Appearances aside, the Food Pod looks like it would be very effective—plus, it's made of flexible silicone, which won't rust up on you like a cheap stainless steel collapsible steamer might. [Fusionbrands and Amazon via RGS]

Create Your Own Sun Jar: Lifehacker Edition

Inspired by a tutorial we posted last year, we decided to make our own DIY sun jars. The trendy summer time lighting accessory retails for $30+ but we were able to make ours for around $10 each. The sun jars proved to be our most popular non-computer DIY of the entire year and readers shared their own creations with us.

The First-Timer's Guide to Building a Computer from Scratch

Building your own computer is a great way to get exactly what you want, the way you want it, without being constrained by the limits and high-prices of mass produced computers. We showed you how to build a computer from start to finish and have fun doing it.

Turn a Sharpie into a Liquid Fueled Rocket

What's standing between you and some office mayhem? Certainly not a lack of Sharpie markers and keyboard dusting spray. Combine the two with this fun DIY project and you've got one of the most awesome pieces of office-machinery we've ever featured.

Properly Erase Your Physical Media

You need to be properly erasing your physical media: all the time, every time. Our guide will show you how to get the job done and done right whether you use software to scrub your disks or you send them to the great data mine in the sky with a 21-gun salute.

Turn an Old Laptop into a Wall-Mounted Computer

Why settle for a digital picture frame when, in the same wall space, you could mount an entirely functional computer/slideshow player/TV tuner? One Lifehacker reader turned an old laptop into a super-charged digital frame.

$8 DIY Aluminum Laptop Stand

We've always been keen on DIY laptop stands, but reader Aaron Kravitz—inspired by an attractive $50 stand—went above and beyond, creating one of the most attractive DIY laptop stands we've featured to date.

Build an IKEA NAS On the Cheap

If the Hive Five on best home server software got you excited about setting up a home server but you're not keen on another unsightly PC in your home, check out this DIY IKEA NAS.

Build a DIY Portable Air Conditioner

We've shown you how to make an air conditioner (even for as low as $30), but what if you wanted something you can put in your car and take with you? While it's no substitute for a fully-charged and factory-fresh AC system, it'll keep you cool.

Turn a Bookshelf into a Secret Passage

Who hasn't dreamed of having a mystery-story-style secret passageway? While a trick bookshelf is pretty awesome in itself, this secret passage hides a home office with clever style. One industrious Lifehacker reader and his girlfriend had grown tired of seeing their office from their living space, so they hid it behind a wall of books.

Wire Your House with Ethernet Cable

You've ripped a movie on your laptop, and now want it on that fancy new home theater PC next to your TV. If you've got the time, wiring your house with Cat-5e cable could make transfer times a distant memory.

Rain Gutters as Cable Management Tools

We're all about creative cable management here at Lifehacker, so we were instantly drawn to reader Seandavid010's rain-gutter cable management setup. He was awesome enough to send detailed photos and step by step instructions to help other readers recreate his setup.

Build Your Own DTV Antenna

The lights went out on analog television this year and we were there with a guide to help you build a great DIY antenna for boosting your reception and getting that crisp digital picture you crave.

DIY Laptop Rack Hack Turns Your Monitor into an iMac

Lifehacker reader Matt Lumpkin saw our monitor stand from door stoppers post and thought we might like his laptop rack hack as another space-saving desktop solution for laptop-lovers. He was right.

Build Your Own Pizza Oven

Suppose you were inspired by the cheap DIY home pizza oven—but weren't so sure your home insurance would cover oven modifications. It's time to build a safer, more eye-pleasing oven, and we've got a thorough guide.

Crack a Master Combination Padlock Redux

Two years ago we highlighted how to crack a Master combination padlock for those of you who may have lost the combination to your bulletproof lock; now designer Mark Campos has turned the tried-and-true instructions into an easier-to-follow visual guide.

DIY Invisible Floating Bookshelves

We've covered the invisible floating bookshelf once or twice before, but if you liked the idea but weren't keen on ruining a book in the process, weblog May December Home's got you covered.

DIY Inverted Bookshelf

Instead of storing your books upright on top of the shelf, the inverted bookshelf holds all of your books in place using elastic webbing so you can hang them below the shelf—all the while allowing you to still take them out and put them back on as needed.

Build an Under-the-Cabinet Kitchen PC from an Old Laptop

Inspired by our guide to giving an old laptop new life with cheap or free projects, Lifehacker reader Brian turned his aging Dell laptop into an incredible under-the-cabinet kitchen PC.

