Everybody has a “refrigerator nightmare” anecdote. Mine involves a rental house in the Colorado Mountains whose carpenter-owner had built in (and the custom cabinetry was exceedingly handsome, I might add) a decrepit, 50s-era, lemon-colored Amana fridge, complete with rusted interior, dripping tubes, and (the coup de grace) an entire shelf held up by a bottle of Ken’s Balsamic Vinaigrette salad dressing. Even once we had replaced the derelict appliance with a contemporary stainless number, however, we still experienced the familiar shortcomings to food storage—cold and hot spots or the accordant calamities of frozen romaine.

Cool Drawer. Designed by Fisher and Paykel.

Well, weep no more for inefficient refrigeration. The Fisher and Paykel/Izona Cool Drawer posits a brand new philosophy for provisioning your comestibles: “as the world’s first five-temperature drawer, the Cool Drawer gives you the ability to cool, store, preserve, and freshen food at your choice of five specifically designed temperatures. ”The Cool Drawer’s singular innovation is recognizing that different foods (and drinks) have different temperature requirements; thus, the CD has five customizable operating modes: deep freeze (0 degrees) for general frozen food like ice cream and meat; chill mode (31 degrees) for highly-perishable/non-frozen items like fish and chicken; fridge mode (37 degrees) for regular storage of dairy, fresh food, and leftovers; pantry mode (54 degrees), ideal for tropical fruit and anything requiring a “cool, dark place”; and wine mode (45-59 degrees), perfect for long-term cellaring.

Cool Drawer’s modest dimensions—approximately 25” high x 34” wide x 22” deep—allow customized and seamless integration into existing cabinet facing. If you choose not to use your own cabinetry, finishes include stainless steel or iridium. And the appliance’s interior is smartly compartmentalized so that you may program different temps for different sections, thus giving you the ability to store meat, veggies, fruit, and dairy all in the same compact space and each under its optimal temp/humidity conditions. So let’s all say hello to fresher, better-tasting, longer-lasting, and more nutritious food; and goodbye to rotting veggies, mushy fruit, spoiled meat, and frozen eggs. Sounds about right to me.