CookingPal Julia smart cooking system will almost do everything for you

Smart devices are invading the kitchen. It started with a tablet that would let you follow step-by-step cooking videos and then reached refrigerators that could see what they store inside. Now CookingPal is taking kitchen intelligence to the next level with Julia, an intelligent autonomous cooking system that will not only suggest meals for you but will almost do all the cooking too. Presuming you have all the ingredients ready, of course.

It's called a system because Julia isn't just one apparatus. The real smarts come in the form of the Smart Hub, a custom-made tablet that basically tells you what to cook and how to cook it using the other half of the system, Julia itself. Together, the two are threatening to render the "I can't cook" excuse moot.

The Smart Hub offers personalized dishes designed not just around your preferences, which it learns the more you use it, but also by seeing what's available thanks to its camera and AI food recognition. You can even order the ingredients you lack right then and there and have them delivered to your doorstep. The large tablet offers touch and voice controls as well as a knob for those who want to feel with their hands.

The more intriguing part is the one that looks like a gigantic food processor. A food processor that can chop, knew, mix, cook, and even steam all in one device. Together with the Smart Hub, Julia directs users on what ingredients to put into its tub and how to prepare them before eventually letting it cook on its own while you wait and do something else.

Don't expect intricately designed presentations, of course, or that Julia will do everything for you. Like cars, there are still parts that require human intervention and attention. That does make the $1,000 price tag a bit harder to swallow.