Need help with the cooking? Ask autonomous system Julia
“It slices! It dices!”
Well, maybe not. But it does chop, mix, steam, knead, emulsify, weigh, boil, steam — and even clean itself.
It’s Julia, the intelligent autonomous cooking system being introduced by TecPal Ltd.’s Cooking Pal during CES, which runs next week at 11 venues in Las Vegas. Julia, which can be controlled by a smartphone app or the dedicated Smart Kitchen Hub Tablet, is expected to hit the market during the third quarter of 2020.
The tablet has touch-screen capability or can be controlled with a physical dial — or voice commands using Alexa, which is built in, or Google Assistant.
If you’re stumped for what to make for dinner tonight, Julia can suggest something from her database of more than 500 recipes and growing.
“The first step would be your going on the hub and selecting the recipe with the best rating,” said Martin Ruge, managing director of CookingPal.
Say you’re browsing the recipes at the office before heading home. Missing an ingredient? The intelligent cooking system will order it for you from Amazon Fresh.
“When you arrive home, the ingredients are already at your doorstep,” said Anna Khomenko, marketing manager for CookingPal.
Text and video instructions guide you through each step of the recipes. For something like the salmon and spaghetti dish Ruge said they’d been testing at the office, it entails boiling the pasta in the device while you steam the salmon on the steamer above it, then combining the two with finishing seasonings in the bowl.
Or consider chicken rolled in bacon, with mashed potatoes. While the potatoes boil in the cooking vessel, the chicken — which the recipe has guided you to roll and wrap — steams on the rack above. Because the rack has two levels, you can prepare a vegetable at the same time.
Khomenko said recipes chefs will prepare in the Julia at CES include mushroom soup, salmon-avocado dip and mango lassi beverages.
Ruge said while the Instant Pot has become extremely popular in the United States, it’s not in Europe. The reverse, he said, is the case with automonous cooking systems such as the Julia.
“We’ve sold similar appliances in Europe quite successfully in the past three or four years,” he said. “We have multiple years in developing this kind of appliance.”
They’ve sold more than a half-million devices, with a different brand name, in Europe, Ruge said.
The system will retail for under $1,000.
Shelly Palmer, an advertising, marketing and technology consultant, said he’s seen the Julia in action. He said he thinks it was born out of the internet community that’s focused on slow cookers and Instant Pots.
“The beautiful thing about communities of the internet is they not only express their needs but also inspire innovation,” he said. “I think the Julia is a direct follow-on as a multi-cooker, and it won’t be the last.”
Palmer said whether or not the Julia becomes a kitchen necessity — whether it’s “a parlor trick or a paradigm shift” — remains to be seen.
“From my perspective, no one’s smarter than the internet,” he said. “You will know without a lot of muss or fuss if people think it’s real. People will either flock to it or they’ll walk right by.”
CES, which is expected to draw more than 175,000 people to view the wares of more than 4,400 exhibiting companies, runs Tuesday through Jan. 10. It is not open to the public.
Contact Heidi Knapp Rinella at Hrinella@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0474. Follow @HKRinella on Twitter.