Turn Storage Containers into Self Watering Tomato Planters

If you'd like to have delicious home-grown tomatoes but lack a garden to grow them in, you'll definitely want to check out this ingenious and inexpensive self-watering system.

Deter Thieves by Uglifying Your Camera

A few years ago, blogger Jimmie Rodgers's camera was stolen while volunteering in an impoverished Brazilian community, so he did what any sane person would do: He bought a new camera and made it ugly. With his uglified camera, Rodgers was able to snap pictures freely during the rest of his trip without worrying too much that his ostensibly crappy camera would end up stolen.

DIY TV or Monitor Stand from Door Stoppers

Nothing adds space to a desk or home theater setup like a simple monitor or TV stand, and weblog IKEA Hacker details how to build your own stand on-the-cheap with a few inexpensive items from IKEA.

Repurpose Your Analog Television

You don't need to run out and buy a new TV because of the DTV switchover. If you did anyways, Make Magazine has put together quite a guide to giving old TVs new life.

Use Ping-Pong Balls to Create Diffused Party Lights

If you need some cheap and novel ambient lighting for your next party, you're only a box of ping-pong balls and a string of lights away from solving your lighting worries.

Build a Custom-Made BoxeeBox

DeviceGuru blogger Rick Lehrbaum, inspired by the cheaper set-top boxes, made his own higher-powered "BoxeeBox" for the free, open-source media center. He posted all the parts, the how-to details, and lots of pictures.

Build a Sturdy Cardboard Laptop Stand

You already shelled out your hard earned cash for a swanky laptop, why drop more cash on an overpriced laptop stand? Cardboard alone can do the trick, as detailed in this step-by-step tutorial.

Install Snow Leopard on Your Hackintosh PC, No Hacking Required

Earlier this year we put together a wildly popular guide to building a Hackintosh with Snow Leopard, start to finish, and then followed it up with an even easier guide to install Snow Leopard on your Hackintosh PC, no hacking required. Computers + DIY is all sorts of geeky fun waiting to happen.

Have a favorite DIY from 2009 that wasn't highlighted here? Sound off in the comments with a link to your favorite project. Want to see more popular DIY guides courtesy of the ghost of Lifehacker past? Check out our huge DIY guide roundup from 2008.

Michael Ruhlman, cookbook author demigod and Gizmodo Food Week contributor, is bringing his excellent book Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking to the App Store. Ratio takes sometimes-threatening elements of cooking like doughs, cakes, sauces, sausages, stocks and batters and breaks them down into more versatile ratios (bread is five parts flour to three parts water, for example). The app looks really great, actually: It has all 32 of the "critical ratios" in cooking, plus a calculator (to figure out exactly how much of everything you need), recipe ideas for each ratio, and ways to both store and share recipes (via Facebook and Twitter).

The app should be coming out soon, for an undisclosed price. My guess is that it probably won't be free—it's a licensed product and also available as a book—but I personally am really excited about it. Baking's always been a weak point of mine and if I can learn to bake and cover my iPod Touch in floury fingerprints at the same time, I'll give it a try. [Ruhlman]

BTW, if you hate the gallery format as much as the Grinch hated Christmas, click here.

Portable Induction Cooktop: I always assumed getting into induction cooking meant gutting your kitchen and calling in some expensive Euro gear. But the truth is, getting a plug-in induction burner is an easy, affordable way to get into a cooking science that's already taken off in other parts of the world. Wired's Mark McClusky told us that Max Burton was a good 'un, and you know, I'm actually pretty tempted to buy one for myself. Just make sure your gift recipient has steel pots and pans, cuz aluminum doesn't do the magical magnetic thing. $75 [Company Page; Amazon]

All-Edge Brownie Pan: For anyone who loves the crunchy-chewy edge of the brownies that touch the pan's outer wall, this is absolutely the gift. However, as we learned, there are legions who feel the exact opposite, that edges should be soft and knife-cut only. For them, this gift would be a hand-holdable version of hell itself. $35 [ThinkGeek]

Stick Blender: Good lord what would I do without my stick blender? Soups sure wouldn't be the same, nor jams, nor sauces. It saves you from having to transfer hot ingredients to and from your blender, where you risk 12 different kinds of third-degree burn. Of course, it takes a steady hand, and someone smart enough to not stick their finger where the spinning blade is, so choose your gift recipient wisely. I found out while researching this that my own 400-watt Braun may well be discontinued, and if it's not, it costs an arm and a leg. (I think it was a wedding present.) In lieu of that, go with the Cuisinart CSB-76 Smart Stick. It's both cheap and highly rated, at least by Amazon customers—a much better gift. $30 [Amazon]

