burner—one of a class of kitchen devices that heats a pan not with a flame or other heating element, but by generating a magnetic field. As smart induction burners like the Hestan Cue and the Breville/PolyScience Control Freak demonstrated, this is a category with exciting potential, but the One Top struggled where it should have excelled.
Wired—January 4, 2018
Like To Party In The Danger Zone? Make Dinner In The Mellow
Two doctors and a specialist reveal deep misgivings about this machine which may leave your food in the danger zone for way too long.