4 Classic 1990s Kitchen Gadgets Tested Today: Which Ones Still Hold Up?

Introduction

The 1990s were a golden era for as-seen-on-TV kitchen gadgets. Shopping channels and late-night infomercials sold a steady stream of single-use appliances, each promising to make everyday cooking faster and easier. But have they stood the test of time? We put four of the most famous names from that decade through a hands-on test with a chef and a regular home cook to see which ones still earn a place on the counter, and which belong in the thrift store.

Presto Salad Shooter

The Salad Shooter exploded in popularity in the 1990s, marketed as a quick point-and-shoot slicer that eliminated the messy need for grating and manual slicing, complete with the catchphrase “shoot some salad, shoot it fast, shoot it easy.” You feed vegetables or cheese into the top, choose between a slicing or shredding cone, and it fires the results straight onto your plate.

In testing, it did the job. Carrots, radishes and hard cheese all came out consistently, and swapping between the slice and grate attachments was simple. It is definitely not quiet, and the faded plug and basic plastic build give away its age, but nearly 30 years on it still works as advertised. The main drawback is the same one that applies to most single-use gadgets: at home you rarely need to slice or shred enough different things to justify getting it out and cleaning it, when a box grater sits right there in the drawer. It launched in 1994 at around $24.94, and secondhand units now change hands for considerably more from collectors.

If you regularly make salads, slaws, taco fillings or cheese toppings in volume, it is genuinely fun to use, and it is arguably ahead of its time. There are hand-crank and attachment-style alternatives today, but a sleeker cordless version of this concept would still find an audience.

Presto Hot Topper

Presto’s second entry on this list is the Hot Topper, an electric melter and dispenser that melts butter, warms sauces or syrups in minutes, then sprays, streams or brushes the hot topping onto your food. It looks a little like a small iron, and the leftover topping can be stored right in the unit in the refrigerator for reuse.

The application is surprisingly controlled. The brush and gentle squirt settings are accurate enough for use at the table, with no leakage or butter puddles, though the spray setting does make a bit of a mess and is better used over the sink or the grill. It brought the movie-theater butter mist to home popcorn, and it is not limited to butter: warm maple syrup for pancakes or a marinade for spritzing barbecue ribs and chicken all work. Cleaning is straightforward too, as the unit is fully immersible.

Sold for roughly $16 to $30 in 1995, working units today are more of a collector’s item than a kitchen essential. It is a quirky, charming gadget rather than a necessity, but the core idea of never having to scrape cold butter out of the fridge onto your toast has real appeal.

TriStar Eggwave Cooker

The TriStar Eggwave Cooker is a microwave egg tool that promises perfectly cooked eggs in seconds: scrambled, poached, boiled, sunny side up, or an omelet, all without added fat or messy pans. It even ships with a dedicated egg cracker for tapping the shells, which is a genuinely clever touch.

Results were mixed. At the advertised 40-second timing, our cold fridge eggs came out hot on top but soft underneath, and a few seconds either way makes all the difference. Scrambled eggs from a microwave remain an acquired taste, and shaking a hot container of egg is not glamorous. But for cooking one or two eggs quickly without dragging out pans, it makes sense, and microwaves were exactly where 1990s home cooking was happening.

It sold for $14.99 in 1999, and ours cost about the same in real terms today. The interesting part is how little the category has changed: near-identical microwave egg cookers are still sold now with the same promise of the perfect egg. It is still not the best way to cook eggs, but it has absolutely stood the test of time as a product category.

Ronco Showtime Rotisserie

The Ronco Showtime Rotisserie, introduced by infomercial legend Ron Popeil, was the great as-seen-on-TV showpiece of the decade, and the machine that popularized the phrase “set it and forget it.” It is a countertop rotisserie and barbecue oven that roasts a whole chicken, two smaller birds side by side, lamb chops, ham or baby back ribs on a rotating spit or in a rotating basket.

It is the standout of this test. The build feels designed to last, with very few plastic elements and almost nothing to go wrong: a single light, a dial for on and off, and a simple timer. The rotating action helps the meat baste in its own juices, and the skin came out evenly golden with an excellent color. Following the per-pound instructions and letting the chicken rest on the rotating mechanism without heat for 15 minutes produced remarkably juicy results. A modern version might add a built-in thermometer, and some units shipped with bonus accessory packs like heating trays and meat thermometers, but the basic design does one simple thing very well.

It cost around $150 to $200 in 1998, and a working unit today runs around $99.99, a rare case where the gadget is cheaper decades later. For a whole family dinner in roughly 40 minutes of active cooking time plus resting, it remains a genuinely practical machine, not just a retro curiosity.

Buying Advice

If you want a piece of 1990s kitchen nostalgia that is also genuinely useful, the Ronco Showtime Rotisserie is the clear pick, delivering excellent results with simple controls. The Salad Shooter is a fun second choice for anyone who preps salads and slaws in volume. The Hot Topper and Eggwave Cooker are best treated as affordable curiosities, charming and functional in narrow situations, but neither replaces the tools most kitchens already have.

Conclusion

Three decades on, these gadgets split neatly into two groups. The rotisserie and the slicer solved real problems and still work well today, with the rotisserie arguably aging best of all. The butter sprayer and microwave egg cooker were always more about the infomercial promise than the need they filled. Buying into the retro appeal is part of the fun, but matching the gadget to a task you actually do is what makes any of them worth the counter space.