(Photo: Courtesy of Caldera)

The Best Bet
With its glowing red elements against a flat black background, Caldera’s elegant glass cooktop ($1,395 at AKO Home Furnishings; 718-375-2130) looks more like a starship control panel than a domestic device. It’s certainly got plenty of tech: 44 settings per burner, each with a 99-minute timer—enough firepower to boil lobsters, yet enough subtlety to keep the risotto from scorching. An auto-recall function remembers the last setting you used for each different burner, and an emergency button turns them all off simultaneously in case you have to leave the room. This futuristic cooktop is perfectly flat and wipes clean in a swipe—because crumbs are so last millennium.