Hoteres 2008
A quick look at some of what we saw in Tokyo -
One
of my favorites was a soft-service
ice cream machine
that uses individual recyclable packets of flavored ice cream -
allowing a single machine to produce as many different flavors of
dessert as you can come up with and it doesn't  need to be sanitized afterward. The Japanese version features flavors
like peanut, strawberry, plums and wasabi. The "One-Shot" machine was
developed in England - see http://www.one-shot.com/os_system.html. If you want to check out the Japanese
version use Google's translator to get to www.sujahta.co.jp and click on MIDIAMUAISU where
you can find the other flavors. One news item said that by 2002 the One-Shot was already popular
in Japan with 1000 machines being installed every month.
Another fave is
the automatic wok stirrer device - see it (in English) at http://www.mik-net.co.jp/e/product_e/robo_chef.htm. The spiral stirrer works with a
rotating wok pan and a stationary spatula to stir food unattended. It's fun to watch and if you
"clik here" as they suggest you can see a video - careful, it
can make you dizzy.
A similar function
is provided by Fujimak's induction
"rotating machine" which tumbles
stir-fry. The easiest way to see
it is to Google "Fujimak FIAP20". Ideas Well Done has a similar machine
under license; it grabs attention and does a great job cooking stir fry
ingredients quickly (it uses induction) and anything else that can be
tumbled - give me a call if you're interested. We think the appeal is for display
cooking or controlled cooking of small batches that need the precise
temps of induction.
We saw other uses
of induction heating - San-Ei Ltd (www.san-ei-ltd.co.jp)
offers a hot dog bun toaster;
Tanico (www.tanico.co.jp - no English) has an induction fryer.
A display
fryer - what a concept! This beautiful piece of equipment (http://www.hicook.com/english/db11.html)
does continuous frying of small servings that move horizontally in a
track and is sectioned so it can do different products. The company's other products are
primarily for large food production sites.
A typical Asian
concept is a smokeless roaster at the center of a table; it looks like a do-it-yourself teppanyaki and
one version uses halogen lamps for heat. Small standalone units are also shown
on the website: www.u-kyouto.com. It appears to be a Rinnai product
from Korea - go to www.rinnairoaster.com. Another manufacturer is Shinpo - they
have a nice graphic description of the design (in English) on their
website http://www.shinpo.co.jp/e/tech/.
Chubu (in English)
has a smoke free gas grill thanks to a superheated infrared burner cover (www.chubu-net.co.jp). They also offer a number of induction
products on the Japanese version of the website in their Pro Chef
series.
Higo-Griller's smokeless grill gets up to 850
°C
(1562°F)
in 90 seconds and uses Bincho (hard white) charcoal. The extreme temp keeps the fire grate
clean and burns smoke away. The
website has English - www.higo-griller.co.jp.
If your cooking
appliances are not smoke
free, take a look at the stunning hoods offered
by No1-Santa - they are colorful and manually lower to the needed
height (http://www.no1-santa.com/arm.html). They are used for Shichirin konro
(traditional Japanese charcoal grill) and have larger hoods for center
table cooking. 
Taiko Enterprises
has US offices and a collection of Japanese
cooking supplies and equipment. http://www.taiko-enterprises.com/index.html
Anything you want
to peel, slice or dice can be done in a machine from Dremax - and if you go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s25p6dGRhA you can see a video of one of their machines. These pieces are aimed at very high
production food facilities.
Non-Food Equipment
The Japanese
treatment of trash is something the rest of the world could learn
from. Purpose (www.purpose.co.jp)
has a trash cooker that takes about 220 lbs
of food waste, heats it to kill microorganisms and reduces it to 1/5th its original size in 14 hours.
For those of us in
the snowy icy north, where sidewalks are routinely salted, Paionia
Clean Environmental System has a solution for those entry carpets that
are filthy in an hour. The
"air vacuum mat" literally
sucks the salt, dirt and debris right off your shoes as you walk over
it. Another device, the Water
Wash Shoe Cleaner (there's also a dry version) cleans shoes as you walk
across it.
Vulcan, a German company, produces "physical"
water treatment that causes lime scale
to lose its ability to stick to surfaces. When used on plumbing, it will clear
up existing deposits and keep new ones from forming. http://www.cwt-international.com/en/ueber_cwt/ This company was represented at Hoteres by Catalina, a Japanese
company.
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