I’m a lucky lad. Every so often the creators of a really cool, really revolutionary cooking devices come to my house and make me food and this time it was Cinder. Think of Cinder as a George Foreman Grill that went to MIT. Designed to cook everything perfectly, the system can cook, sear, and grill automatically, allowing you to place food in the machine and have it cooked to perfection when you get home.
Cinder is completely programmable which means you can set it and forget it. Using a simple iPhone app you can tell the grill what you’re cooking and it will set the time and temperature automatically.
When Cinder came to visit they brought a steak and some mushrooms to try on their prototype grill. Using very little oil, they placed the meat on the grill and added salt and pepper. They then set the grill to medium rare and let it cook. A little of the way into cooking they also added the mushrooms tossed in a little olive oil. The mushrooms cooked – steamed, really – as the steak seared and grilled. The resulting mean – paired with a glass of homemade wine – was heavenly.
The grill is available now for pre-order and costs $499. The team took part in YCombinator and is building their product as we speak, adding lots of chrome and steel to what amounts to a computerized kitchen helper. Cinder, in fact, is part of a new era of cooking tools that are far smarter than their predecessors. By adding some amazing smarts to a plain old grill you create a tool that will survive the first few months of use and end up a helpmate in your kitchen of the future.
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