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OVERVIEW

The idea and driving force behind this project is Subina Shami, a working mother who wants to continue cooking healthy, high quality food using fresh ingredients but wants an appliance to do all the work for her. Upon researching the market she found that existing cooking gadgets do not automatically introduce ingredients during cooking. The temperature and timer in these appliances has to be continually adjusted when tougher ingredients such as meat are added, which need to be cooked longer than vegetables.

4D Products were tasked with bringing Subina’s vision to life by creating an intelligent kitchen appliance that cooks itself by automatically introducing all varieties of ingredients at predetermined intervals and at the right temperature, just like a professional chef.

The result is Cuisine Machine, a fully automated patent pending countertop appliance that cooks various recipes using pre-programmed Electronic Recipe Cards. These cards carry ingredient lists and recipe instructions that are read using smart card technology. The user selects a recipe, loads the ingredients into the ingredient containers and initiates the cooking process. The appliance then starts following the programmed instructions that indicate when to heat the cooking bowl, when to open the ingredient containers and introduce the ingredients into the cooking bowl, when to add water/stock and when to activate the stirrer. The appliance controls temperature and knows the exact length of time every ingredient needs to cook before the next one is added, stirring intermittently in a pressurised environment, similar to a pressure cooker.

WHY?

Millions of people do not have the time or skills to cook high quality, nutritious meals consistently.
Over 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted every year due to people purchasing ingredients which never get used. While a range of ‘auto-cookers’ do exist, they either require continued user input to add ingredients, or instead cook all the ingredients together as in a traditional slow cooker. Cuisine Machine is the realisation of the inventor's vision for a new and improved cooking appliance. The key innovation being the ability to load the machine with ingredients, then walk away, safe in the knowledge that each ingredient will be cooked for the correct time, at the correct pressure. This ensures that each ingredient can be cooked in perfect conditions to best bring out its flavours and texture, with no additional effort or attention required of the user.