Gourmia's Cool-Cooker chills, heats meals to match your schedule
The Wi-Fi-connected Cool-Cooker from Gourmia uses both heat and cold to make meals at the right time.
A prototype of the Gourmia Cool-Cooker at IHHS 2018.
The Gourmia 11-in-1 Cool-Cooker isn't your average multicooker. It doesn't just heat or sear food -- the Cool-Cooker can also keep items chilled (as you might have guessed from its name) until you're ready for them to cook.
A prototype of the internet-connected appliance was on display Saturday at the International Home and Housewares Show in Chicago. Gourmia has yet to set a price for the Cool-Cooker, but the company expects to start shipping the product in the last quarter of the year.
Assuming its properly prepped and programmed, the multicooker will begin heating its contents at the time you choose, Gourmia says. That means you can put ingredients in the Cool-Cooker in the morning, and they will be refrigerated inside until you're ready for it to start cooking. So if your favorite soup recipe only needs to cook for an hour before dinner time rather than all day, you can throw everything in the Cool-Cooker in the morning without worrying about your food spoiling.
The conceivable upside here is that the appliance cooks your dishes around your schedule, not the other way around. You shouldn't be limited to preparing slow-cooked fare, either. Think of the Cool-Cooker as something akin to a small fridge with its own discrete oven.
The Cool-Cooker is no Instant Pot. It's not an electric pressure cooker and can't cook items with increased speed. Gourmia though says the appliance has other useful tricks. For instance, the Cool-Cooker can chill items after it cooks them. Potential desert applications such as custards, puddings and cheesecakes immediately spring to mind.
The ability to cool your food is a function we're seeing more on countertop appliances as companies attempt to automate every step of the cooking process. Mellow, a sous vide machine, has a built-in refrigeration element, which lets you keep your food in cold water until you're ready for the appliance to start cooking. And the Suvie Kitchen Robot (which raised $724,159 during its Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign) uses water to both refrigerate your food and cook an entire meal.
Features
- 6-quart capacity
- Cooking modes include: Bake, Rice, Yogurt, Porridge, Slow cook, Saute, Steam, Sous vide
- Mobile app (Android,
iOS
)
- Onboard Wi-Fi