Patent Application
20190120502
The present invention relates to an articulated device, of the extractable type, for grilling food in an oven.
In the foodservice industry the metal grates for ovens are widely known, which are intended to support the food during cooking as well as to provide it with the typical grilling marks; in a particular but not exclusive way, reference is made to the multi-level convection ovens that are widespread in professional use, having for example standard sizes according to the known European standard called Gastronorm or GN. Generally, said grates are extractable, horizontally arranged inside the cooking chamber of the oven and are supported on two opposite side guides, at the desired height, like a conventional tray; the invention proposes an advantageous extractable device, of the type with a double and articulated grate, which increases the transfer of heat to the interposed food and provides it with the typical grilling marks, both on the top and on the bottom. Said device can be operated from inside the oven, it considerably simplifies daily professional practice, improving cooking quality and the food appearance as well.
Therefore, the solution according to the invention is particularly suitable for use in said professional convection ovens, with a cooking chamber with a front opening where multiple guides are arranged in parallel on the opposite internal sides, in such a way as to horizontally house a plurality of extractable trays and/or grates, of standard sizes, at different heights, as it generally occurs in the foodservice industry, which is also known by the acronym HoReCa. However, the proposed grate is also suitable for ovens of other heat generation and/or structural types, both for domestic and for professional use; for example, one should consider the modern ovens of the combined type in which different cooking systems, such as with resistors and/or gas and/or steam, are present at the same type.
Nowadays it frequently happens that the professional operator in the foodservice industry, for example in the kitchen of a restaurant, a canteen or even in food factory, has to grill a food item, or a series of food items that are identical or similar by characteristics and sizes. Said grilling requires the use of metal grates, for example made of wire or bars or tubes, welded to each other in the form of a tray in such a way to be laterally engaged on said lateral guides in the cooking chamber. In general, a grate has openings where the heat is transferred to the food by the convection effect; in addition to this, there is also heat transfer by conduction of the same grate, which is such as to make the surface of the food that is in contact with said grate darker and crispier, thus obtaining the typical grilling marks. It is known, in fact, that such a superficial marking, for example on meat, on fish or on grilled vegetables, is much appreciated by the consumer and provides the product with a higher quality appearance, that is to say, of well-performed cooking appealing to the eye.
It was also observed that optimal grilling requires the same treatment on both sides of the food item; this, in particular, is desirable to obtain a more uniform cooking, which for example is equally crispy on the external surfaces and in contrast with the soft inside, and also to obtain said grilling marks both on the top and on the bottom, that is to say, on the surface that in turn is in contact with the supporting grate. To this purpose, when using a standard grate of the conventional type, the operator must open the oven and turn at least once the products being cooked; however, in daily professional practice it was observed that this often does not occur due to the excessive time needed to complete the operation, or also due to the uncomfortable position, as in the case of a plurality of superimposed grates at different heights. It follows that, sometimes, for practical reasons the food item is not turned during grilling, thus marking it on one side only; in fact, the food is offered on the plate with the marked side facing upwards, that is to say, visible.
Among the conventional solutions of grates that simplify cooking and the handling of food items, the double grates with a handle for barbecues or fireplaces are widely known, which are generally made up of a pair of metal grates identical to and superimposable with each other, which are hingedly engaged to each other in such a way as to enclose a food item having a low thickness, e.g. a slice of meat or fish, blocking it in a folding manner, and sometimes exerting pressure on both sides by means of a hook fixed on the opposite side with respect to said hinge. Generally, there is at least one handle that allows to easily and simultaneously turn the whole content interposed between the two grates, keeping it well stretched-out, neat and preventing it from falling out.
Such a solution is particularly useful in the case in which one wants to cook a series of similar food items, for example some fish, as in the char-grilling at high temperatures on one side of the food only, it is necessary to turn it several times in order to prevent burning on the surface and to make cooking homogenous, as well as to make said grate marking on both sides. It was thus observed that such a double grate can facilitate the handling of the product during char-grilling, but is not suitable for use in convection ovens where there is a cooking chamber with a substantially uniform temperature, of the multi-level type with lateral guides; it, in fact, is considered a homemade solution for non-professional use, solving different problems with respect to the present invention.
