Everyone’s talking about self-driving cars. But hardly anybody’s heard of a self-cooking oven. V-ZUG and Kuhn Rikon intend to change this. The recipe: networking pan and hob. The magic word: GuidedCooking.
You like cooking, especially for friends. You chop veg, prepare and fillet meat. You enthusiastically add seasonings. In short, you enjoy being in the kitchen. You’d just like the cooking part to be simpler. What if it were all automatic? Then you wouldn’t have to keep abandoning your guests to disappear into the kitchen.
Say hello to GuidedCooking
GuidedCooking by V-ZUG provides a novel cooking experience with far less effort. The key to enjoyable cooking: networking the V-ZUG hob with the range hood and smart cookware. It’s all done via Bluetooth. Although the V-ZUG GuidedCooking app is the “digital expert”, the user remains top dog in the kitchen.
Download GuidedCooking App
The app for guaranteed cooking success
The V-ZUG GuidedCooking app (free for Android and iOS) enables stress-free preparation of dishes in two ways. Individual ingredients such as rice or vegetables are cooked perfectly using the EasyCook function. Alternatively, choose your current favourite recipe in the app and follow the suggested cooking process step by step. Details of the approximate preparation time and difficulty level help you choose, while clearly structured ingredient lists simplify shopping and prep.
Patrizio Caserta, Product Manager
Fresh air in the kitchen
A range hood that automatically adapts to the cooking activity? How refreshing! This feature is called OptiLink and is genuinely helpful. Patrizio Caserta, Product Manager Range Hoods at V-ZUG, explains: “As soon as you switch on your Bluetooth hob, the extractor is also activated via OptiLink. There’s no need for an app. The hood’s power setting automatically adjusts to the cooking activity, ensuring optimum air quality. Once you have it, you never want to be without it.”
Perfect teamwork on the hob
Meanwhile, a little lower down – again via Bluetooth and controlled by the V-ZUG GuidedCooking app – an induction hob communicates with one or more pans. Temperatures of up to five cooking processes are regulated automatically. As well as saving time, users of the new solution also reduce energy consumption, thanks to optimum cooking processes. Here’s how it works:
Sensors in the pans measure temperature. The app registers this and individually turns rings on the hob up or down. Plus, the V-ZUG app knows when an ingredient or a dish is ready and gives a visual and audio signal at the end of cooking. For users, this means more confident cooking and more time for guests, while the food is guaranteed to be cooked to perfection.
Incidentally, nobody is forced to use the app. You can cook on all appliances without the app and automation. If you’d like the best of both worlds, that’s no problem. Just cook with and without the app at the same time.
Supply meets demand in Zug and Rikon
So has V-ZUG started manufacturing cookware? No. The pans used for GuidedCooking are made by Kuhn Rikon, a long-established SME in the Töss Valley.
In a stroke of serendipity, V-ZUG was wondering: how can we make our appliances smarter? How can we have better control and regulation, greater convenience and absolute certainty during cooking if our customer leaves the cooker unattended for long periods?
Meanwhile, cookware specialist Kuhn Rikon had been making a smart pressure cooker (app and pan) for a while, albeit not networked to the hob. The company had long been keen to improve on this shortcoming.
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Daniel Kinek, Product Manager
Win-win for two strong Swiss manufacturers
What better basis could there be for a top-class partnership? Daniel Kinek, Product Manager Hobs at V-ZUG, says: “In just 18 months, we produced the GuidedCooking function. You need a good relationship to achieve this. Agility was essential. Ten or so people at our two companies worked in tandem. We had to fully meet the technical standards. Moreover, internal tests with consumer groups kept highlighting potential for optimization. We all worked really hard.”
A word about safety
Speaking of technical standards: in Europe, you’re not normally allowed to control hobs remotely, for safety reasons. This is so that nobody can switch on their home hob from the office, via the web, only to be greeted by the fire brigade when they get home. Bluetooth removes this risk. The time was ripe. Digital cooking is arriving and is proving a challenge, not just for V-ZUG but “for our whole industry”, as Daniel Kinek observes, adding that this is particularly so for inspectors at technical approval bodies.
V-ZUG CookTopInduktion V6000, DualDesign
Invest in convenience and benefit instantly
That’s of no concern to consumers: they expect everything to work perfectly in the kitchen. And V-ZUG and Kuhn Rikon are happy to guarantee this, with GuidedCooking. With all this in mind, V-ZUG is currently running a tantalizing offer:
Anyone who invests now in a hob with Bluetooth function (CookTopInduction V4000 in 60, 70 or 80 cm widths or V6000 in 90 cm width) will receive a Kuhn Rikon HOTPAN® Comfort Thermo pan, worth over CHF 200, as a free gift.
More information
Get to know our networkable cooktopsGet to know our network-enabled extractor hoods
You may also be interested in the following blog posts:
GuidedCooking: simply cook smarterPureCool – a new-generation cooling systemHow to achieve perfect cooking with steam.VAS: The smart solution for quiet washingOptiDos – Automatic detergent dispensing
