culinary
Latest
Weber SmokeFire review: An intriguing work-in-progress
The SmokeFire EX4 ($999) looks like what you’d expect from a Weber pellet grill. However, on the SmokeFire grill, there’s room for improvement. The SmokeFire grills run on Weber Connect, which is built on JuneOS -- the same software that powers June’s smart ovens.
How Weber used decades of expertise to improve smart grilling
The Weber Kettle is arguably the most iconic grill of all time. There are other companies that have made a name for themselves with novel designs and features. But when you think about charcoal grills, I'll bet the kettle shape Weber pioneered comes to mind. I would argue that overall design is timeless. Invented by George Stephen in 1952, the first model was inspired by the shape of a buoy. Stephen worked at Weber Brothers Metal Works in Chicago at the time -- where the company gets its name (which technically is Weber-Stephen). Stephen discovered that a rounded bowl and a removable lid could drastically improve grill performance. So he cut the top off of a buoy, attached legs to the bottom and a handle on the top. The Weber Kettle was born.
Try to court Colonel Sanders in KFC's dating sim
KFC does weird stuff all the time -- from a line of KFC-flavored nail polish to a chicken wing box that doubles as a drone. But it's really outdone itself this time. Today, a listing for a KFC dating game, I Love You, Colonel Sanders! A Finger Lickin' Good Dating Simulator, appeared on Steam. Created with the help of Psyop, the game is a work in progress, but KFC promises it will be "the most delicious dating simulator ever."
Genie transforms food pods into meals in 30 seconds
If you've seen an episode of Star Trek, you're likely familiar with the Replicator device on board the USS Enterprise that synthesized meals and beverages on demand. Well, a company in Israel created the modern-day equivalent to that appliance with Genie. The counter-top gadget uses food pods to create the recipe you desire, and claims it's like having a personal chef around all the time. What's more, it does the cooking in under a minute. The company doesn't disclose the "patented technology" that makes this possible, but once a food pod is chosen and placed inside the Genie, 30 seconds is all the device needs to create "a freshly baked dish."
Final Fantasy XIV pushes patch 1.21 back to March 9th
Patience, they say, is a virtue -- and no one is more patient than the Final Fantasy XIV community. This patience will be tested once more as the imminent 1.21 patch has been delayed until March 9th to accommodate further work and testing. If someone is to blame, it's Producer Naoki Yoshida, who admits that "the sheer volume" of his suggestions prompted the delay. But it will be worth it, he promises. In a new producer's letter, Yoshida hypes the patch and in particular its changes to magic casting. These changes will be "almost identical" to what the game will see when it hits 2.0. He's extremely excited to announce that adjustments to alchemy and culinary professions -- the medicines and food, specifically -- are almost complete. Finally, he reports that the team is deep into testing the two new instanced raids that are coming with the patch. Yoshida also thanked the community for its feedback over the upcoming server merges.
Gorenje iChef oven brings the touchscreen paradigm to all your baking needs
We've no doubt that Gorenje's iChef oven can bake, and bake well -- but as you've probably guessed, we're more interested in the appliance's finger-friendly controls. Kitchens of the future often come complete with touchscreen panels and home automation settings, but you aren't just keying in the time and temperature here -- it's got sixty-five preset dishes it can cook autonomously, 150 slots for you to program your own, and a option that lets you bake in three separate stages for perfection (or bitter disappointment, depending on your choices) inside and out. It's all controlled through a colorful filled with pictures of loving-prepared food, and though we're afraid we can't find a video of it in action, you'll find screencaps and descriptions at our source link below. The oven launches in Europe this spring and if you have to ask how much it costs, you probably won't have enough left over to afford a robotic manservant anyhow.
