Nov 17, 2007 12:34 am US/Pacific
ConsumerWatch: New Oven Cooks At Warp Speed
(CBS 5)
For most of us, it takes at least three hours to cook the Thanksgiving turkey. Not any more. A new breed of oven can cook a 14 pound turkey in under an hour.
The height of cooking technology, circa 1950, was the Wedgewood stove.
"It tells you exactly how long to cook a turkey. Here it says three and a half to four hours at 350 degrees Fahrenheit," said Matt Harbo of Reliance Antiques.
For most of us, it still takes at least three hours to cook the Thanksgiving turkey. Not any more.
"On this bird we're going to be at a full 60 miles an hour. Because poultry can actually take that kind of air speed," said Chris Welch, sales rep for TurboChef.
A tornado of heat is about to blast this bird into the 21st century.
"It'll cook a 14 pound turkey in 48 minutes," Welch said. "A rack of lamb in four minutes. Roasted potatoes in 5 minutes. Or roasted asparagus in 45 seconds."
And biscuits in two and a half minutes. The makers of TurboChef say it's not a convection oven or microwave, but a hybrid of both. It cooks up to 15 times faster than a conventional oven. And costs a lot more -- about $7,000.
"All you do with the turbo chef is put the turkey in. No basting. The oven does it. Press start, and away we go," Welch said.
The oven was developed for use at places like Subway and Starbucks. The company turned to Bay Area based Frog Design, to harness its power for home cooks.
"We had to have a new way for people to control things and feel like they were still being empowered in the kitchen but that they wouldn't burn things basically because it's so fast!" said creative director Jennifer Kilian.
Instead of setting time and temperature, like a regular oven, you choose the type of food on a click wheel, like an iPod. The oven makes the decisions.
In 48 minutes, the turkey is done. We invited Salvation Army chefs Julio and Ana Perez for a taste test.
"It's juicy, tender, delicious, very natural. It's an excellent turkey," Perez said.
But in a world that's already on warp speed, shouldn't the kitchen be one place we can actually slow down?
"If you have a normal oven, your dinner's going to be ready at 8 or 8:30. If you can have your dinner done at 7, and as well or better, what's the value of having that home cooked meal for the family?" Welch said.
Food for thought, indeed.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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