| Watching a three-and-a-half-pound
chicken roast in 14 minutes, time loses all meaning. The skin turns gold and
crisp, juices immediately rise to the surface, and the flesh firms before your
eyes. It's dizzying and seductive, like the home makeovers on TV that compress
as "Wow." you think "I could do this every single night." The makers of the TurboChef, a super-fast oven, used at Subway and Starbucks and, recently, by chefs like Charlie Trotter and Gray Kurtz, are banking on that reaction. Speed ovens made by TurboChef, Merrychef. Electrolux and others are common in commercial kitchens: they generally use some layering of microwave, convection, steam and infrared technologies, which provides even cooking, moistness and browning, all at high speed. No single technology has been able m produce all of those traits. The combination ovens are also mining up. in more limited roles, in some fine-dining kitchens. Mr. Trotter installed a commercial TurboChef in his upscale takeout cafe, Trotter's to Go. in Chicago about six years ago. Mr. Kurtz says that his speed oven is used mostly for souffi6s, reducing the cooking time from 25 minutes to 2. "I liked .taking that line off the menu where you have to order the souffi6 at the beginning of the meal," he said. This is hardly an everyday concern for home cooks. But manufacturers are unable to resist the lure of the lucrative residential market: companies like Electrolux. G.E. and Sharp already sell speed ovens for home cooks. TurboChef, however, has put an unusual amount of research and design energy into adapting its product for residential use. It will be introduced next month, priced at $5,995 for a solo unit and $7.895 for a TurboChef combined with a conventional oven. The company is pitching—hard—the notion that its appliance will do no less than revolutionize American home cooking. "I can't imagine a home cook who wouldn't respond to the speed of this oven," said Mr. Trotter. who has become a consultant and spokesman for TurboChef. "But speed alone wouldn't validate it. The results are glorious." Glorious is a strong word. So last week, I hauled raw chickens and a jug of souffle batter over to TurboChef's New York office for a road test. Three hours later, it was clear that the technology used by TurboChef—a combination of high-speed convection for rapid heat transfer and browning, plus "controlled bursts" of microwave for moist, even cooking—is far more successful for actual cooking than a microwave alone |