Likewise, it was then observed that the conventional supports for toasters, vertically arranged like pockets between the electrical resistors of the apparatus, are made up of a pair of metal grates identical to each other and hinged to each other in a folding manner, also with a spring system that encloses the slices of bread blocking them; in these cases, too, there generally is a handle intended to facilitate the safe vertical extraction for rotating the food for the purpose of reversing the side most exposed to the heat or to expel it being ready to be eaten, by stretching said grates apart. As shown above, this solution is not suitable for professional use in convection ovens either, it solves different problems with respect to the solution, and is activated in a different way, that is to say, it is little useful for the purposes of the invention.
Furthermore, the electric devices of the type with a double and superimposed grill are also known, which are intended to cook thin products like hamburgers and vegetables, being provided with electrical resistors integrated in both grills; in particular, the internal surface of said grills is provided with ridges for providing the food with said grilling marks on both sides. However, it was observed that these devices are real table-top cooking devices, effective and useful in domestic use or in bars, where the single orders are prepared on a case by case basis; the present invention, on the other hand, aims at realizing an advantageous support of the passive type for grilling in an oven, which is effective and inexpensive, increases the quality of the processed product and considerably simplifies professional practice.
Therefore, the advantageous solution proposed by the invention aims at overcoming at least the above-mentioned problems by means of an articulated device that optimizes the grilling of food in a multi-level oven and is insertable and extractable horizontally like a conventional tray or grate, which is easy to be used and particularly effective in cooking, simultaneously grilling in an optimal way both sides of the food item, without the need of turning the food or the grate itself.
In principle, it can be reasonably stated that in some cooking systems, such as barbecues or the equipment with electrical resistors, said drawback of having to turn the food to obtain uniform cooking and to mark both sides has already been dealt with and partially solved by the use of two grates identical to each other, equipped with a handle, and rotationally engaged to each other in a folding manner to enclose the food, in such a way as to block it and to enable its rotation, as shown above. The invention, on the other hand, aims at realizing an advantageous grilling system for convection ovens, operable also when the device is introduced in the oven, which allows to obtain fast and optimal cooking and also to obtain said marking on both sides of the product, without having to turn the food on the grate, that is to say, with no intervention by the operator; to this purpose, a particular articulated and extractable device, of the type with two grates engaged to each other, is hereby proposed. For the purpose of determining the prior art related to the proposed solution a conventional check was made, searching public archives, which has led to find some prior art documents, among which:
D1 and D2 describe a grilling system for traditional charcoal ovens of the type with vertical slits in which one inserts a double grate with the food, that is to say, made up of two identical grates coupled with each other, between which the product to be grilled is interposed; the insertion occurs from above, said double grate being kept suspended, in a vertical position, by means of hooks or supporting fins.
D3 proposes an accessory for toasting slices of bread vertically, in an apparatus of the toaster type, with two substantially identical grates that are constrained to each other and are provided with a grip handle in the upper part; one of the two grates laterally has in the lower part two opposite fins with a slotted hole where the other grate is engaged in such a way as to hingedly rotate also adapting to the thickness of the slices of bread.
D4 proposes a horizontal food grate made up of two substantially identical elements, which can be rotatably constrained to each other, like two half-grates intended to rotate enabling their juxtaposition to form a double grilling surface or to enable their superimposition; the articulation is made of two pairs of fixed and open hooks, protruding on one side of the frame of each half-grate, and shaped in such a way that, each time, they can join or separate the two elements by means of a manual interlocking movement.
