Wolfgang Puck is one the world’s most iconic chefs with locations worldwide, a successful line of kitchenware and mouth-watering recipes, his name is synonymous with greatness. Puck is now putting his name on the NovoPro Oven, a new device which will redefine the kitchen. With its ability to cook a 13 pound turkey in under an hour, Puck dished on the new technology with TheCelebrityCafe.com’s Sarah Douglas.
TheCelebrityCafe.com: Your new NovoPro Oven boasts the ability to cook a 13 pound turkey in under one hour- that’s incredible! What happened that made you want to create such a convenient device?
Wolfgang Puck: You know what there are many cooking appliances out there that help you cook at home, for example the microwave and toaster oven, or the pressure cooker, if you want to cook something very fast, you put it in the pressure cooker. But there was never an oven out there which can cook it fast. If you turn up to high it burns, if you turn down too low it takes forever. It started two and a half years ago we started to create the low pressure counter top oven. That really took us a lot of time to get the right pressure in there and also to heat it the right way.
If food cooks in a chamber which is hermetically sealed, which means humidly and heat cannot escape. You get the entire flavor in your dish so that is most important thing. Then, it is a countertop oven so it is really easy to operate. All you have to do is put it on roast, broil, bake or rotisserie, whatever you’re doing and put the handle down and you’re going to get a turkey in 55 minutes. If you want to do a roasted chicken, it comes with the rotisserie set like that, you put the chicken on it and season it with salt, pepper and spice you like, I have some herbs I like to use here, and it’s really an easy way [to cook]. Put it in your oven, put it under pressure and on to rotisserie, when it’s finished, release pressure and you open it and you get a beautiful brown, pristine chicken- and it only takes 45 minutes.
It took us a really long time to get just the right temperature for in here and you know, you can bake regular things in there.
You can bake bread in there, I have all kinds of muffins, you can do pastries, so you name it you can use this oven just like anything. If you have that oven on your counter you will never use your other oven again. You will only use this oven because it cooks much faster and it is so easy to operate.
TCC: I understand it is going to feature on HSN on June 8, will it be available for purchase then also?
HP: Yes, it will be the first time it will be available on HSN- it will be its world debut. We only have 900 of them made so far, so I’m sure it’s going to sell out fast because 900 is not a lot for the United States. I’m very excited about it because I think everybody has a lot to do at home. A lot of mothers and fathers when they cook at home they think, “Well I don’t have a lot of time to cook,” or, “I don’t want to spend all of this time in the kitchen.” Now, you can put a big roast in the oven and then come back and 50 minutes later, or 40 minutes later, you get a great meal and you don’t even have to baste it, it’s self-basting which keeps it nice and moist. This is an oven for everyday use, you don’t have to wait to cook a turkey or roasted chicken. You can use it regular to make your toast in the morning, to bake your muffins or chocolate cake, whatever you want. But, it is really amazing to cook a meal like a turkey, roasted chicken, pork or prime rib because you save so much time.
It gives you a really nice moist product, that’s what I like about it. It’s good, but if it wasn’t tasty I wouldn’t sell it, to me the taste is everything.
TCC: Will the NovoPro Oven be featured in any of your restaurants?
WP: You know right now it isn’t big enough for the restaurant. Right now I made it for the people at home because I always have mothers coming up to me and talk about always having to go to a fast food restaurant and having fried food because they don’t have any time to cook, it’s so difficult to make a roasted chicken so they pick up fried chicken, but the fried chicken is cooked in oil and has a lot of preservatives, sugar, salt, whatever. But now, with this oven, you can put the chicken or turkey in and go out and play with the kids and it will be cooked.
This way you have leftovers and the next day you can make sandwiches and salad, mix it with some BBQ sauce and make BBQ turkey quesadillas, there are a lot of things you can do with leftovers.
TCC: It’s another thing that people who are fans of your cooking and of your work can look to. Your name is synonymous with some of the world’s best dishes, greatest restaurants and now you have a variety of notable kitchenware. At what point did you realize you were on your way to becoming one of the world’s most celebrated chefs?
WP: You know, I feel like we are still at the beginning. We are still learning and still growing and still trying to do new things and to me cooking or whatever is like an evolution, we are always brining new things to the table. When I started with my cookware years ago, you know people were trying to cook at home and showed them how to cook better. Then we got the great pressure cooker and now we have our low pressure counter top oven so there’s always something new. And also the restaurant world, you know we check the Spago here in Beverly Hills last summer, after sixteen years, remade it completely new and now it has a new menu. I think we are always up to something new and our next project is in Dubai and maybe the next stop is China, we keep ourselves busy!
TCC: You do keep busy! You work all day, you’re creating new dishes, new products for the kitchen, do you get burnt out on cooking?
WP: No, no even when I come home and have two young kids who live with me- my other ones are off to college, I put a chicken in and go outside and play soccer with my kids and then and 45 minutes later I come back and make some potatoes cut in four or whatever and put them underneath the chicken and roast them and then 45 minutes later I have a great meal. A little salad on the side and I’m done so I don’t have to spend all of the time in the kitchen to make something really great tasting.
The NovoPro Oven start out at $299, but viewers can get it in their house for "60 bucks," Wolfgang informs.