A Window Fan, Air Filters and Bungie Cords: What better experience to offer your favorite food nerd than a DIY home dehydrator, the most foolproof Alton Brown hack we know of? Throw some meat in between the filters, run the fan overnight, and in the morning you got jerky. And we know for certain it's foolproof because our own Macgyver Chef tried it out and didn't die! Our only recommendation is to find out what your recipient already has—if they have it all, just buy the meat and point them to the guide. $30 to $40 [Alton Brown's Recipe; Our MacGyver Chef Experience]

My Weigh KD-7000 Digital Scale: Don't let the corny Frank Sinatra reference fool you, this scale is what pros favor (at least for their home cooking). The My Weigh line is a tad confusing, but our friend Michael Ruhlman says the KD-7000 is the one with "percentage" weighing, so you can bake in precise weight ratios rather than imprecise volume measurements. Best of all, for what it does, it's really not expensive. $38 [My Weigh; Amazon]

Good Eats: The Early Years by Alton Brown: The commander-in-chief of food nerds just published a cookbook that mirrors his show, so you can skim to find the tips and recipes in episodes like "Squid Pro Quo" and "American Pickle." It's way better than trying to recreate things by looking at the Brown's barebones Food Network recipe listings. The book covers the first 80 shows, so it's got a crazy variety of themes to get the apprentice kitchen whiz on your list started. $22 [Book Review; Amazon]

PolyScience Immersion Circulator plus a Vacuum Sealer for Sous Vide Cooking When I asked Alinea co-owner Nick Kokonas what a great long-shot fantasy kitchen gift would be, he said, without hesitating, a sous vide setup. This style of "cooking in a vacuum" relies on a precision water bath to get your meat or other ingredients to exactly the right temperature, with zero risk of overcooking. The setup is insanely expensive, and if you don't know what you're doing, you could risk sharing some food-borne illnesses. But what does all that amount to against the spirit of holiday gift giving? $1000 and Up [ Circulator Kit with Thomas Keller's Guide; Vacuum Sealer]

DON'T BUY a Knife Sharpener: Confession: Two years ago for Christmas I gave my in-laws a knife sharpener, and that same year I got one from my wife. We thought we were the coolest. But now we know the truth, in the form of dull knives. When I interviewed Alton Brown this summer and asked him if he'd ever use one, he replied, "If I had any knives I hated that bad, sure." This year, I have asked my wife for professional knife sharpening. I'll let you know how that turns out. [Good and Bad Kitchen Gadgets]

This list is by no means comprehensive, so go ahead and comment on any potential kitchen-oriented gift that strikes you as a good idea. Better still if you included a pic and price.

All Giz Wants is our annual round-up of favorite gift ideas, including amazing attainable objects and a few far-out fantasies. We'll be popping guides catered to different interests several times per day for the next week, so keep checking back.

If you have nothing better to do, it looks like you could easily imitate this project at home. Just keep in mind that chicken and fish apparently don't "present an easily-readable image" on the screen. [Eat Me Daily via Kottke]

Esquire is one of the three magazines at the top of the journalistic totem pole—you write a feature for it, and a book deal falls in your lap with an old-timey leatherbound thud. Hallowed as the brand is, its leadership is having a deuce of a time getting digital. There was last year's humiliating venture into E-Ink-based advertorial. And then there's the December 2009 issue.

It will feature, among other actors, Robert Downey Jr. squatting awkwardly and gesturing towards his manhood, a human frame for what looks like a very basic 2D bar code. Yep, it's augmented reality, like they've done with Star Trek and Best Buy. Hold it the image up to a webcam, and, according to the WSJ, you "trigger the video segments, which are similar to some video-conferencing technologies in their lifelike quality." Wow, a video segment as lifelike as video conferencing, springing forth from Downey's balls. So we end up with just one question: Who's the most shameless, Esquire's editors, its advertising department or Downey? [WSJ]

