The continuous wok

In Chinese cuisine the preparation of fine cut ingredients by stir-frying in a shallow cooking vessel (wok) is widespread. Optimal sensory quality is reached by a combination of intense heat transfer, rapid stirring, and short process time. Because the stir-frying process is characterized by high rates of heat and mass transfer, automation and scale-up of this process is difficult, however.

Conventional industrial cooking and frying equipment cannot match the dynamics of the stir-frying process in small scale. In collaboration with industrial partners we invented a set of new principles for carrying out continuous stir-frying successfully in large scale, and we have applied internationally for a patent. Based upon one of