Every year hundreds of new appliances, cookware items, tools, and pantry products promise to make cooking easier, faster, or more enjoyable. While some become everyday essentials, others don’t live up to the hype. That’s why the Good Housekeeping Institute puts hundreds of products through rigorous testing to find the ones you’ll actually use again and again.
For the sixth annual Good Housekeeping Kitchen Awards, product analysts and culinary experts in the GH Kitchen & Cooking Lab evaluated more than 350 products spanning every area of the kitchen, from faucets and water filtration systems to coffee makers, air fryers, pizza ovens, and pantry staples. Products were tested in the GH Institute Labs, the GH Test Kitchen, and the home kitchens of consumer testers to evaluate performance, ease of use, and overall value. These winners stood out for being innovative, genuinely useful, and well worth a spot in your kitchen.
Meet the Winners
How We Test
Every product submitted for consideration for a Good Housekeeping Kitchen Award went through a multistage evaluation process. The winners earned top marks in our standardized lab tests and impressed home cooks in our consumer tests.
☑Submission Review
Before getting hands-on with any of the products, our Kitchen & Cooking Lab first reviewed each application; those applications included detailed descriptions and specifications to help us better understand where and how to test each product. We also carefully matched products with consumer testers so each could be tested in the real world by users who were a good fit for that type of product.
☑Lab Testing
We then got hands-on with each product, testing them in a side-by-side manner according to standardized protocols to assess performance and ease of use. We measured how evenly air fryers crisped fries, how smoothly blenders pureed frozen fruit, whether food storage containers stained easily, and much more. We also considered usability factors such as dishwasher-safe parts, clearly labeled controls, and digital displays.
Other GH Institute Labs contributed to the testing process, including our Nutrition Lab, Cleaning Lab, and Home Improvement Lab. Beyond measurable data, our experts provided insights on factors including design aesthetics, noise level, and ease of storage.
For pantry and food items, we cooked using each ingredient according to the package directions, often preparing one item in multiple ways to assess versatility. We tasted and rated each item based on the dish’s appearance, flavor, smell, and texture. We also considered packaging, how easy the item was to cook with, and ingredient quality.
☑Consumer Testing
Finally, we compared notes with our 640 at-home consumer testers, who used the products in their kitchens for several weeks. They submitted in-depth surveys describing their experiences, including ratings and open-ended feedback.
Our approach to selecting the winners included reviewing all this data to identify the standout items in each category. The winners exhibited top-tier performance, were user-friendly, and showed a high level of innovation.
Meet the Experts
Photo credits: Mike Garten. Prop styling by Alex Mata.