Oh TomTom, your comeback has come too late. While the record should show that TomTom's iPhone app certainly made up for many shortcomings of its portable navigators, the delayed iPhone dock with built-in redundant GPS isn't going to take things to the next level. Since it was announced, GPS apps have dropped to prices so low they are actually free in certain cases. There are enough decent cheap options—and then some—in the App Store to guarantee you won't be paying $100 for TomTom's app. Since the dock sells for an additional $120—with no bundle pricing in sight—TomTom's iPhone navigation experience is suddenly more expensive than any TomTom navigator currently selling to people who aren't idiots. Engadget's dock review highlighted these issues, pointing out that its only real benefit is bestowing GPS reception on 1st-gen iPhones and iPod Touches—even though TomTom doesn't support them with a compatible app. No matter what happens, this product seems doomed. [Engadget]

Sometime in early 2010, Amtrak will be giving highspeed wireless internet access to people who ride its highspeed Acela trains. Some remark that at the outset this will be "free," but I say nonsense: Just because you're not paying for it one way doesn't mean you're not paying for it another. I have fond memories of the year I spent riding the rails from NYC to DC and back again, but that's just because I've blocked out the overpriced tickets, the insulting frequent-rider program, the long lines for the snack bar, and the fact that, if the trains ran at all, they would be remarkably late. So you see the Wi-Fi won't be free, no matter how little money changes hands. [Wi-Fi Net News]

While the rest of the world is talking about how great a tablet would be for books, videos, comics and all other varieties of leisure, the French are building a tablet for cooking. Actually, if they built a tablet for cooking, we'd cover it. QOOQ (get it?) is just some gimped Linux box that happens to be programmed to receive and display food-related videos, recipes and articles and, apparently, not a lot else. Call me know when it's oleophobic, sink-rinse-able, knife-friendly and can grind pepper rough or fine. [Electronista]

The design of the Gyrofocus fireplace may be 40 years old, but it was still striking enough to be voted the "world's most beautiful object" at this year's Pulchra design competition. [Focus Creation via Link]
The Conmoto suitcase fireplace allows you to bring warmth and ambiance wherever you go (the casing is weather resistant so even the outdoors isn't off limits). Conmoto is fueled by a small tank of bio-ethanol that burns for 2.5 to 3.5 hours. [Unica Home via Link]
A fire pit built-in to your coffee table gives city folk all of the benefits of a campfire without actually having to venture out into the wilderness. I'm thinking s'mores. [Opulent Items]
The Lumos is more than an outdoor fireplace, it's also a grill. Keep the chimney up and you have ambiance, flip it down and you have delicious meat cooking over charcoal. In other words, it warms you up inside and out. [Leenders via Link]
If NASA ever designed a portable fireplace (or a urinal), it might look something like the Piet. [Cavallius Design via Link]
The fireplace should be the focal point of the room, and the Skloib TV Drehturm allows you to stay true to that philosophy without compromising on the placement of your television. [Skloib via Link]
I have always wanted a wood-fired pizza oven in my backyard, but not quite enough to commit the time and expense to building one myself. If you are willing, Forno Bravo has provided info on how to build an oven like the one pictured here. [Forno Bravo via Flickr via Link]
High pressure propane burners like this one are often associated with frying turkeys, but the truth is you can cook a lot of awesome stuff with it. I would suspect that a high percentage of people (like me) use these to homebrew 5 gallon batches of all-grain beer. [Amazon]
These gigantic bear claw matches are as close as you will get to a guarantee on lighting a fire. The built-in kindling is a big plus, although the colorful, crayon-esque heads could be an invitation for your children to embark on an artistic disaster. [KM Match via Link]
The Wicked Torch is kind of like a cross between a flashlight, a lighter and a stove. At 4100 lumens, it is the brightest flashlight on the face of the earth according to Guinness. It's also hot enough to burn paper, light cigarettes and cook eggs.

My point is: What's the fun of using a machine like the Kenwood Cooking Chef—which can cook at temperatures between 68ºF and 284ºF while stirring at three different speeds—to cook a risotto? Where is the fun in that when the alternative is doing it yourself alongside your loved one, improvising, sharing a nice wine, music, and conversation, waiting for your friends to arrive?

I rest my case. [Daily Mail via Dvice]

AUGMENTED FREAKIN' REALITY!!!!!

Remember back when butter, flour and sugar were enough? Now the American appetite has grown so vast that we'll be consuming Pokémon, movie advertisements and Nascar figurines in no time. Just wait for it: A bowl of Cooler Ranch Doritos topped with Cialis coupons is just an ad campaign away. [Mike Clare and Tellart viaMAKE]

I mean, what could be more logical? Take a cooking tool that's fundamentally designed to have a large surface area for fast cooking and easy food flipping, then shrink it to unusably lilliputian proportions.