Heidolph's VV Micro Evaporator: the flavor extractor
For those yearning to add more flavor to your dishes (at any cost), look no further than Heidolph's VV Micro Evaporator. Aside from rocking a Chemistry lab-inspired design, this device essentially acts as a small distillery by extracting flavored juiced from nearly any food. Users simply toss a few berries (or similar) into the glass evaporation flask, and the device subsequently heats things up until a "vacuum pump reduces the air pressure in the flask, which drops the boiling point of the water inside to as low as 112ºF." Afterwards, the vapor rises into a condenser where it's left to cool and collect into a final dish for your enjoyment. Overkill, we know, but what's a cool three grand to a chef who's obsessed with his / her art?[Via Popular Science]
Automatic waffle maker hits version 2.0
While it certainly looked about perfect to us, we know how picky engineering inventors can be, so it's not too surprising to see the folks behind the automatic waffle maker crank out a version 2.0. We can't be sure, but the video (shown after the jump) does seem to suggest that the newest iteration cooks up your breakfast without quite as much mess as the original, and the hardware behind the magic looks to have seen upgrades all around. Best of all, however, is the title splash screen that lets you know you're still looking at a beta creation, which ought to mean there's an even more sophisticated version around the bend. Bargain bin griddles, watch out.
Keyboard waffle iron cooks up your favorite peripheral
While you may lobby that nothing's sweeter than an automated waffle maker, Chris Dimino just might counter that. This design guru has apparently concocted a retro inspired, and ever-so-slightly altered kitchen appliance that cooks waffle that are a bit wider and more familiar than usual. This piece of cookware sports an integrated stand for holding four jars of syrup, and the iron itself presses a nifty keyboard each and every time -- caps lock key and all. Of course, we don't expect retailers to start stocking these things anytime soon, but if you're serious about your words waffles-per-minute, we're sure Chris could make arrangements.
Apple's iPod Shuffle: the next great appetizer?
Although this won't go down as the first restaurant to mix in a little iPod action with the meal, it's fairly safe to say that Fat Duck chef Heston Blumenthal has melded portable audio with dining like no other. Apparently, the culinary guru "wanted to experiment with using sound to enhance a dining experience," which landed a person with a plate full of silver electronics and tangled white cord to compliment the rest of the Sound of the Sea dish. Aside from the food itself, the iPod was pre-loaded with "soothing sounds of the sea breeze and waves gently caressing the seashore," presumably to further enhance the eating experience. Still, we can't really envision how listening to sounds related to our meal would make things more appetizing -- you know, unless deafening moos just jazz up your taste buds when rolling by a burger joint.[Via Kottke]
American Burger Company installing iPod jukeboxes in eatery
Jukeboxes that play nice with your iPod have long since been available for your pool hall or living room, but John Tunney of American Burger Company feels the Apple-centric music machines would fit a bit better inside a tried-and-true eatery. Subsequently, the new Hicksville location sports a dozen Logitech mm50 sound docks, and allows customers to bring in their tunes and shows to distract them from quality conversation while scarfing down a burger. Apparently, the restaurant is hoping the honor system will keep users from blasting their tunes too loudly in public, and just in case you happen to forget your Pod when coming in to grab a bite, the bevy of plasma screens and open WiFi signal should keep you plenty occupied whilst chewing.[Via ChipChick]
Hello Kitty gets her own crock pot
Unfortunately, the Hello Kitty crock pot arrived a tick too late to be considered for any snazzy kitchenware awards, but we're sure it's a real winner in the hearts of fanboys and girls everywhere. Aiming to take the difficulty out of cooking and give even the culinarily-challenged a surefire way to concoct a solid round of soup, the HK slow cooker should handle your roasts, veggie soups, and chowders with ease, and what better to season such delicacies in than a pot full of cute? Sadly, we've no word on price nor where to purchase this fine piece of countertop cookware, but giving your future meals the ability to simmer in cheerfulness is priceless indeed.[Via CNET]
Automatic banana peeler operates in low gear
Apparently, utilizing bananas to satisfy one's DIY cravings is becoming all the rage, as just weeks after hearing about a Texas-sized geostationary blimp, Donkey Kong's favorite fruit is showing up in yet another bizarre contraption. The uber-slow automatic banana peeler is fairly self-explanatory, but if you're still miffed at just what this thing does, we assure you the video demonstration will allow plenty of time for you to fully grasp the concept. Essentially, the creation stands the banana upright and grabs hold of the peeling, and by utilizing some sort of "BBQ machine," it unwraps the fruit at an incredibly sluggish pace. Of course, we'd love for an interpreter to click on through and decipher exactly what these two fellows have to say about this thing, but considering that we actually enjoy fruit more when it's fresh, we aren't particularly interested in waiting five to ten minutes before enjoying a perishable snack.
