Remember the last time you made pancakes? No? Well, let us remind you: it ended in sadness and confusion because you simply couldn't crank out the insane volume of pancakes you wanted / needed. Well, the ChefStack is here to help. It's a giant, automated machine with internal rollers, and its entire purpose is to do nothing but make pancakes (roughly 200 per hour). Using pre-filled bags of batter, this dude
does all the work while you site by, and apparently it's also a breeze to clean too, though we find that a bit hard to believe. Now -- do you need a machine that makes nothing but pancakes? Are the pancakes any good? Hard to say -- but this device, which seems to be targeted at restaurants, will run you about $3,500 if you really want to get your hands on one.
[Via
SlashGear]
posted Aug 7th 2009 10:41AM
After all these years of waiting it's finally come true!
Kinda reminds me of the Mattel Easy Bake Oven that my sister had as a kid...
Yes, but we're still waiting on the one that makes bacon.
Pancake is a lie.
Yes, I have been SITEing by, waiting for one of these. I'm so excited I am going to SITE down right now and try to calm down.
(38 comments and I am the first to notice that typo, wtf?)
Yeah I noticed that too.
Then again, I don't remember the last Engadget article that didn't have a typo...
@Kamokazi: new to engadget huh?
oh yeah, i looooove pancakes...
John, agreed. This device plus a bacon add-on equals best invention in the history of mankind!
@ rsm
sure. your "sister".
I, for one, welcome our new robot pancake making overlords. But if it it doesn't also make sausage and some nicely basted eggs, I'm going to keep going to IHOP!
Uhh, Zarniwoop, this machine is what restaurants like IHOP will probably be using...
Reminds me of a tortilla maker.
I use a big pan to make up to 4 pancake at a time. I hate making one at a time. I eat it before the rest are done.
Meh, they look overdone to me. FAIL!
Mothers have become redundant.
@Laura June
I've been reading Engadget religiously for the past two years. I'm having difficulty stomaching your articles. Besides your lack of proofreading (seriously, its just a paragraph right? Try reading it again before posting), your use of the word "dude" makes me cringe every time. Make like an Apple and please censor your dictionary of this word and we can be friends.
We must have waffles! We must all have waffles forthwith!
-jp
This product is a poster-child for our incresingly obese populous.
Less work and more food.
As someone who's had to make pancakes for 600+ people in a single sitting, let me tell you - this is a really nice piece of equipment - and it's not aimed at the 'fat and lazy' market, it's aimed at the people who, ya know, actually need to make a large amount of pancakes.
It constantly amazes me how people can't seem to fathom needs outside of their own...
Give me a break. I see these appearing at the continental breakfast of a hotel chain not feeding Barney an endless supply of pancakes.
Even if this was supposed to be a residential kitchen appliance some people prefer to do something productive instead of cooking all their meals from scratch. I am happy to leave the mindless jobs to the robots.
You just missed it! They already have those just a couple posts back!
Ramen Ninja Robots
http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/07/video-robots-cook-delicious-ramen-noodles-for-expendable-humans/1#c20740394
> This product is a poster-child for our incresingly obese populous.
And this comment is a poster child for our incresingly elitterit 'populous', too.
"elitterit" eh?
There's a chef somewhere with a tear in their eye.
Dee, I'm already crying, and I'm hardly a chef. Man, cooking shouldn't be about automating everything. Kitchen gadgets have a place, but this sort of thing is just offensive.
Better see a doctor about that "tear" or he might go blind.
Tear as in teardrop genius.
I thought this was so badass until I saw the price :(
(someone should make an automatic bacon machine!)
It's worth every penny!
Only $3500.
its not mass producing, but still awesome
http://www.seriouseats.com/2008/07/wake-n-bacon-alarm-clock-the-best-sleepending.html
mmm bacon
FOR SURE!!!!
Pigs walk in one end, on the other crispy, fresh, bacon!
That would be sweet. Just push the live pig in the box and bacon strips and Chorizo just start pouring out. Add a beer tap and my life would be complete.
