Smart cooking device that uses satellite technology unveiled

The N105, 000 (£330) ($499) Cinder Sensing Cooker looks like a sandwich toaster but is used to cook a variety foods, including steak.An app tells you when your food is done – and even stores it for up to two hours if you aren’t ready to eat just yet.The boss of the San Francisco-based company, […]

The N105, 000 (£330) ($499) Cinder Sensing Cooker looks like a sandwich toaster but is used to cook a variety foods, including steak.
An app tells you when your food is done – and even stores it for up to two hours if you aren’t ready to eat just yet.
The boss of the San Francisco-based company, Eric Norman, was previously an engineer at Lockheed Martin – known for its involvement in the space industry.
Mr Norman said they  “drew upon rocket science used in spacecraft to create a wholly down-to-Earth cooking experience.”
For example, the materials and the structural design were selected specifically to optimise heat flow, while the device can cook food to very precise specifications.
“Like controlling the motion of a satellite, Cinder’s predictive control system and sensor placement are carefully tuned to avoid overshoot” the company said.
Mr Norman said the product enables people to “combine the best parts of home cooking – the creative and sensory experience – with the best part of fine dining, which is the perfectly cooked, delicious food.”
To cook food, Cinder has an enclosed chamber and two non-stick aluminium cooking plates.
These are equipped with highly accurate sensors that achieve and maintain the precise temperature to cook a particular food.
This can either be calculated by the machine, or selected according to the cook’s preferences.
The company said it can “prepare a perfect, medium-rare New York Strip steak, cooked evenly edge-to-edge and with a beautiful seared exterior, in 28 minutes.”
To cook food in Cinder, the user simply places the food inside and closes the lid.
They then select what they are cooking – for example ‘NY Strip, Medium Rare’ – in an accompanying app.
It reaches its target temperature ‘within seconds’ and then maintains this until the food also reaches its correct temperature.
Once cooked, the machine can then keep the food at its serving temperature for two hours.
“Because the temperature inside Cinder is so precise and remains constant, it is impossible to overcook or undercook the steak,” the company claimed.