Patent Application
20090212044
The present invention relates to a cooking appliance which automatically prepares meals.
The convenience food market has grown substantially in recent years in response to a variety of consumer trends. There has been an increase in the number of one-person households and many people are unwilling to make an effort to cook for themselves. An increase in the variety of dietary requirements in most households has also led to a need to quickly cook different meals simultaneously. A decrease in the average amount of free time a person has to enjoy has led to an increased demand for quicker, more convenient meal solutions (the “time-poor”, “cash-rich” consumer).
These trends have led to a large and growing market in chilled or frozen ready meals, which a consumer prepares by heating in a microwave or conventional oven. However, there is an increasing emphasis on the need to eat a healthy diet due to high levels of preventable disease and obesity, together with growing concerns over processed foods, preservatives and, in particular, the provenance of ingredients. The food industry has responded to the healthy eating trend by producing “healthier” versions of ready meals (e.g. versions with less fat or salt), however, ready meals remain frozen, processed and contain artificially preserved foods.
Recently, to further cater to the “health conscious” market, the food industry has produced “ready-to-cook” meal kits which may include some fresh ingredients. However, in order to properly prepare a “ready-to-cook” meal kit, a certain amount of ability and effort is required from the user. Furthermore, “ready-to-cook” meal kits are commonly prepared using a users existing appliances, cookware and dishes, thereby collaterally increasing the amount of effort needed to enjoy a meal.
A variety of dedicated domestic “cooking appliances” are known, for example steam cookers, rice cookers, deep fat fryers, bread makers, pressure cookers, microwaves, electric woks, slow cookers and sandwich makers. However these devices only assist the user with part of the task of preparing a meal and there remains the need to plan, prepare ingredients, control the cooking process, wash-up, etc.
Additionally, in the food service industry, a variety of “cooking appliances” are known for preparing fresh, chilled or frozen food for a large number of people. This is the case in locations such as hospitals, airports and other locations requiring cost-effective mass production of food. Such appliances are required to be operated by a low-skilled workforce. In response to the increased emphasis on healthy eating and more natural ingredients, the food industry is looking for higher, more reliable quality from the food cooked by this low-skilled workforce.
There is thus a clear need for freshly cooked food which can be prepared by anyone, without the use of any skill, judgment or labour.
The present invention seeks to solve the above problem by providing a cooking appliance comprising:
a cooking appliance comprising:
a heating component;
an area for receiving, in use, an ingredient storage device comprising a plurality of ingredient locations, each ingredient location storing an ingredient;
control means; and
a cooking region;
the appliance being arranged to selectively control, in use, in accordance with instructions provided by the control means, the cooking position of the ingredient locations such that the ingredient in a location is only heated when said location coincides with the cooking region, to bring, in use, the ingredients to readiness for consumption at the same time.
An example of the present invention is described below with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
A first example cooking appliance 1 according to the present invention will now be described with reference to
In this example, as shown in
The cooking appliance 1 further comprises a code sensor (not shown in this example). The code sensor is attached to control circuitry (not shown) which regulates the operation of the appliance 1. As will be appreciated, other devices such as network connected computing devices, mobile phones, Radio Frequency Identification tags (RFID) or magnetic tags, may be readily used to provide instructions to the control circuitry.
An ingredient storage device 2 is, in this example, circular with each ingredient storage location being defined as a sector of the circle. The ingredient storage device 2 rotates about a central axis and the cooking appliance 1 comprises an indexing spigot 3, shown as being located in the lid of the appliance 1 in
As shown in
The cooking appliance 1 optionally comprises, on its lid in this example, ventilation slots 5, a viewing window 6 and a programming display 7.
The microwave window 8a in the cooking appliance I enables microwaves to be directed towards only a part of the volume of the cooking appliance 1 in use. As can be seen most clearly in
In order to cook a meal, a consumer loads the ingredient storage device 2 containing the ingredients into the cooking appliance 1. Once the ingredient storage device 2 is properly loaded in the cooking appliance 1, the user then closes the lid. The control circuitry (not shown) responds to the closing of the lid and the control means reads the instructions on the ingredient storage device 2 to control the cooking conditions of the ingredients in the different locations of the ingredient storage device 2. These conditions may include, for example, the heating and/or microwaving method used, duration of heating and power used.