D5 describes a combined supporting system with an extractable basket, for grilling food items of different sizes in a standard-sized oven, which is made up of a first meshed container of the box type with side hooks and handles, for containing small-sized products like a tank, being of reduced sizes with respect to the cooking space to be integrated in a support with a dedicated opening; said first container being rotatably constrained to a second flat closing element having a larger mesh that can be closed like a lid or can also be overturned and remain open at the back, like a cooking support, to simultaneously grill larger-sized products and to access the basket.
D6 proposes a particular oven pan intended to rapidly cook meat in restaurants, which is coupled with a laterally hinged upper closing grill; said pan is a three-dimensionally shaped tray with raised portions that raise and mark the food, simulating the open flame grilled meat appearance, and with depressions for the collection of grease. The meat product is blocked and pressed between the grill and the raised portions, by means of a closing hook that compresses it to a uniform thickness, while simultaneously assuring conductive heat transfer from the raised portions to the meat and radiant heat.
The grill is pre-coated with a caramelizing agent which leaves grill marks on the meat product during the cooking cycle. The food, so interposed between said cooking pan and said closing grill, is thus positioned into a convection oven having means for creating high velocity hot air in such a way as to evenly heat the irregular surface of the meat product.
To conclude, we have observed that the described solutions have some drawbacks or anyway some limits.
D1, D2 and D3 propose improved solutions of a double grate for vertical grilling, of substantially conventional type being referable to known toasting systems; the proposed grates are effective for the specific use described, with a vertical arrangement, but they are not suitable for the invention where standard convection professional ovens of the multi-level type are provided, equipped with lateral guides arranged horizontally, and with different purposes. In particular, D1 and D2 facilitate grilling in ovens with a cooking space arranged vertically, wherein the food is interposed between two identical and coupled grates that are inserted from above in a hanging manner, stopped by abutment elements, without systems for the adaptation to the shape of the product being cooked and without considering a possible opening of the grates from inside said space.
D3, although unsuitable for the invention due to all the above-mentioned reasons, describes an advantageous system of semi-automatic adaptation to the thickness of the food, providing in a grate two slotted holes for the rotation of the other grate, to prevent the known problem of non-homogenous toasting when the two grates operate in a non-parallel way; however, it was observed that such a slotted system offers a very limited adaptation variability, it being suitable for slices of bread but not for the variability of products provided by the invention, and is also inconvenient to activate.
More generally speaking, it was thus observed that all the known and conventional solutions of double grates, identical to each other and hingedly constrained directly on top of each other, as for example in D1, D2, D3 and also D4, are suitable for leisure and domestic uses but not for daily professional practice in the foodservice industry. Furthermore, it was observed that all said solutions of double grates cannot be activated if placed inside the cooking space in multi-level ovens with superimposed racks, since the opening of the upper grate would interfere with the lateral guides.
The combined solution as in D5, on the other hand, has the advantage of freely containing various product sizes, and also of being versatile in use, that is to say, it provides multiple configurations; however, it is not applicable to standard professional multi-level ovens as in the present invention, wherein multiple trays and/or grates are directly engaged to the lateral guides, in a bearing or sliding condition, to be introduced into or extracted from the cooking chamber, whereas in D5 an interface shaped support provided with an opening for inserting the meshed basket from above, fixing it to the side hooks, is required. Moreover, the rotatably constrained covering element, which also acts as a meshed support, does not rest on the food items and cannot provide them with the desired double grilling effect.
It was finally observed that the solution as in D6, although referring to a pan, has some similar aims with respect to the invention and surely improves the cooking and the appearance of oven-cooked meat products, thanks to said raised portions of the pan and to the grill superimposed and rotatably constrained to the pan for pressing the food items from above. In principle, in fact, the transfer of heat to the food by conduction by a grill placed in adhesion is effective and is added to the convective effect of the oven to make the typical grilling marks. In D6, however, the cooking can be little uniform and the double grilling effect, which is non-homogenous between the lower side in contact with the pan and the upper side pressed by the grill, is improvable. In fact, the additional heat transmitted to the food item by the conduction of said grill is low when the grill is thin, that is to say, low-mass, as in the case of metal wires having a large mesh, and it was also observed that the circulation of the heat by convection is considerably hindered by the underlying pan, which can be useful for collecting the dripping grease but not for optimal grilling.
