Intelligent connected cooking device does sous vide, pressure, deep frying and more. Useful?

Hi folks

There is a new cooking device out there (or nearly) it is on indiegogo right now:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/everycook-the-device-that-cooks-for-you

It can can cut, stir, weigh, cook, pressure cook and fry. And it is connected to a recipe database.

So you can exatly reproduce what you did last time and change one parameter (time, temperatur, quantities) a bit and see what happens.

Then from there iterate until perfect and then share it with other users over the platform.

What do you think?

Useful?

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Comments

michaelnatkin

Hey @Alexis - it would appear, from looking at the IndieGogo page that you are the inventor of that device. Your post above doesn't really make that clear, it seems like you are representing it as something you just found on IndieGogo. You are welcome to use our forum to share your work and ask questions of the passionate community here, but please don't use it for fundraising or sales. Also, I see you posted this in two categories so I'll remove the extra one.

ejf12009

From the IndieGoGo page it looks like a well designed product, but I'm not quite sure I see the problem it solves. If I'm understanding correctly, it's like a combination induction burner, scale, immersion circulator, mandoline, pressure cooker, and deep fryer. But the cost of those items separately is roughly $(100 + 50 + 200 + 30 + 90 + 50) = $520, about half the cost of the price on IGG. And if you buy the items separately, you can use them simultaneously. If the cost of the device were $200, I'd buy one. Maybe three. But at $900 I'm not sure it makes so much sense to me.

It appears that the EveryCook has two features that the above do not have: continuous stirring and programmable cooks. The stirring seems like it'd be useful for tempering and holding large amounts of chocolate, maybe some long cook custards, or just generally making kitchen multitasking easier. And the programmable cooking could be cool to e.g. drop a steak in the bath in the morning, and have the machine warm age, then pasteurize, then hold. But the incremental value of these features for me is probably ~$30 and $50 respectively.

If I'm misunderstanding the use case, please let me know, and good luck!

Matt_67991

I would also say that it suffers from a low capacity for a sous vide machine, and the restriction to wall currents limits it's usefulness as a deep fryer (at least in North America). The stirring is useful though, as it replaces some of the functionality of a thermomix. There is also a fairly substantial price that has to be attached to to the risk associated with kickstarter-type crowdfunded things, which have a tendency to take longer than anticipated if they end up being produced.

As a general rule, professional cooking equipment tends to consist of specialized modular pieces, which, aside from the fact that they allow for different things to be used at the same time, also allow for easier replacement/repairs of parts. As Evan pointed out, you could get a set of proven, high quality equipment that would cover most of the functionality and have more favourable distributions for the frequency/severity of failures for less money.

Also, it is priced quite high for a piece of home kitchen equipment.

Good luck though!

aaron.murphycrews

I agree with all of the thoughtful comments above. I also question the market for a device such as this.

The EveryCook has a very sleek, swiss-army-knife-esque multi-tool appeal, but, as noted above, the unit costs more than all of the modular tools combined, and each of the included tools is a little less functional than a dedicated tool would be. I think the main selling point is- much like an electric bread machine- the 'set it and forget it' convenience factor. EveryCook's unique selling point seems to be that it guides you through measurements and cooking time/temp so you don't have to worry. I can see people liking this. However, I don't know if I see people who don't want to think too hard about cooking making such a sizable investment in cooking equipment. I spend money on equipment precisely because I want to think about the process.

Most of the successful crowdsource products that I'm seeing are consumer-priced versions of formerly unaffordable devices with unique function, most notably sous vide solutions. If you are looking for inspiration for the next project, things I would love to fund: $200 chamber sealer, affordable version of a Pacojet, at-home liquid nitrogen sink, and perhaps a centrifuge.

That being said, I really like the connectivity idea built into the machine. I have really enjoyed joining this community because everyone is here is dedicated to sharing an iterative pursuit of perfection. So, on an ideological note, I respect the vision you have for the device. Best of luck.

Nicky_J_17040

more is not always better. but good luck anyways!

Alexis_Wiasmitinow_77231

Hi Michael you are absolutely right. I wanted to get straight feedback that's why I did not mention I am the inventor of EveryCook but I also did not want to make a fake profile to fool you.

Alexis_Wiasmitinow_77231

Hi Evan Henry and AMC. I agree with you that a multi-functional device will never be as good as a set of dedicated ones. But here in Europe we have small kitchens. Especially in rented apartments. So having many devices is tricky. I think for serving 2-4 people the volume of 5l is OK.

About the current for the fryer: Here we have 10A, that gives us roughly 2 kW of heating power. Can I draw 16A on an US 120V outlet to get nearly the same power? What is the "common" US power outlet?

What fascinates me about our project is the connectivity. Why should we transfer the numbers out of (digital or analog) recipes to devices by hand? Why do we not record the data of our cooking? I wanted to create a hardware that gives the software full freedom to experiment with digital, connected cooking. We will fill our database with mathematically defined recipes and algorithms and improve them step by step. If one member of the community improves a recipe, he/she can upload it, share it with the rest of the community and get feedback.

If you want to add that level connectivity to all 5 devices it replaces you'll probably end up with around $100 per device. So it won't be a better price than we offer now.

We sell all parts, especially the electronics as spares. Our database and the whole software is open source. So if you want to connect any of your devices to the EveryCook ecosystem you're welcome. I'll be glad to help you.

I noticed while making pressure cooker risotto how non-linear the cooking behaves. Since we always have the same 2kW of heating power we need more heatup time to reach pressure when we cook larger quantities. And the heating up also counts as cooking time, right? So having a perfect risotto for 2 servings, how much do we reduce the pressure cooking time when we cook for 4 or for 6?

Why do we cook risotto under pressure? To save time. Looking at the pomme purée recipe I think it should be possible in 15min under pressure. I'll try it asap.

However, thanks a lot for the feedback.

Alexis_Wiasmitinow_77231

Here is the EveryCook ecosystem. Imagine having all that data at your fingertips and even in your devices. Precise data like you use in sous vide cooking, but also all kinds of other useful information around the food you eat. This is our goal. The devices may change (according to your feedback), but the basic idea to concentrate ALL data available about food in one place won't.

Chris_Young_80640

@Alexis — Standard domestic US 120v outlet is 15 amps, so you get about 1800 watts of power, slightly less than you will get in Europe.

Alexis_Wiasmitinow_77231

Thanks Chris

We'll design the US version according to this and add a software option to reduce the current draw for people who have less available.

robmcquarrie

In Canada (maybe only Alberta) standard is 120v 15 amps but all kitchen receptacles are 20 amps.