Systems and methods of preparing food products
AssigneeZume Pizza, Inc.
InventorAlexander John Garden
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A food preparation and delivery system can include a plurality of cooking units such as ovens, each containing one or more prepared, but partially or completely uncooked, food items. The food items in the cooking units are for delivery to each of a corresponding plurality of consumer delivery destinations. The cooking units are loaded into a cargo compartment of a delivery vehicle for delivery to the plurality of consumer delivery destinations. The cooking conditions within the cooking unit are controlled such the each food item is cooked prior to arrival at the consumer destination location. In at least some embodiments, the estimated delivery time for each consumer destination location can be dynamically updated and the cooking conditions within the cooking unit adjusted.
Claims85
A portable cooking and delivery system, comprising:
- a vehicle having a cargo compartment;
- an oven rack sized and dimensioned to be received in the cargo compartment of the vehicle, the oven rack securable in the cargo compartment of the vehicle;
- and
- a plurality of individual ovens held by the rack, each of the ovens having a respective heating element and at least one wall that forms an interior which is thermally insulated from an exterior thereof and which is thermally insulated from the respective interior of each other ones of the ovens, the ovens each operable at respective temperatures which are independently settable from one another.
The portable cooking and delivery system of claim 2, further comprising:
- at least one controller that controls at least one of a temperature or a cooking time for the ovens in response to an estimated transit time.
A method of operation in a food preparation and delivery system, the method comprising:
- loading each of a plurality of food items in a respective one of a plurality of ovens;
- positioning the plurality of ovens in a cargo compartment of a vehicle;
- and
- for each of the ovens, automatically controlling by at least one controller at least one of a temperature or a cooking time based at least in part on an estimated time to destination for the respective food item to cook the food items in the ovens while the vehicle travels to each of at least two destinations which are different from one another.
A portable cooking and delivery system, comprising:
- a vehicle;
- a plurality of individual ovens carried by the vehicle, each of the ovens having a respective heating element and at least one wall that forms an interior which is thermally insulated from an exterior thereof and which is thermally insulated from the respective interior of each other ones of the ovens, the ovens each operable at respective temperatures which are independently settable from one another;
- a packaging array carried by the cargo vehicle and which holds packaging;
- and
- a transfer mechanism operable to mechanically transfer contents of the oven to respective instances of packaging held by the packaging array without the contents being touched by a human.
A system to cook and delivery consumables, comprising:
- at least one non-transitory processor-readable medium that stores at least one of processor executable instructions or data;
- at least one processor communicatively coupled to the at least one non-transitory processor-readable medium to at least one of read or write at least one of processor executable instructions or data therefrom or thereto, the at least one processor which in use:
- for each of a plurality of vehicles, determines an estimated transit time for the respective vehicle to each of a plurality of destinations to be visited during a route that starts and ends at a content loading location, and
- for each of at least some of a plurality of ovens carried by each one of the plurality of vehicles, determines at least one of a respective cooking temperature or cooking time to cook a respective content of the oven, based at least in part an estimated transit time for the respective vehicle to the respective one of the destinations to which the respective content of the oven is to be delivered;
- and
- a number of communications ports communicatively coupled to at least provide to the plurality of vehicles information indicative of at least one of a respective cooking temperature or cooking time to cook a respective content of at least some of the ovens carried by the respective vehicle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.