Adding a Google Personal Assistant to Your Kitchen

The Google Nest Hub Max display is your Google personal assistant in the kitchen to make preparing meals easier and enjoyable.

If no sous-chef is available to help you in the kitchen, aGoogle personal assistant might be the next best thing. 

The new Google Nest Hub Max (with Google Assistant) will help you in a multitude of ways, inside and outside of your kitchen. 

Although it can’t cut up vegetables and stir sauces, there are a number of ways it can help with your nightly dinner preparation.

Google Personal Assistant in the Kitchen

From shopping lists to ordering, finding recipes, reading recipes step-by-step, watching videos, listening to your favorite tunes, setting timers, you’ll find the Google personal assistant in the Google Nest Hub Max invaluable.

1.  Lists

“Hey Google, add Spinach to my shopping list.”

My favorite personal Google Assistant command is to ask Google Assistant to add things to my shopping list.  In fact, now you can ask Google Assistant to add several things at once.  

For example, I can say, “Hey Google, add spinach, bananas, and turmeric to my shopping list,” and Google adds them.  I can see my shopping list from my Google Home app.

Another way I like to use Google lists are to have different lists.  I have the following lists:

• My Shopping List
• Fix (my To Fix list)
• Christmas
• Travel
• To Do
• Home Depot
• Birthday
• RV List

I can ask my Google personal assistant to add anything to these lists, this helps keep me organized. 

And because of its nice 10″ display, I can ask my Nest Hub Max to show me my list and I can see it visually as well.  I can even check things off my list!

2.  Listen to Music

I love having the Nest Hub Max’s stereo speaker (with a 30W woofer) in the kitchen.  Music makes cooking so much more enjoyable. 

You can associate Pandora, Spotify, or Deezer to your Google Nest Hub Max to listen to your favorite tunes.

I love listening to jazz while I cook.  But I sometimes listen to the Beatles, Elton John, and today’s artists as well.

Another option is to play a particular musician’s music on YouTube music. 

Just say, “Hey Google, play Meghan Trainor on YouTube” and you’re ready to cook while getting your groove on.

3.  Ask Help in Finding a Recipe

Not sure what to make?  Have dietary constraints?  No problem.  Just say “Hey Google, find me gluten-free vegetarian bowls.”

You’ll get a list of recipes with a picture of the meal from various websites.  Select the one you like.

Google gives you the option of saving the recipe to your Cookbook.  You can visit the website also or say or tap on the Start Cooking button.

Pressing the Start Cooking button, your Google personal assistant will read you each step. 

After you’re done with the first step, just say or click on Next Step to hear the next cooking step.

In the meanwhile, you can hear your music in the background.  It’s slick.

And don’t forget.  If you see a recipe you like but you don’t have the ingredients, just ask your Google personal assistant to add them to your shopping list.

4.  Watch How-To Videos

Looking for something more interactive?  Ask your Google personal assistant to show you how to make something using Google.  

For example, “Hey Google, show me how to make beignets on YouTube.”

Select the video you want to watch.  You can say “Hey Google, play video” and “Hey Google, pause video” to control the video via voice.

Remember, you can search YouTube for any video – perhaps your favorite music video, fun craft ideas, or even your favorite karaoke songs, right there from the kitchen!

And, if you buy the Google Chromecast and plug it into your TV, you can send YouTube videos to your Chromecast TV.  

In the corner of the YouTube video, you’ll see an icon that looks like a TV with waves through it.  Just click on it and tell it to stream the video to your TV and it will turn on the TV and show the video.

You can even pause your TV and go 30 seconds forward or backward using your Nest Hub Max.

This feature is super slick and a Google Chromecast device only costs around $35.

5.  Set Timers

Have several things going on at once, like cooking chicken on the stove and veggies in the oven?  Ask Google to set a timer to remind you to check on your food’s progress.

Simply say, “Hey Google, set a timer for 30 minutes.”  Then add another time by saying, “Hey Google, add a second timer for 50 minutes,” and “Hey Google, set a third timer for 40 minutes”, and the Google personal assistant will.

I love that I don’t need to touch the oven timer or an egg timer to set timers.  I can keep my hands clean while I cook.

6.  Set a Reminder

Say you’re cooking dinner but you’re afraid you’ll forget to pick up your daughter from her friend’s house? 

Say “Hey Google, remind me to pick up Rose at 5:45pm” and Google will remind you.  Set as many reminders as you’d like.

In fact, you can even set a reminder to do something once you get to a location.  For example, you can say “OK, Google, remind me to drop off the athletic clearance forms at Ontario High school.”

Google Assistant will confirm the address and alert you on your phone when you arrive at your destination.

Reminders are very helpful.  You can see why the Google Assistant is aptly named.

7.  Keep in Contact with Calls

You can tie your Google Duo video call app/account with your Google Nest Hub Max to call other Duo members or receive their calls. 

Duo is a great quick way to check in with family members or others.  See when your husband expects to be home from the gym or work.

Just say, “Hey Google, call John with Duo.”  Your video call will start soon.

You can also ask Google Assistant to call anyone in your contact list if you set it up ahead of time in Settings in the Google Home app.  

Or ask Google Assistant to call Pizza Hut, the local movie theater, or the pharmacy.  Voice calling is very handy.

8.  Measurements-Substitutions

9.  Multi-task

10.  Eyes in the Back of Your Head

Have you ever been baking, leave the room for a few moments and return to find that some of your cookies, brownies, or other desserts went missing?

The Google Nest Hub Max can’t deter cookie thieves, but it can capture video on whose been in the kitchen when you weren’t around!

Its built-in Nest camera can be set to capture video clips based on movement.  Either throughout the day and night or only during the hours you have set.

So not only can it catch your cookie thief, but your midnight snacker and afterschool mess maker as well. 

No more needing to ask, “how left out the milk?,” you’ll already know after you check out the videos on the Nest app on your phone.

Of course, the Next camera also comes in handy to keep an eye on your pet and give you some peace of mind while vacationing too. 

With the optional Nest Aware subscription, the Nest Hub Max will alert you if it sees an unfamiliar face, allows you to save all its videos for 30 days, can create timelapse films, and more.

There are SO MANY ways to use Google Assistant throughout your home, not just the kitchen. 

And Google Assistant works with so many brands now so you can control lights, thermostats, cameras, even find your lost phone (I’ve done used this to ring my phone several times…and my son’s!)

The Google Nest Hub Max is available from the Google Store in chalk or charcoal for $229 with free shipping.

A Mom’s Perspective

I am a big Google Assistant fan.  I literally have some type of Google Assistant – Home, Alarm clock, Mini, or Display in all of the main areas of my house. 

I use them to control devices, find recipes, check stock prices, listen to music, ask the day, 5-day and next week forecasts, listen to jokes, broadcast family messages and more.

But one of my favorite things is being able to see my Google Photos albums on my Google Nest Hub Max, 7″ Lenovo Smart Display, and 10″ Lenovo Smart Display. 

I love reliving the sweet almost forgotten moments of the past of my kids growing up and my husband and I reliving each stage of their development.

The Google Nest Hub Max provides many great features all bundled together – Google Assistant, the Next (security) camera, a picture frame, a great sounding stereo speaker, smart home controller, alarm clock, reminder, timers, and so much more.

*I was given a Google Nest Hub Max in exchange for my review.  All opinions are my own.