“Food is the new sex, drugs and religion. Cookery dominates the bestseller lists and TV schedules. Celebrity chefs have become lifestyle gurus and cooking is referred to as a high art.� - Steven Poole
LIFESTYLE If time is in not elastic, then we need food that is. Soo is a lifestyle product that acknowledges how our eating practices have changed. It accommodates not only for occasion meal -- a social gathering, but also the weekday or hurried meal.
Home-made Ready-made
The Life of the Party
By manipulating time, creating prepared meals can become a leisure activity, one the user engages in at their discretion instead of when the necessity of eating demands it.
Allowing the user free time to engage with their guests. The large slate plate �inishes food and fosters a sense of dinning theater.
A series of meals can be prepared during the weekend, preserved under vacuum in therefrigerator or freezer and reheated when needed.
Since the food preparation can occur several days beforehand, the kitchen remains clean. The result -restaurant quality food with easy execution.
PRESERVATION COOKING Cooking methods developed differently amongst cultures depending on natural resources, yet similarities can be seen also be seen across the globe in regions separated by time and space.
Examining historical methods of food preservation, in particular those that are not dependent on added sodium or the local climate, focused our attention on vacuum preservation.
While canned goods can be found in any contemporary kitchen, due to the time and equipment needed, vacuum preservation has not become an established method of food preservation used inside the home.
SOUS VIDE Sous-vide, literally French for “under vacuum’, provides a wealth of nutritional bene�its as opposed to other methods of cooking. Precisely controlled temperature allows for perfectly cooked food and the ability to easily reproduce recipes with accuracy.
While prevelant in commerical kitchen at Michelin three-star restaurants, it has not yet sucessfully made the transition to the domestic kitchen. However, with it's devout foodie-following could be a corner stone in contemporary home cooking for amateurs and a�icionados alike.
SYSTEM Step1: Food Preparation
Step4: Waiting Time
&
Step2: Sous Vide Preparation
Step5: Enjoyed Time
Preserving/Consuming
Step3: Cooking Time
HEALTH BNEFITS It requires no oil or butter, thus eliminating the need to introduce additional fats to the cooking process. No sodium additives
Boiling, steaming, baking, or frying food requires temperatures of up to 400째C. Collagen or pectin, break down at much lower temperatures and compromise the nutritional value and desired texture of the foods being cooked.
The introduction of sous vide cooking into the home opens up novel opportunities for food preservation and healthy eating practices inspired by techniques ranging from the past to the present.
BENEFITS OF SOO
The Soo Cooking System is more energy ef�icient that other sous vide cooking systems due to the use of induction to create heat in the water bath. Reusable vacuum containers have been developed to enhance the cooking experience and replace the wasteful practice of single-use vacuum plastic bags. The use of ferromagnetic rocks in the water bath allows the induction cooking element to evenly and accurately heat the water bath to achieve optimum conditions for sous vide cooking.
TIME
If time is in not elastic, then we need food that is. Soo is a lifestyle product that acknowledges how our eating practices have changed. It accommodates not only for occasion meal -- a social gathering, but also the weekday or hurried meal.
COOKING TIME ELASTIC TIME
STRUCTURE OF SOO
MATERIALS Integrating ancient and modern technology for cooking and preservation methods to enhance users experience
Applying natural materials in a return to the traditional domestic
aesthetic and to capitlize on their unique thermal properties. Harnessing technologies and materials, that are eco-friendly.
FUTURE GROWTH The product line will also include a hand-held vacuum pump, hook for collecting the containers in the hot water bath and a slate cooking surface for '�inishing' the food.
The Soo System currently relies on the blast chiller in LG's top-end refrigerators. An independant blast chiller could be developed. Additional cooking instruments that use water and heat, such as a steam tray, can be developed and incorperated into the Soo vessel.
Chris Verbick Piper Skillman Tai-Yun Nien Venhar Melda Wei Wang