I thought $3,500 was pretty cheap for such an amazing device. I'd expect to pay nearly $15,000 for something like that!
It's worth it ONLY if it plays this music as it churns out hot, pancakey goodness:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEuwAh3LFvM
The greatest innovation in human history.
you, sir, never heard of baconaise.
@Amish...I had never heard of baconnaise either until i just googled it. I might be forever in your debt...
Now THAT is a revolutionary product!
I don't know... it's kinda the next logical step after the Cornballer.
I can imagine a fat person sitting under this while an endless supply of pancakes drop in their gaping maw.
I'm picturing Barney from the Simpsons, lying on the ground, alternating between having his head under the keg spigot and the pancake machine output roller.
That is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
I'll take one, with the bacon attachment. Thanks.
and a diet coke, got to watch my figure.
I wonder if it has a dedicated sugar compartment only for the USA version.
I remember the last time I made pancakes: this morning. I folded in blueberries I picked off my patio.
I think I'm in love...
make sure to fluff your egg whites and fold in carefully. do not over beat your batter or you'll get flat pancakes.
Those pancakes look crap way too fat.
Trust me im a pancake got dont need any machine to churn out enough of my perfect sized.
Anyway how are you meant to fill those with ice cream sugar syrup watever sweet stuff u can find and then fold it over.
In fact I can probably make them faster, since i can make 2 at a time and flip them with one hand each.
Too fat? You're thinking of crepes, not pancakes.
Totally different things here.
You can make 200 an hour?
"Trust me im a pancake"
What?!?! A talking pancake that flips his brothers and sisters with one hand?! I'm glad we have a machine that kills 200 of you per hour.
You know, a smoke and one of these would be good right about now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRtNfb6D3Mc
GLORIOUS!
I can see Prince owning about a dozen of these.
Nice Chappelle Show reference.
A machine that excretes pancakes. Yum.
Every bachelor's dream! Goodbye Lucky Charms........................
I could be in a room naked with pancake batter and this and be one with my chi.
What's the ppm (pancakes per minute) on that bad motha?
"Two proprietary Teflon coated cooking belts ensure ongoing quality and taste, with an output of up to 200 pancakes per hour in three sizes." 200 / 60 = 3.3 ppm
I know you were joking lol but just for fun, the read link says its capable of producing 200 pancakes per hour, which makes it produce at a lousy 3.33 PPM.
The link says " Capable of producing 200 pancakes per hour"
who's complaining about 3.3 ppm? Go make some bacon, and you'll have plenty of pancakes by the time its done.
That's almost as cool as Batter Blaster, pancake batter in a can.
http://www.batterblaster.com/
Whew! On first read I though that said 'bater blaster'.....
Isn't there rumored a 1st quarter 2010 release that also scans and prints? That would make it a perfect office cubicle device.
Also, will the present design collate say, blueberry and strawberry pancakes?
Hopefully the price will come down in the future. A faster unit, perhaps in the ~ 30 pcks/min range, would also make it more cost effective.
actually, probably no need for it to go a lot faster. and $3500 isn't a lot. the cost of the batter is going to eat you alive though.
as for strawberry and blueberry, i'm sure they will make batter that will have that, and encourage a seperate machine ;)
Now there's something that's easy to clean, a blueberry machine.
The robot apocalypse never tasted so good.
as for pancake per minute, the slashgear article on it says 200 per hour, so a little more than 3 per minute. 18 seconds a pancake. that's pretty goddamn fast, actually, having made a metric ton of pancakes as a short order cook over the years. you could only match that with a big grill and a good setup. those look like pretty small pancakes too (maybe 4"? the website for the thing says in 3 sizes) so you might be able to flip 2 at a time if you had a good spatula. still very very fast, and if you are not too picky about quality (target markets on website: convenience stores, coffee shops, hospital cafeterias, university and corporate feeding... all bastions of "fine quality" products)
I could actually see this in a McDonald's. They have a grill in the back that in the morning, pretty much it's only job is to make pancakes (it does other things during the rest of the day). With a setting for "make 3" they could automate the process of pancake breakfast and in way less time. no waste either.