In all fairness, this $90, 6-piece mini-wok set is adorable. But if you buy it, you officially throw too many cutesy parties (because even one is one too many). Instead, save the money, dig a hole in your living room and throw a proper pig roast. Or just buy a hot pot that all of your friends can share (whatever works best for your particular value set and architectural budget). [Pro Idee via Random Good Stuff]

Or better yet, do what I do: Forget this thing and take out one of those archaic dead tree cookbooks, turn a few pages, and read the mysterious "ink" that resides on them.

No? Still craving the frame? OK, then some details... The $271 8-inch digital frame plays 48 instructional videos featuring chef Brian Turner. The action can be controlled by the included remote control, which we hope is waterproof or otherwise protected from flying food in some way.

When not in use, say the day after Christmas when this goes into the closet forever, the frame doubles as a calendar and photo frame. Bon appétit, chumps! [Appliancist via Engadget]

Case in point: Their executive chef, Preeti Mistry, was summarily dismissed from Top Chef for being, of all things, completely bland. [CNET]

The childproofing is really pretty simple: When you're done cooking, or when the stove top is not in use, simply remove the magnetic discs from their holders and the unit is effectively impossible to turn on. Presto change-o, no toddlers running around your kitchen screaming to child services that they have third degree burns on their hands and arms.

And as the picture implies this is an induction unit that's the perfect fit for your eclectic collection of cut in half skillets and other cookware. [Press Release via Born RIch]

The kitchen is a place where tools, gadgets, and gizmos—that is, the very non-human objects that entrance guys—are in continual use. I, like every cook I know, love my tools. The breakfast chef instructor when I was at cooking school reportedly slept with her omelet pans. She understood. Cooks throughout America go kind of silly in the head when they go into a cookware store (I pretty much want everything I see even when I don't need anything).

While important to remember—as American's chief food geek Alton Brown has noted here and elsewhere—you don't want unitaskers in your kitchen (unless it's an air-popper used to toast pine nuts!), things like hand blenders and cable thermometers with wireless remotes are incredibly useful.

But for all our gadget hunger, America has yet to embrace what is one of the most important tools of all in the kitchen. A digital scale.

Why is a scale important? Because recipes work better when you weigh ingredients. A cup of flour can weigh between 4 and 6 ounces. That means if you've got a bread or cake recipe that calls for 4 cups of flour, you might measure out 16 ounces or 24 ounces—a 50% difference in the main ingredient! No wonder people are so afraid of making their own cake. Measuring is easier and cleaner and results in fewer dirty measuring cups when you use a scale. You can measure everything right into your mixing bowl. Have you ever tried to measure out a cup of shortening? It's a mess.

Another example: If you know pasta is three parts flour and two parts egg, fresh pasta dough takes about two minutes to put together. Put your bowl on a scale, crack in your eggs and add 1.5 times as much flour. Two large eggs are about 4 ounces, so you'd add 6 ounces flour. Need four portions? Put four eggs in your bowl and add 12 ounces of flour. Recipes scale up and down multiple times and always work.

Pancake batter, in fact all quickbread batters, are essentially equal parts flour and liquid and half as much egg. You can measure out all your ingredients into a big measuring cup with a spout for easy pouring. If I'm just making pancakes for my 10-year-old kid, I use one egg. If making for me as well, I add another egg. If my wife wants some, then I make a three-egg batch.

Moreover, this kind of proportional cooking by weight works in grams, ounces, whatever unit you want. Whether you mix 20 ounces of flour and 12 ounces of water, or 500 grams of flour and 300 grams of water, it's going to be good bread dough.

So as more and more of us head into the kitchen, I've been on a mission to urge people to embrace the scale. I've become a scale evangelist.

I use a My Weigh scale and love it. It works great and doesn't cost a fortune. Thomas Keller and his gang at French Laundry, Per Se and Bouchon use A&D scales, which are very sensitive but a little pricey.

My Weigh recently came out with a new one that does something really cool. It measures by percentage. Which is how a lot of bakers measure. The standard baker's percent of bread, for instance is 100% flour, 60% water, 3% fresh yeast, 2% salt. With this scale, you simply pour in the flour, hit percent, then the "tare" or zeroing button, and begin adding the water till it reads 60. Zero again and add your next ingredient.

This is a tool that really does make cooking easier and faster. So the next time you need a gadget fix, skip the panini press and buy a scale.