Furthermore, D6 does not provide an automatic system of adaptation to the thickness of the processed food by means of a variable distance between the two elements, to position the upper grill in a substantially parallel way with respect to the underlying pan; said grill, on the other hand, is directly hinged to the pan to be forcedly closed in a folding manner, being mainly suitable to always process the same products in such a way as to uniform them to a limited thickness, pressed between the two elements with a hook, the weight of the grill itself not being sufficient.
In view of the above, it is possible to reasonably agree on the fact that some drawbacks as in the known solutions have not been solved yet. In particular, in daily professional practice, nowadays it is desirable to have at one's disposal a grate for multi-level convection ovens of the standard type, which is easy and safe to use and which allows to grill in a rapid and more uniform way, both on the top and on the bottom, always different products, automatically adapting itself to their thickness; therefore, it is also desirable to optimize said heat convection, by eliminating intermediate barriers, that is to say, by providing only grates and not trays, for the purpose of said grilling, and also by enhancing the localised conduction effect of the grate. Finally, an innovative articulated device is required, which can be activated from inside the cooking chamber, that is to say, which is constrained to the side grates but which can also be activated from its inside, that is to say, openable without interfering with them.
In the light of the above, there is the need to find some innovative solutions through which at least the above-mentioned problems can be solved.
These and other aims are achieved by the present invention according to the characteristics as in the appended claims, solving the arising problems by means of an articulated device (10a, 10b), of the extractable type, that optimizes the grilling of food in an oven (20); it is made up of two superimposed grates constrained to each other a first lower grate (101) that is engaged in the lateral guides (203) of the oven and a second upper grate (102) that is frontally liftable, which are constrained to each other with a lateral articulation means (103) acting as a double-action hinge that allows it (102) to position itself on the food in adhesion, each time adapting itself to its specific shape. The proposed solution improves daily professional practice, while obtaining the following advantages: cooking times and energy consumption are reduced thanks to a greater heat transfer by conduction, there is greater cooking homogeneity, one can make the grilling marks on both sides of the food without having to turn it.
In this way, by the considerable creative contribution the effect of which constitutes an immediate and important technical progress, various important aims are achieved.
A first aim was to reduce cooking times and, consequently, to obtain considerable energy saving.
A second aim was to improve cooking homogeneity.
A third aim was to obtain a product with the grilling marks on both sides.
In particular, the proposed solution enhances the transfer of heat to the food, thus improving the quality of cooking as well as the appearance of the product to be served; basically, said cooking becomes considerably faster and more homogenous, while obtaining the typical grilling marks both on the top and on the bottom, that is to say, on both sides of the product, as desirable. To this purpose, there is the advantage of obtaining a double grilling without turning the food item on the grate; consider, for example, the conventional practice of turning several times the meat, fish or vegetables on the grate, in order to simultaneously obtain, both on the top and on the bottom, said marks and said optimal cooking.
Another aim was to integrate it in the generally used and widespread cooking equipment, thus considerably facilitating daily professional practice; in particular, for cooking, the product is supported from the bottom by means of a first element having a substantially conventional shape, in the form of a rigid and extractable grate that is engaged on the conventional side rack of professional ovens, which preferably has standard sizes according to the industry standards, such as the GN 1/1 standard size. Said first element, being in particular coupled, in an articulated and advantageous way, with a second element that rests on the product, or series of products, to be cooked from above and in adhesion like a constrained closing grate that adapts itself, each time, to the thickness of said product or series of products, positioning itself in the most effective way to transfer heat for the purpose of optimal cooking and double marking, also stopping the food with its weight and, optionally, pressing it with a forced closing accessory.
These and other advantages will appear from the following detailed description of some preferred embodiments, with the aid of the schematic drawings enclosed, whose details of execution are not to be considered limitative but only illustrative.