I don't see it at McDonald's, but at restaurants that offer breakfast buffets. It's a lot of work to keep someone watching a giant grill's worth of pancakes, and if you need one less person working in the kitchen, this machine could pay for itself over time.
No real American would ever mock pancakes.
You now for that price Id make pancakes for someone for quite some time...... And I make a damn good pancake.......
THIS is Heaven On Earth...!
This is how the Cylon Apocalypse started.
http://www.chefstack.com/machine.html
"Two proprietary Teflon coated cooking belts ensure ongoing quality and taste, with an output of up to 200 pancakes per hour in three sizes."
--------------
If I cared nothing for my health, I'd cook my food on toxic Teflon. Makes the pancakes look positively healthy by comparison.
? All non-stick pans have a Teflon coating. It's not going to get in your food unless you're literally scrapping it off the pan with a metal utensil or something.
Read up on it; you might be surprised. Hints: DuPont, cancer, cover-ups, multi-million dollar business.
Cast iron is king of non-stick without toxic coatings and is excellent at maintaining even heat. God's gift to man, surely.
Food tastes far better, too.
I like cast iron myself, but king of non-stick? Since when?
Hostile iron-age takeover? Did rumsfeld lead that?
Would be typical too I suddenly realise, because I bet he has stock in DuPont too, always grazing both sides of the fence those shifty types.
Vidikron @ Aug 7th 2009 2:16PM
I like cast iron myself, but king of non-stick? Since when?
------------
Cast iron is quite dense and to me is no worse than dealing with teflon with a little oil on it. Granted, it would probably work a little worse in a machine like this, but then again it won't shorten your life either.
Wwhat? Stock in DuPont? You're hilarious. I suppose it's atypical to actually provide some insight on these forums, rather than being accused of being financially motivated on a silly little suggestion like this. Yeah, I have stock in a major chinese cast iron operation, too...
Watch me cash in.
What you do with your health and your time and money is up to you.
What good is it if you have to hire somebody to stack them? I think we need a gantry robotic unloader. But, for $3500 it should have been included.
for 3.5k more than a measly 1 year warranty should be included.
Pizza vending machine was awesomer.
They're so very tasty.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnCVZozHTG8
That's awesome.
Step 1: Add pancake batter and wait an hour.
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Profit...
200 an hour is a bit low.
On my grill at home I crank out about 10 every two minutes... meaning I could crank out 300 in an hour.... and somedays it sure feels like I do. Cleaning is a snap too - one grill and one flipper.
So where does the batter come from? and the butter? and plates to put it on? if you only use a grill and flipper and have no cleaning.
Let me guess, 'it's female and in the house'
That last pancake in the picture isn't gonna make it onto the stack.
I take it this only does dropscones/scotch pancakes, not proper pancakes?
No, it makes "Proper" American Pancakes.
Perfect for the Calgary Stampede. now only if it made bacon and eggs, it would be the perfect Stampede breakfast maker!
This is officially the first product that hasn't caused a rift on engadget.
Everyone loves it...except angry conservative mobs.
I WANT TO BE ON THE RECEIVING END!
Why would you want a machine that eats pancakes?
Where, when and how much! That's all I got to say about this. haha. I need one stat!
On the next episode of Iron Chef, ramen-cooking robots vs. automatic pancake machine!!!
One? I want seven. I will convert my 250 square foot apartment into an all pancakes all the time land mass
Any idea what the proper protocol is for attributions?
Engadget attributes it :[Via SlashGear]
Slashgear attributes it [via OhGizmo!]
OhGizmo! attributes it VIA [ Uncrate ]
Uncrate attributes to the manufacture site [ ChefStack]
So, why isn't the proper protocol for Engadget:
[ via ChefStack via Uncrate via OhGizmo! via Slashgear ]