A professional chef tests kitchen gadgets from the Ronco Showtime Rotisserie to the George Foreman Grill.

As a professional cook, most of the restaurant kitchens I've worked in have been somewhat puritanical about gadgets. Our talent is on display, not the machines we work with, so we keep our tools basic: knives instead of food processors, prodding fingers instead of timers. Maybe that's why I get an illicit thrill from watching kitchen gadget infomercials on television. I'm lured in even though I know better. Could these cooking machines transform food preparation from a time-consuming, messy, skilled process to something quick, clean, and idiot-proof? 

I decided to test popular counter-top cooking devices sold for under $150. They include the Ronco Showtime Rotisserie, the George Foreman Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grilling Machine, the Turbo Cooker, and a Philips waffle iron. (I also tested a 30-year convenience veteran, the Rival Crock-Pot.) With the exception of the Turbo Cooker, each machine has its own electric heating elements that allow you to cook entirely off the stove. Even though I love what I do, there are many days when I want dinner to happen without actually "cooking," and these machines appeal to that impulse to get away from the stove. But, in my kitchen at least, counter-top real estate is scarce. Which devices were worthy of a spot on the Formica? Here's how I decided to test them.

The Chicken Test
I cooked a chicken dish in each machine following manufacturer's instructions. The cuts of chicken and seasonings varied in order to emphasize the strengths of each device.

The Pork Chop Test I cooked the exact same cut of meat in each machine to compare cooking times and texture differences. Eight of my neighbors graded and commented on the meat in a blind tasting. (Click here to see what they thought.)

The Versatility Test
Machines like these are marketed as multitaskers. I used each to cook vegetables and a dessert and made notes on how worthwhile the results were.

Cleanup
I really hate to wash pots and pans, but I hate washing fussy little bits of equipment even more. Each device earned a grade based on the amount of time and aggravation it took me to clean it.

Ronco Showtime Rotisserie Model 3000-T, $99.95
The machine: A portable rotisserie oven. It comes with a motorized spit, a basket attachment for small pieces of food, and a steamer tray to cook side dishes on its roof.

The tests: "Just set it, and forget it," says Ron Popeil of his Ronco Showtime Rotisserie Oven. Forget it? That's ridiculous. Watching this machine at work is as addictive as OxyContin. The oven looks like a television: Behind the big glass screen, the whole chicken I cooked in it toasted and bubbled and let off steamy sighs.

It took me a neat 55 minutes to roast a 4-and-one-quarter-pound chicken in the Showtime. That's not really a timesaver—it takes the same amount of time to roast a chicken in a 450-degree oven—but the chicken was admirable, just shy of excellent. Next time I might stuff lumps of butter or bacon under the breast skin for extra juiciness. But I'm quibbling. The chicken was 600 times better than those roasted chickens in the grocery store deli.

I used the basket attachment to cook the pork chop. It came out a little pale, but tied for first place among my neighbors who praised its "buttery" texture. As for versatility, the Rotisserie is first and foremost a meat machine. Brown sugar pineapple kebabs came out roasty and tasty, but how often do you really crave fruit kebabs for dessert? Skewered vegetables cooked adequately, but proved hard to baste in the small oven. In terms of cleanup, while each part of the Showtime was easy to wash, there were a lot of parts to keep track of.