The present invention (
In general, it was observed that in a convection oven, with grates, there is the known effect of the transfer of heat to the food by means of the conduction of the grate, which is added to the typical convection effect of the oven, thus making said grilling marks on the contact surfaces; in the proposed solution such an effect is enhanced by the fact that it simultaneously and effectively takes place both on the top and on the bottom of the food, in a uniform way, according to the modes described hereinafter.
In more detail and to facilitate understanding, the proposed solution is provided in a first version (10a) (
The proposed device (10a, 10b) is engaged in said lateral guides (203) of the oven (20) in such a way as to be inserted and extracted in a substantially conventional way, according to the common practice, to be integrated in the existing and commonly used cooking equipment, without modifying it. In particular, the advantageous solution according to the present invention (10a, 10b) provides a system made up of a first lower grate (101), of support in said lateral guides (203), and a second upper grate (102) that is smaller with respect to the centre distance between said guides to be frontally liftable, said grates (101, 102) being constrained to each other by means of a lateral articulation means (103) acting as a double-action hinge (103, 106, 107, 108, HV). It (103) acts as a connecting rod with two suitably spaced rotational axes (106, 107), which constrains said second grate (102) to said first grate (101) to enable its (102) easy rotation and lifting (108, HV), positioning itself in adhesion on the food item and automatically adapting itself to its thickness, that is to say, in a substantially parallel way between the grates (101, 102).
The height (HV), that is to say, the distance between the two grates during cooking, is in fact variable according to the specific shape of the food item to be cooked; with the articulation system provided (103) it is thus possible to easily grill (101, 102), in an optimal and uniform way on the top and on the bottom, both thin products like meat slices or vegetables and products having a medium thickness like a whole fish or chicken thighs, and the cooking of thicker products like cockerel is also facilitated.
In particular, the proposed device has a first and a second grate (101, 102) with a lateral articulation means (103) that acts as a double-action hinge (106, 107), with two rotational axes that are parallel and spaced with respect to each other as a connecting rod, in such a way that said second grate (102) automatically adapts itself, each time, to the height (HV) provided by the thickness of the products arranged on said first supporting grate (101), stopping them from above with its weight and transferring more heat to them, thus improving cooking and leaving on the food said grilling marks, according to the aims set out. If necessary, in order to enhance such effects, a forced hooking means is also provided, which keeps pressed the food being cooked, keeping said second grate in tension.
It is observed that said first grate (101) is for supporting the product from the bottom during cooking and for constraining said second grate on the opposite side with respect to the front access (202), that is to say, on the bottom of said cooking chamber (201). To this purpose, a rigid grate (101) is provided, preferably made up of metal bars or tubes in place of the conventional wires, which is intended to be engaged on said lateral guides (203), typically sliding in a bearing condition, thus having a total width (L1, 10a) (L3,10b) corresponding to them, by means of supporting fins (105, 10a) which protrude laterally from the grate (
By way of example only, with particular reference to said GN 1/1 standard, in the first version of the invention (10a) (
Preferably, for safety and hygiene reasons and to facilitate the use thereof, the above-described device (10a, 10b) is also provided with a hand grip accessory (104), for example a rotating and insulating handle, intended to safely lift and rotate said second grate that is at a high temperature inside the oven (20) (
The proposed solution (10a, 10b) is extremely versatile thanks to a double-action articulation (103, 106, 107, 108, HV) that enables the adaptation to particular heights (HV) or use configurations, as well as the optimization of spaces. If required, for example, it is also possible to collapse the second grate (102) onto the first grate (101), in contact with each other, and namely with said height (HV) at zero, like a conventional single grate or support, providing maximum dimensions that are in any case compatible with the space inside the cooking chamber (
Finally, the proposed device (10a, 10b), made as described above, achieves the aims set out considerably improving daily professional practice.
In particular, the following advantages are simultaneously provided:
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 102017000118633 | Oct 2017 | IT | national |
