They came from more than 100 countries to McCormick Place Exposition Center in Chicago recently, more than 2,100 exhibitors and 10 times that many buyers for the International Home + Housewares Show. This annual industry gathering offered everything from innovative products to tweaks on classics and offbeat inventions that may show up in stores or online this year.
The Zoku Quick Pop Maker team, who gave us frozen pops in seven minutes, showcased a “social media kit” that can imprint pops with emoticons, letters and numbers.
Fans of the Corkcicle in-bottle wine chiller now can keep their brews cool, thanks to the creators of the Chillsner, an in-bottle beer chiller.
And for those who’ve yet to master separating egg yolks from whites, at least two gadgets — Talisman Design’s Yolk Hero and Jokari’s Yolk Vac — promise salvation.
Our growing interest in home cooking, food preservation and edible gardening, what some trend-trackers have dubbed “modern homesteading,” was the focus of many exhibitors. Others touted their eco-friendly credentials, some their healthy-eating aspects.
At KitchenAid, for example, a display of their classic stand mixers sported meat-grinder and sausage-stuffing attachments. For cooks who like to preserve their garden’s bounty or shop farmers markets, though, the new dicing attachment for its 16-cup Pro Line Series food processor may be the most welcome.
And there were inventors of the quirky and useful. Like Ethan Woods, who spent two years developing the Grillbot, an automatic grill-cleaning robot (think of those floor-cleaning robots but with serious cleaning brushes). And Tigere Chiriga, who attempted to appease his wife (peeved by rings left on furniture by tea-cup drips) by creating a floating mug with a coaster attached.
Spifters are little sifting spoons for when you want to decorate mini things, such as cupcakes with confectioners’ sugar or deviled eggs with paprika.
The four-piece set includes a long-handled utensil and three sizes of fine mesh sieves that can be changed as needed.
A sharp-edged mezzaluna blade is great for mincing and chopping.
Joseph Joseph has made it even better by creating a design that folds the pivoting handles over the sharp stainless steel blade for storage.
