Best Kitchen Gear Questions Answered: Smart Ovens, Rice Cookers and Grill Presses

Introduction

Kitchen gear questions tend to get more interesting the longer you own a product. This guide rounds up six items that come up again and again: two countertop ovens with very different philosophies, a rice cooker that has quietly converted sceptics, a heavy cast iron grill press, and two brown rice brands worth knowing about. Each entry covers how the product performs, how it compares to the obvious alternative, and the small details that decide whether it fits your kitchen.

June Smart Oven

The June Smart Oven is a countertop oven built around guided, hands-off cooking. Its biggest differentiator is a built-in temperature probe paired with well-tuned presets: the oven knows what internal temperature shrimp, steak, salmon, chicken or pork should reach, so you do not have to guess. Cook a tray of shrimp with the probe in place, press one button, and the oven takes it from there, cooking evenly across the surface so everything finishes at once.

It is also genuinely connected. You can start it, walk into another room, and check progress from your phone. It sends a reminder a couple of minutes before food is ready, again when it is done, and then asks whether you want to keep cooking or are finished. If you adjust a setting, it offers to save the change for next time, so a bagel you like slightly darker than medium stays that way without reprogramming.

Cleaning is a common question. There is no self-cleaning function, but it does not get that dirty with regular wipe-downs. When grease does accumulate and brown on the interior walls over time, the manufacturer publishes a step-by-step cleaning guide using standard oven cleaner: tape over the temperature probe port, avoid spraying the heating elements, warm the oven slightly, spray, wait, wipe, spray with water, wipe again, and let the oven blow itself dry. The oven’s own cleaning program helps guide the process.

Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer

The Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer and the June Smart Oven are very similar on paper: both are countertop ovens with air frying capability and toaster oven capability, meaning either can work like a small conventional oven. The key difference is software. Despite the name, the Breville is not smart in the guided sense; it lacks the built-in cooking intelligence and, notably, there is no temperature probe.

That means you keep the usual responsibilities: knowing what temperature your food should reach and judging doneness yourself. For cooks who already have that knowledge and prefer manual control, that is not a drawback, and it air fries and toasts capably within its class. If you want an appliance that removes the worry rather than one that gives you full control, the June is the stronger fit. If you want a solid manual countertop oven with air fryer functionality, the Breville does the job.

Zojirushi Rice Cooker

The Zojirushi rice cooker has a way of winning over people who never thought they needed one. Brown rice, which is notoriously a little difficult to cook well on the stove, comes out perfectly every time, which alone makes it worth considering for anyone who eats a lot of whole grains.

One common question: can it cook couscous? It is not designed for that, and it is easy to see why. Couscous cooks in roughly nine or ten minutes on the stove, likely too short a cycle for a machine calibrated to think it is cooking rice. There is a real risk it would simply cook too long. What it does cover is an impressively wide range of rice: settings for oatmeal, brown and white rice, and, reflecting its Japanese engineering, many specific rice varieties including sweet rices and rinse-free rices. As a dedicated rice machine, it is terrific at all of it.

Lodge LGP3 Grill Press

A grill press is a simple tool, but weight is what separates a good one from a forgotten drawer-dweller. The Lodge LGP3 rectangular grill press was the standout in grill pan testing, and it earns that result in large part because it is a little heavier than most. That extra heft keeps it stable on the food and presses it down effectively, which matters most for panini and anything else where firm, even contact is the point.

It is also simply a nicer tool to use than lighter generic presses. Many cooks make do with a lightweight no-name press that mostly works; anyone buying fresh should go straight for the tested winner.

Best Brown Rice: Lundberg and Riceland

A brown rice tasting produced a clear top pick: Lundberg Organic Brown Long Grain Rice took first place, with Riceland Extra Long Grain Natural Brown Rice a solid second. Either is a dependable choice for everyday cooking.

One practical warning applies to both brands: package directions for brown rice are often not very good and tend to have you add too much water. Brown rice is already a little tricky to get right, so treat the stovetop instructions with suspicion. Pairing either brand with a reliable rice cooker sidesteps the problem entirely, since a good cooker handles brown rice without guesswork.

Buying Advice

The clearest decision in this group is between the two countertop ovens. If guided cooking appeals to you, meaning the appliance knows target temperatures, manages doneness, and learns your preferences, the June Smart Oven is purpose-built for exactly that. If you are confident in the kitchen and prefer a manual machine that still air fries and toasts well, the Breville covers that ground without the guided features.

For rice, the pairing matters more than any single purchase: either recommended brown rice brand cooked in a Zojirushi removes the most common failure mode, which is package directions that call for too much water. The Lodge grill press is the easiest recommendation of the group, a low-cost upgrade with an immediate payoff for anyone who makes panini or presses food in a pan.

Conclusion

Each of these products earns its place by doing one core job reliably: the June by taking the guesswork out of countertop cooking, the Breville by keeping things simple and manual, the Zojirushi by perfecting brown rice, the Lodge press by putting real weight where it counts, and the two rice brands by simply tasting better. Match the tool to the task and none of them will disappoint.