Automated immersion apparatus and method for cooking meals

An apparatus for automatically cooking food by immersion comprising:

• at least one impervious compartment in liquid communication with the container, each compartment being shaped to receive at least one bag for cooking food, the bag comprising at least two discrete sections adapted to receive food, the sections being impervious from one another, wherein each compartment comprises:
• i. a mechanism to automatically fill a water-based liquid in the compartment to at least two different predetermined levels, each predetermined level allowing immersion of one or more sections of the bag;
• and
• ii. a mechanism to automatically drain the water-based liquid from the compartment;
• a controller unit, the controller unit controlling the mechanism to independently fill and drain the water-based liquid in each of the compartments;
• at least one bag holder, the bag holder being adapted to hold the bag to vertically superpose the at least two sections of the bag;
• a liquid circulation system;
• wherein the controller unit is further configured to:
• retrieve predetermined cooking instructions associated to the at least one bag, the predetermined cooking instructions comprising:
• i. data for determining a cooking duration relating to each of the discrete sections of the at least one bag of food;
• and
• ii. filling sequences of the compartment associated to the at least one bag;
• instruct the mechanism to fill and drain predetermined volumes of the water-based liquid in the compartment at predetermined times to cook each section for the cooking duration of the predetermined cooking instructions and according to the filling and draining sequences of the compartment associated to the at least one bag.

An automated immersion cooking method using at least one bag for cooking food, the bag comprising at least two individual discrete sections and being immersible in a water-based liquid, the sections being impervious from one another, wherein the method comprises:

• maintaining the bag to vertically superpose the at least two sections in an independent compartment, wherein the at least two sections contain food;
• a controller retrieving cooking instructions associated with the food contained in the at least two sections of the bag;
• inserting a plurality of food components in the at least two discrete sections of the at least one bag in a sequence according to the cooking instructions;
• for each of the at least one bag, controlling automatic filling of the compartment comprising the bag of the water-based liquid at a first predetermined level to immerse the at least two sections of the bag, wherein the water-based liquid is maintained at a temperature to allow cooking of the food;
• leaving the bag within the water-based liquid;
• controlling automatic draining of predetermined volumes of the water-based liquid of the compartment comprising the at least one bag such that each immersed section of the bag sequentially ceases to be immersed in the water-based liquid the sequence at predetermined times, the drained volumes corresponding to a volume of the water-based liquid allowing one of the immersed sections to be out of the water-based liquid;
• wherein the cooking instructions comprises the predetermined times of draining associated with the at least two sections of the bag.

An automated immersion cooking method of a plurality of food components in at least one bag, the at least one bag comprising at least two discrete sections and being immersible in a water-based liquid, the discrete sections being impervious from one another, wherein the method comprises:

• a controller retrieving predetermined cooking instructions associated to the at least one bag, the cooking instructions comprising cooking times for each discrete section;
• holding the at least one bag in a compartment to vertically superpose the at least two discrete sections, the discrete section being associated with the highest cooking time being the lowermost section of the suspended bag and the discrete section associated with the lowest cooking time being the uppermost section of the suspended bag;
• filling the compartment comprising the at least one suspended bag with the water-based liquid to immerse the at least two discrete sections of the bag in the water-based liquid, wherein the water-based liquid is maintained at a temperature to allow cooking of the food;
• leaving each of the at least two discrete sections of the bag immersed within the water-based liquid for a specific duration according to the predetermined cooking instructions;
• controlling automatic draining of a first volume of the water-based liquid out of the compartment comprising the at least one suspended bag to cease immersion of a first immersed discrete section of the bag according to the cooking times of the predetermined cooking instructions, the draining of the first volume of water-based liquid lowering the water-based liquid to a first predetermined level being associated with a height of the first discrete section ceasing to be immersed and
• following a predetermined period of time after the draining of the first volume of water-based liquid, controlling automatic draining of a second volume of water-based liquid out of the compartment comprising the at least one suspended bag to cease immersion of a second immersed discrete section of the bag according to the cooking times of the predetermined cooking instructions, the draining of the second volume of water-based liquid lowering the water-based liquid to a second predetermined level being associated with a height of the second discrete section ceasing to be immersed;
• maintaining the water-based liquid at a temperature to allow cooking of the food.