The instant invention discloses an apparatus, system and method of manufacturing edible, biodegradable containers for hot and cold beverages and food.

An adjustable food cutter that allows to cut food having a predetermined thickness into equal portions having a user selected cubic volume. The adjustable food cutter comprises a male cutter element and a female cutter element each having a U-shaped configuration oppositely slidably engaged relative to one another so as to form a telescopic cutter body. The adjustable food cutter further comprises a telescopic handle connected between opposed longitudinal end portions of an upper edge of the telescopic cutter body. The telescopic cutter body and the telescopic handle are cooperatively movable between a retracted and an extended position,

In some embodiments, a dough pressing system includes means for coupling a cover to a pressing platen, wherein the cover can reduce the wear caused to the pressing platen by the heat and pressure used to process one or more products. The cover optionally can be configured to be removably attached to the pressing platen with vacuum pressure. In some implementations, one or more spacers are placed between the cover and the pressing platen. The thickness of the spacers can adjust the thickness and diameter of products processed by the pressing platen. For example, to increase uniformity among products pressed together in a press cycle, the spacers can have different thicknesses that correspond with the location of the spacer in the pattern of dough balls.

A method and an installation for the automated preparation of crown-shaped tart shells, comprising the conveying on a conveyor of crown-shaped recesses, the recesses being successively subjected to an extrusion step, a deposition step and a lining step, in which the extrusion step includes the filling of at least one cell of a rotary cell support cylinder with dough, the deposition step includes the ejection of the dough rolls out of the rotary cell support cylinder and the deposition on a shell of each recess of at least two separate dough rolls, and the lining step includes the crushing of the dough rolls deposited in each recess by means of a matrix complementary in shape to the recess in order to form a dough covering at least the shell of the recess.

The present invention discloses a platen apparatus (300) and method (400) for cooking dough using a combination of convective and conductive heating. The apparatus (300) comprises a platen unit including a top heating assembly (320) and a bottom heating assembly (310) to press a dough ball into a flat disc, the bottom heating assembly (310) including a first heating unit configured to provide conductive heat to the platen unit; a linear motion mechanism (350) configured to move the top heating assembly (320) linearly with respect to the bottom heating assembly (310); and a second heating unit (314) including a secondary heating coil (332) and a blower unit (331) to provide convective heat to the platen unit; and a control unit to control the heating of the platen unit; such that the temperature of the second heating unit (314) is higher than the temperature of the first heating unit.

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 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 continuous-belt baking system having a pair of upper rollers rotatably mounted in frame and spaced at a first distance, a pair of lower rollers rotatably mounted in frame and spaced at a second distance, a continuous thermally-conductive belt passing over the upper rollers, a continuous thermally conductive belt passing over the lower rollers, and two arrays of radiant heating elements. The radiant arrays include a first group of heating elements above a lower run of the upper belt between said upper rollers and a second opposing group of heating elements below an upper run of the bottom belt between the lower rollers. Each heating element may be separately controlled insofar as its ON/OFF state or in accordance with temperature, to provide more localized baking capabilities.

Various examples are related to making flatbreads such as, e.g., a compact machine for making flatbread in a residential kitchen-type environment or other countertop, tabletop, or space limited applications. In one example, a machine includes a hopper including a mixing chamber configured for bulk addition of raw materials for preparation of flatbread pieces; a mixing assembly configured to blend the raw materials into a flatbread dough mixture; a dough piecing assembly configured to generate a dough piece from an extruded portion of the flatbread dough mixture; a lower platen configured to transfer the pressed flatbread dough piece to a cooking zone on the dough contacting surface for cooking; and a flatbread ejection station configured to remove a cooked flatbread piece from the machine. A second cooking zone can be included to further cook the pressed flatbread dough piece prior to ejection from the machine.

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.