Michael Ruhlman couldn't have written Charcuterie without a scale, and his most recent book, Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking, is devoted solely to cooking by using proportions by weight. It is the opinion of at least some Gizmodo editors that Michael's recently published Elements of Cooking is a must-have for people who take their own cooking (and eating) seriously. He also blogs at ruhlman.com.

It took me nearly an entire evening in the the kitchen at Alinea before I realized what was weird about it. Sure, there's the stunning intensity of the chefs as they prepare Grant Achatz' intricate dishes, and the nearly-operating room level of cleanliness. But that's not what struck me one night at the end of service. What struck me is that I didn't know where the stove was.

You see, in most restaurant kitchens—like most home kitchens—the stove is the focal point of the room, the place that all the action revolves around. If you're running the sauté station in most big restaurants, you're the man, the line cook who's banging out the most food in the hottest, most extreme environment. You're the alpha cook.

Not so at Alinea. Of course there's a stove, but it's much smaller than you'd expect for a kitchen that puts out a couple of thousand plates a night, just four burners and a flat top. Instead, the chefs at Alinea do the vast majority of their cooking using induction burners, portable ones from CookTek.

Induction is just plain cool. Instead of using a flame like gas, or radiant heat like standard electric burners, induction burners use a magnetic field. The field creates heat through the property outlined in Joule's first law—you do remember your thermodynamics, right?—in which current passing through conductive material generates heat.

So what? Well, a couple of things. First, induction is super-efficient. Induction burners convert about 85% of the energy you pour into them into heat, compared to about 70% for electric burners and 40% for gas. That means you'll spend less to cook on induction.

And since the burner itself doesn't create heat, it stays cool to the touch—take the pan off, and you can put your palm on it. That also means that they don't throw off ambient heat like gas or electric, so the kitchen stays much cooler.

Then, there's the responsiveness of induction. Like gas, when you turn it off, there's no residual heat from the burner, just the pan. Plus, there's the flexibility of portable burners like Alinea uses. Frying something smelly? Got an outdoor power outlet? Set up a portable burner, and you can keep the stink out of your house. Want to keep soup warm at a party? Throw a burner on the buffet, and you're good to go.

The one thing to keep in mind is that your pans do have to be magnetic. That might be a pain in the ass, especially if you're hip deep in anodized aluminum pots. But the good news is that some of the cheapest (and most fun to use) cookware around—cast iron—works amazingly on induction burners, as will all your fancy pots as long as they've got some stainless steel kicking around in them. If in doubt, grab a magnet from your fridge door to check.

As far as specific models to check out, Circulon makes a nice burner, and Spanish appliance giant Fagor has one. For the best combo of power and price, check out the Max Burton 6000, which puts out 1800 watts for just $125 retail.

That's how to cook like they do at the best restaurant in America. Or, really, it's how to cook with the same methods. The talent is up to you.

Mark McClusky is products editor at Wired magazine, and one of the authors of the Alinea book. You can follow him on Twitter @markmcc. Also check out his special section, The Future of Food.

Taste Test is our weeklong tribute to the leaps that occur when technology meets cuisine, spanning everything from the historic breakthroughs that made food tastier and safer to the Earl-Grey-friendly replicators we impatiently await in the future.

Top image found UNCREDITED at Titanium Elite, Green By Design and This Old House; most likely a promotional image for Sauter cooktops.

What you can't see in this footage is that despite how sterile the oft-speechless, stainless steel kitchen may look, the smells that fill the room are nothing short of wondrous. Just how these chefs resist consuming every plate they create is beyond my comprehension.

Thanks to Logitech, MonoPrice and of course Justin.tv for helping make this broadcast possible. Please excuse any video hiccups, audio issues or momentary connection drops—it is, after all, live.

Traditionally, learning how to cook is messy, expensive and time consuming. Therefore, video games like Cooking Mama, Personal Trainer: Cooking, Hell's Kitchen and Iron Chef are a great way to ease into the wide and wonderful world of home cooked meals. Plus, young, celebrity chefs like Jamie Oliver are starting to realize that gaming is a great way to connect with an audience.

There's no mess, it's not nearly as expensive as going to the grocery store or to a restaurant and it can actually be fun. You can't eat Pizza Rolls and microwaveable bacon every day my friends (or can you?)—it's just not healthy.

Taste Test is our weeklong tribute to the leaps that occur when technology meets cuisine, spanning everything from the historic breakthroughs that made food tastier and safer to the Earl-Grey-friendly replicators we impatiently await in the future.