Cinder, the precision countertop grill that was saved from extinction by Desora, announced today that it is launching a new Chef Partnership Program, which will make Cinder-specific recipes available through the Cinder mobile app and website.
The Chef Partnership Program will feature recipes developed by Michelin starred chef John Critchley, who is Head Chef of Culinary Innovation at Chew (which Spoon readers might remember as the company that was going to — but then decided not to — take over the shuttered PilotWorks location in Brooklyn).
The Cinder is a unique device in the connected kitchen world that combines sous vide and conductive cooking. It’s a big machine that looks like a George Foreman grill on steroids that cooks food with precise temperate control. But unlike a typical sous vide circulator, the Cinder can also ratchet up the hot plates to sear as well.
According to the press announcement, the recipes “are meant to highlight Cinder’s unique Sous-Vide and grilling capabilities.” Critchley’s recipes have been designed exclusively for the Cinder grill, and users can expect a new recipe every week. The company will also be adding recipes from more chefs to the program throughout the year.
Access to these recipes will be free to all existing Cinder customers. Michel Maalouly, Co-Founder and CEO of Desora, told me via email that eventually the “recipes and resources” from the Chef Partnership Program will become a paid subscription service. All existing Cinder customers will be grandfathered into the program free of charge.
As part of today’s announcement, Desora also said that the company has released an all-new Android app for the Cinder that “now guides users through every step of the cooking process, from ingredient selection to food preparation.” An iOS update will arrive in the next few months.
Both Spoon founder Mike Wolf and I have tested the Cinder and found it to cook steaks perfectly. It’s bulky and heavy, and because it’s using precision cooking it’s not a fast way to prepare a protein, but the results are tasty. Now we’ll have to try the new recipes to see how easy they are to prepare.