Super-heated steam cooker

[snedger]

Hello
Was trying to look to preview techno gadgets on Japanese websites and came across one of the best cooking gadgets I've ever seen!
It's a new type of oven called Healsio by Sharp. It uses super-heated steam at 300 degress celsius to roast food. Apparently it can even make (non soggy) toast!
Link http://www.sharp.co.jp/healsio/index.html
The film picture link shows videos of food cooking. 'Cos it's in Japanese I didn't realise at first that the food was being cooked by invisible vapourised steam and wondered what all the fuss was!
English written press release http://sharp-world.com/corporate/news/050311.html
Link showing details of the science http://sharp-world.com/corporate/news/040823.html
It comes out in the UK end of 2005 and will be too expensive for me to buy!
Cheers
snedger

[Atomic]

Neaty.

[Rave]

I like fatty food though.

[Joel]

Our sister company make these on a much bigger scale http://www.convotherm.de/en_EN/produkte/uebersicht.html - absoloutly awsome, the top models you can control upto 250 of them from a central computer. For the chefs out there i work for Viscount Catering, we make Moorwood Vulcan cooking equipt /Sadia refdgerators/Delfield/Jackson boilers/Commadore heavy duty - Every starbucks counter in the world is made here. Our sister companies include Merrychef and scotsman beverage systems all under the enodis group. Some of the kit our sister companies make is awsome, Merrychef microwaves rock, and chances are, if you've been in a pub, or fast food resteraunt, the drinks despencers/pumps were made by SBS.

</end salesman mode>

But seriously, we make some damn good kit

[iMc]

Cooool. Does it have a wattage rating like microwaves? Would have to re-learn how long everything takes .

Gonna cost about £1000 when it comes out.

Do ya reckon we will all be using these one day or is a bit gimmicky?

[Kumagoro]

sound dangerous i steam burn myself already on opening microwave curries.

[snedger]

It would be very interesting to know whether it has the nuke capabilities of a mw.
Whether I get one depends on whether it can do just about everything a combo mw can do and when I get around to checking it, whether it's true that mws really do destroy nutrients worse than normal cooking, as I keep hearing on cookery programs from chefs (not scientists).
There must be some safety built in. No way would they allow 300degC steam to blow out with the door open! And I imagine that some sort of fan would extract all SH-steam before the door could be opened.

[Joel]

These ovens are nothing like microwaves, The ones made by us use a cobination of superheated steam and dry heat, so you get well cooked food, that doesnt go dry. Plus you can cook almost anything in them, from bacon to bread. Purs rely on the chef not to be stupid enough to open the door front on, but i guess that would be changed for home products. They dont cook food as quickly as a MW, but the end result is much better.

Joel

[Kumagoro]

ill see if they have any in yodobashi in a couple of weeks and see what they are like.