Firstly, the control device controls relative movement of the ingredient storage device 2 and the heating component so that the sectors of the ingredient storage device 2 become aligned with the required part of the heating component. The control device then controls any relative movement of the ingredients and parts of the heating component required during cooking. In this example, the ingredient storage device 2 rotates while microwaves cook the food through the microwave window 8a and food in the grill region 8b is grilled by a grill. The control device may control the times at which microwaves are emitted and the intensity of the radiation to ensure that all of the ingredients are ready at the same time. For example, ingredients which do not take long to cook can be microwaved only on alternate passes through the microwave window at a low intensity, while other ingredients which take longer to cook can be microwaved on every pass at a higher intensity. A user may monitor the appliance's operation through a window in the lid of the appliance 1.
When the meal is ready to eat the user is alerted. At the end of the cooking period all the ingredients may be microwaved at low intensity to keep the meal hot.
The ingredient storage device 2 or individual ingredient pouches may be designed to have barrier properties to prevent heat or microwaves from entering the wrong sector of the ingredient storage device 2 when cooking is taking place. The ingredient storage device 2, individual ingredient pouches or other components of the cooking appliance 1 may further have microwave focussing properties to improve the efficiency of the microwave cooking.
As shown in
The control means operates to cook the meal with no input required from the user. This cooking device is suitable for a meal which does not require any mixing of ingredients, but simply comprises different ingredients that require different cooking times and/or cooking temperatures and/or cooking methods. In this way, freshly cooked meals can be produced from raw ingredients with no skill, recipe planning or sourcing of special ingredients. Portions are automatically controlled. Further there is no waste and the process is energy efficient.
With reference to
At the uppermost rim of the cooking region, there may be a rotating ring 16, on which may be disposed a code sensor 17.
There is also provided on the uppermost rim, a dispensing device 13. The cooking region 29 may be lined with a removable basket 18. The appliance may also includes a heated water reservoir 15 and a water pipe 27 which dispenses, when required, water from the water reservoir 15 to the cooking region 29. A lid 30 is hingedly connected to the base and may include a window 24 for viewing the contents of the cooking region 29.
Now, with reference to
Furthermore, a perforated steaming receptacle (not shown), suitable for containing ingredients while they are steamed, may be included within the flexible cooking receptacle 19 and may be similar in shape to the cooking receptacle 19.
The ingredient storage means 12 may further comprise an annular lid 2 which prevents the ingredient pouches 22 from being dislodged from their respective compartments. A slot 26 within the frame 20 may be coded with machine-readable instructions 25 which are indicative of how the cooking appliance 11 should dispense and cook the contents of the ingredient pouches 22. The machine-readable instructions 25 may take the form of optically readable marks, indentations, or raised features.
Now, with reference to both
Then, in accordance with the instructions 25 which the code sensor 17 has read on the ingredient storage device 12, the control circuitry (not shown) operates to control the dispensing, stirring and heating of the ingredients as well as the addition of water to the cooking receptacle 19. In this example, the frame 20 rotates so that pouches 22 move in turn past the dispense position where the pouches 22 are opened and their contents added to the flexible cooking receptacle 19 by means of the dispensing device 13. The dispensing device 13 simultaneously opens a pouch 22 and pushes its contents into the flexible cooking receptacle 19.
Hot or cold water may also be added to the meal at appropriate times from a heated reservoir 15 contained within the appliance and dispensed through the water pipe 27. The perforated steaming receptacle (not shown) is operable to hold the ingredients above the water level created by water which may be introduced between the perforated steaming receptacle (not shown) and the flexible cooking receptacle 9. The heating element (not shown) of the mixing device 14 is operable to boil water so that steam may be introduced through the perforations of the perforated steaming receptacle (not shown). Furthermore, the mixing device 4 may be elevated in order to permit mixing of the ingredients in the perforated steaming receptacle (not shown) using the radially disposed ribs 28.
The rotary mixing device 14 stirs the ingredients by agitation of the flexible cooking receptacle 19. As mentioned above, the rotary mixing device 14 may also comprises a heating element (not shown) which permits the contents of the flexible cooking receptacle 19 to be heated.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0507392.9 | Apr 2005 | GB | national |
| 0514415.9 | Jul 2005 | GB | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/GB06/01310 | 4/11/2006 | WO | 00 | 4/14/2008 |
