Your Sharp kitchen is about to get smart. Thanks to a new partnership between smart recipe startup SideChef and appliance maker Sharp, your kitchen tools and gadgets will be blessed with some newfound intelligence. SideChef is developing a new app as well as custom recipe content for Sharp’s internet-enabled cooking appliances. Beginning in 2018, you will be able to buy connected appliances from Sharp, beginning with the SuperSteam+ Convection Oven, all of which are powered by SideChef’s smart technology.
Promising a “recipe-driven culinary experience,” the new Sharp app hopes to make cooking foolproof. Simply choose your dish from the app, then let your kitchen appliance do the rest (with your supervision, of course). Already, SideChef has a collection of more than 5,000 interactive smart recipes that automatically set timers, play instructional videos, and make suggestions based on ingredients, time or day, season, location, and more.
“Sharp was looking for ways to combine convenience with perfect cooking results from our next generation of smart connected home appliances,” Jim Sanduski, president of Sharp Home Electronics Company of America, said in a statement. “SideChef already offers an award winning mobile culinary platform so partnering with them to integrate cooking operation and control was an easy decision.”
So what will an integrated SideChef/Sharp appliance actually look like? The SuperSteam+ certainly serves as a great case study, promising to be three ovens in one. This built-in wall unit creates steam at 485 degrees Fahrenheit, which takes care of the “Super Steam” component. If you are not looking for anything quite so hot, you can also use the oven as a 212-degree Fahrenheit steam oven, or as a powerful convection oven. Once the internet-enabled version launches in the fall of 2018, you will be able to have your oven cook your favorite recipes on your behalf. Just set it and forget it, and come back to a fully cooked meal. The oven will deal with timing, heat, and all the other details.
“At SideChef, we are dedicated to providing the most advanced connected cooking experience available,” Kevin Yu, CEO and Founder of SideChef, said in a statement. “We are proud to partner with a great, global brand like Sharp to pioneer the future of cooking together.”