Automatic waffle maker simplifies breakfast
With all the flowers starting to bloom and bunny rabbits (stuffed or otherwise) beginning to emerge, we're sure it won't be long before you're busting out the Wham-o Peeps maker, but if you've been pondering a way to make those hearty breakfasts pop out a tad quicker, we've got just the thing. Apparently, a group of waffle-lovin' kiddos have concocted an automated machine that not only opens and closes on queue, cooks and unloads the finished waffle onto your plate, and closes back for easy cleanup, it even boasts a tiltable pail filled with waffle mix and a funnel so that filling the hot iron is no longer your (messy) responsibility. The project was crafted at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and looks to be constructed primarily of wood, strings, and pulleys, and while we certainly wouldn't recommend that novice DIYers try this unaided, be sure and hit the read link for a look at waffles made easy.
Inventor patents automatic, no-look cooking
In a patent filing that appears to belong to Philips, an inventor is attempting to lock down the secret to no-look cooking, giving hope to clueless culinarians everywhere. The patent focuses on a method for determining the very moment during the cooking process in which the food "has reached a ready state," and seeks to use precise scales in an oven to determine exactly how much water has left the foodstuff and converted into steam in order to determine just how dry, crisp, and / or ready to devour it is. Of course, this fellow isn't the first bloke to iron out the details of automatic cooking, and interestingly enough, it seems this idea itself may have already been in the works, so we'd highly recommend consulting the folks behind Daewoo's autonomous microwave (and the subsequent technology) before boasting too proudly.[Via NewScientistTech]
Wiltshire inventor perfects egg boiling sans water
Sure, you might have a microwave that automatically analyzes your food and cooks it to perfection without any culinary knowledge whatsoever, but boiling an egg is an art form mastered by few. Simon Rhymes, however, has put his curiosity to work by crafting the Bulbed Egg Maker (BEM), which boils an egg without a single drop of water or hint of kitchen prowess. Apparently our pals across the pond take this egg cooking ordeal quite seriously, as the Bournemouth University student one upped the inked shell solution already available by utilizing excess heat from "high-powered halogen bulbs." His contraption stands 12-inches tall, and four halogen lights surrounding the delectable oval transfer just enough heat to "perfectly boil" an egg in exactly six minutes. Of course, it took 600 trial runs and an awful lot of trash bags to finally ace the challenge, but now Rhymes is scouting investors to push his product to market. So if we've got any famished VCs in attendance, maybe you can give Simon a hand in realizing his ultimate dream of making "BEMs as popular as toasters" (or MacBooks).
Better eating habits through gaming
Can gaming teach us healthier ways to eat? Nonsense! A recent Electronic Arts study concluded that commercial games can be effective teaching tools in the classroom. Last week, researchers at the University of Sydney found that automated dietary advice, similar to Amazon recommendations, reduced the amount of saturated fats in the goods purchased by the participants. The two studies are not necessarily mutually exclusive: imagine a 3D platformer where your enemies all shared a common thread of containing copious amounts of high fructose corn syrup. Would you subconscious start avoiding foods that contain HFCS, or at least check the nutrition labels?Yoshi's Fruit Cake? Veggie Burger Time? Scrumdiddly-umptious.See Also:W. Virginia to put DDR in all 765 public schoolsParent prefers kid dabbling in coke over playing video gamesRead - New tool helps online shoppers buy lower-fat food [Reuters, via Geek.com]Read - Video games have 'role in school' [BBC News]
