H&C News meets with suppliers regularly to keep up to date with the latest product and service innovations, aiming to get the inside track on what companies offer to the market and how it is delivered.
This week, we met with Mr Alun Board, CEO of Clyne Energy who designed LoCooker to gain a better understanding of the product and business behind it.
We were looking forward to meeting Alun as The LoCooker presents a new concept in water based cooking, using just a fraction of water compared to traditional methods. It has multiple uses including cooking of vegetables, meat and fish as well as all foods prepared Sous Vide. A brand new piece of catering equipment very different to anything else on the market currently.
H&C News: What exactly is the LoCooker?
Alun Board: The LoCooker is a new concept in cooking with water. It represents a new and distinct approach to cooking. From the start of the design process The LoCooker has been developed to be energy and water efficient. It uses a fraction of the water of other cooking methods and is very energy efficient. Though these factors are important, the main driving force behind the LoCooker is the production of the highest quality food.
It operates by a unique combination of water spray, water vapour and convection, delivering heat energy into food in a highly efficient way. It uses only 1.5 litres of water to cook up to 8 kg of food.
H&C News: What does the LoCooker do?
Alun Board: The LoCooker has everything you need from a device that cooks using water. It has precise temperature control. Using it to cook ‘Sous Vide’ (where the food is vacuum sealed and cooked using water held at a precise temperature) is really easy.
The LoCooker also does so much more.
The food doesn’t have to be vacuum packed when it is cooked. It can be cooked directly on standard ‘gastronorm’ trays (universal cooking trays which as used as standard in restaurants and catering outlets). The water comes into direct contact with the food. As a result, the cooking stock can be flavoured and seasoned easily.
The LoCooker heats up to the desired temperature in a few minutes, making it really flexible and adaptable.
The LoCooker is easy to use, portable, and inexpensive to run and requires no specialist installation. This makes it ideal for field catering. It can be easily used for prime cooking, as well as ‘refresh’ and ‘regeneration’.
Every time you use the LoCooker it produces great food, and saves you money on your water and energy bills.
H&C News: Who is the LoCooker aimed at?
Alun Board: The LoCooker is aimed at all professional chefs and caterers. It has been developed to be a flexible and useful frontline tool. The LoCooker can be used to prepare all foods that are traditionally cooked using water. It can replace cooking on a hob, in a water bath, or in a steamer. The food can either be cooked in a sealed bag (Sous Vide) or placed directly into the gastronorm trays.
The LoCooker will be of great interest to chefs, restaurants, hotels, schools, hospitals, and caterers of all sizes. It can also be a useful tool for other sections of the food industry, such as artisan food producers.
Amongst other places the LoCooker is currently in use at:
- The 40:30 Restaurant at the top of the Gherkin (Chef Arnaud Stevens)
- Cafe Spice Namaste (Chef Cyrus Todiwala)
- Wales Office 25, Victoria Street. This is Wales’s window to the world and regularly caters for visitors using the LoCooker (Chef Colin Pressdee)
- Arbutus in Soho (Chef Anthony Demetre)
H&C News: How do your customers benefit from using the LoCooker?
Alun Board: It ticks all the boxes for consistently delivering quality food, cheaply and efficiently.
The LoCooker is truly ‘Green’, with no hidden installation or running costs. It has precise temperature control from 35C to 95C and it delivers the high quality that consumers are coming to expect. It is easy to use and easy to clean and has low odour emission. It emits very little steam, and doesn’t need any extraction and so there is no extra energy cost of running the LoCooker.
As well as being ideal for any professional kitchen, it is also a useful tool for field catering, and pop-up kitchens. It runs off a 13 Amp plug and requires no plumbed-in water supply, so it can be set up anywhere. It can be installed and cooking in about five minutes. It can also be used for ‘refresh’ and ‘regeneration’, and reheating from frozen.
H&C News: When is it available, and where can it be bought from?
Alun Board: The LoCooker is now available, either from us directly, or from our carefully selected distributors listed on our website. We offer several purchasing options for the LoCooker, including lease purchase, and rental/service packages. Our packages can include a comprehensive proactive service support in line with customer demands.
Our contact details – Clyne Energy Ltd, Delta Lakes Enterprise Centre, Burry Road, Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, SA15 2DS, UK
Tel:+44 (0) 1554 772693 Fax:+44 (0) 1554 772693
Email: info@locooker.com
Website: www.locooker.com
H&C News: Who are Clyne Energy?
Alun Board: Clyne Energy Ltd is the company behind the LoCooker. The Clyne Energy team has many years experience in delivering energy efficient products to customers worldwide. Clyne Energy Ltd is committed to developing the LoCooker range as high quality tools of choice for professional chefs.
The company is chaired by Professor Ken Board, FREng, Research Professor at the School of Engineering, Swansea University. He has a track record in initiating spin-out companies.
Clyne Energy Ltd are one of a small number of cutting-edge British firms to pick up an award in a new national competition launched by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg in a bid to accelerate the UK’s green agenda.
The ‘Greenius’ (Green Genius) awards relate specifically to innovative solutions in food, water and energy sustainability. The LoCooker ticks all the boxes here as each of these is central to the business of the company.
We want to thank Alun for the interview and from what we have seen and heard so far we are sure this is a significant product introduction, one we will be following very closely.
H&C News