The present invention relates to apparatus and methods for assembling food products. More particularly, the invention relates to apparatus and methods for associating foodstuff and liquid with a base. Foodstuff may include food items such as meats, vegetables, cheeses, amongst others. Liquids include those food items that have a low viscosities (e.g. sauces, dressings, oils), high viscosities (e.g. peanut butter, frosting), and anything in between. A base can be anything on which foodstuff or liquid may be associated (e.g. bread, cake, cookies, pizza dough, a bowl in which to place foodstuff).

A food processing apparatus specifically a tamale preparing apparatus to prepare and cook tamales is disclosed. The tamale preparing apparatus comprises two sets of cartridges, a plunging system, a steamer forms, a steamer pot and a pot cover to prepare and cook tamales. The apparatus prepares tamales by inserting pre-cooked masa and fillings into cartridges. A plunging system helps to insert the pre-cooked masa and fillings from the cartridges into steamer forms. The steamer pot comprises a porous steamer tray to allow the steam of water to reach the tamales kept on the tray and helps in cooking of tamales. Parchment paper tubes are used to maintain the shape of the tamales while cooking in steam. The pot can cook numerous tamales at a time, reducing labor cost.

A method and an apparatus of forming food dough to be used for making bases for pizza and the like are described. The method provides for compressing a predefined mass or dose of dough between two surfaces and massaging it by deforming one of said surfaces, consisting of a flexible diaphragm whereon the dough is worked. For this purpose, the forming machine has idle tapered rollers arranged under the diaphragm, which make a motion of revolution about a vertical axis and roll on the extrados of the diaphragm. During the forming process, the dough is squeezed by a movable plate or cover.

Device to prepare turnovers which has a base element, a top contact element, and lever for closing. The base element has two parts which are joined by two hinges. One part is fixed and the other one performs a 180 opening and closing movement to form the turnover. This movable part has engravings on its interior surrounding walls which are marked in the dough when the two parts come together to form the pie. The outer edge of the periphery of the base element has a slope that serves to cut the dough excess of the turnovers. When the lever presses the top contact element against the base element a concave tortilla will form. Then, the concave tortilla is stuffed with your choice of filling and the movable part closes to form the turnover. Finally, the movable part opens and the turnover is taken out.

A system for handling culinary preparations, which includes: a mounting (I) including an upper surface arranged to receive a culinary preparation, and a plurality of feedthroughs extending between the upper surface and a lower surface; a transfer device including a plurality of projecting portions; a relative movement system being arranged to position the system in a low position, in which no projecting portion projects relative to the upper surface of the mounting, and a high position, in which one end of at least one projecting portion is made to project through the feedthroughs, relative to the upper surface of the mounting; and a handling tool including oblong elements arranged to be inserted between projecting portions.

A system for handling culinary preparations, which includes: a mounting (I) including an upper surface arranged to receive a culinary preparation, and a plurality of feedthroughs extending between the upper surface and a lower surface; a transfer device including a plurality of projecting portions; a relative movement system being arranged to position the system in a low position, in which no projecting portion projects relative to the upper surface of the mounting, and a high position, in which one end of at least one projecting portion is made to project through the feedthroughs, relative to the upper surface of the mounting; and a handling tool including oblong elements arranged to be inserted between projecting portions.

The present disclosure is directed to press systems and methods for forming pliable material, such as dough, into a specifically-designed shape for allowing hand-stretching of the pliable material after pressed by the press system. In some examples, the press system may be manually operated, automatically or hydraulically assisted, and/or mechanically assisted. The press assembly of the press systems disclosed herein may include a press mold having a contoured or multifaceted shape designed to form a finished dough, such as a pizza crust, having a thicker central portion, a relatively thinned intermediate portion, and a thicker edge portion at a perimeter of the pizza crust.

A device for forming a sheeted dough from a dough piece, which includes: (i) a lower tray arranged so as to support the dough piece during a forming operation, (ii) an upper tray, and (iii) a forming actuator arranged so as to move the upper plate in relation to the lower plate, in such a way as to be able to press the dough piece between the lower tray and the upper tray in order to form a sheeted dough, the lower tray containing a system of mobile ejectors that can assume a so-called retracted position in such a way as to form, overall, a continuous surface with the lower tray, and a so-called raised position in such a way as to form a raised surface in relation to the lower tray.

A device for forming a sheeted dough from a dough piece, which includes: (i) a lower tray arranged so as to support the dough piece during a forming operation, (ii) an upper tray, and (iii) a forming actuator arranged so as to move the upper plate in relation to the lower plate, in such a way as to be able to press the dough piece between the lower tray and the upper tray in order to form a sheeted dough, the lower tray containing a system of mobile ejectors that can assume a so-called retracted position in such a way as to form, overall, a continuous surface with the lower tray, and a so-called raised position in such a way as to form a raised surface in relation to the lower tray.

A hand operated press 10 for foodstuff includes a base plate assembly 20 with a moving plate assembly 40 hingedly mounted at a predetermined points of their peripheries. An actuating arm 60 is hingedly mounted to the periphery of the base plate assembly 20 at a point opposite to where moving plate assembly 40 is hingedly mounted. A concave portion 70 in the actuating arm with a concavity facing the distal end of the moving plate comes in cammingly contact avoiding a perpendicular angle of attack. A protuberance 48 extending from the distal end 47 of the moving plate assembly 40 further ensures the cammingly contact while preventing actuating arm assembly 60 to totally collapse against the base plate assembly. A curved portion adjacent to the concave portion is prevents a user's fingers from coining in contact with the base plate assembly.