There are times that we wish we had a helping hand in the kitchen. Whether it’s due to limited mobility, total exhaustion or a little laziness, the prospect of cooking daily is often difficult- especially if you’re trying to eat healthily. What if there was another way?
What if you could have a personal chef, right inside your home to give you a hand when you come home at 7:30 with 3 screaming kids and a sick spouse? What if your limited mobility or disability didn’t have to mean asking for assistance cooking or settling for some fast food? Well, that may be a reality with this next startup, Suvie.
Cambridge-based startup Suvie created a cooking apparatus of the same name to make cooking quality meals easier. So what exactly is Suvie and how does it work?
Suvie is a wifi-enabled countertop cooking robot and refrigerator. It’s designed to cook several meal components individually, raw proteins, fresh vegetables, dry starches and special chef-designed sauces. The device is composed of 4 cooking zones (for each of the meal components previously mentioned), a refrigeration system and a broiler.
All the user has to do is load the four food components and add water. This can even be done prior to dinner time, Suvie will keep the food refrigerated until it’s time to cook. Cooking times are determined by the meal information that users enter into the device and when the cooking is finished, the meal components are combined into one, "restaurant quality" meal for the user.
We were inspired to create the Suvie system because, like so many people, we wanted healthy meals made with fresh ingredients but rarely had the time. We knew there had to be a better, easier way to feel great about how and what we feed our families.
While consumers can choose to subscribe to their Suvie Smart Meals service which would allow them to receive custom tailored Suvie meals to cook in their Suvie devices, meals can be made from scratch without purchasing any additional services.
The optional meal kits are delivered to your door and Suvie takes care of the shopping, preparation, and cooking for you. The kits are designed to make meals for 2-4 adults and an example of one of their meals options is the Asiago chicken with roasted brussels sprouts, porcini alfredo, and sun-dried tomato tapenade.
Users can choose which food items are included in their Suvie meals as well. For instance, you don’t like asparagus? Don’t order it! You can easily replace it with other veggies. Best of all, instead of entering cooking details by hand on the machine, Suvie purchased meals can just be scanned on the Suvie kitchen robot to update cooking details and meal information.
According to their Kickstarter page, the average user can save about 6 hours a week cooking, time that can be redistributed into exercise, family time or some good old-fashioned relaxation time.
When it’s cleanup time, the food packages, which are recyclable and disposable can just be thrown away or put in the recycle bin and the stainless steel pans can be tossed in the dishwasher or washed by hand.
Their device can even be integrated with Amazon’s Alexa, making it even easier to update serving times or relay cooking or storage information to the Suvie kitchen robot.
Even without Alexa, customers can schedule the refrigeration and preparation of their meals remotely using their mobile devices and Suvie’s mobile app. Both of these techniques allow users to start their meal preparation remotely, delay meal preparation or request the meal to be kept warm until they’re ready to eat.
So what does all of this cost? The Suvie appliance price depends on the Kickstarter Rewards level you select. Those pledging $479 or more will receive the Suvie kitchen robot, to be delivered by December 2018. Users who want to pledge a bit more will be rewarded with extra stainless steel cooking pans or up to 5 Suvie kitchen robots.
Once their Kickstarter campaign is over and products are commercially available, users should be able to purchase devices from their website. The Suvie Smart Meals will initially cost $10-$12 per serving but they are hoping to bring the cost down to $7-$8 a serving once their distribution is increased and products are available in supermarkets.
By creating a product that helps users eat better, healthier meals right at home Suvie stands to make a difference in several ways. Besides the fact that eating meals at home brings families closer together and ensures that they spend more time listening to and learning about each other, their device could mean an end to tired nights spent scarfing down fast food out of desperation or that those with limited mobility don’t have to compromise on the quality of taste of their meals.
suvie.com
