Cookup200 Is A Portable Solar Cooker That Looks Like A Weaponized Dish

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That shiny dish that looks like it’s designed to beam lasers into outer space?  Well, that’s not what it does.  Instead, the Cookup200 is a solar cooking apparatus that uses natural heat from the sun to help you whip up your favorite dishes.

Created by French company iD Cook, the outdoor cooker uses parabolic mirrors that focus all the heat it accumulates into a small tray where you can set down your uncooked grub.  They claim it’s perfect for all types of cooking, including baked, stewed and steamed grub, with the cooking time comparable to a standard barbecue session.

Meant for portable use, the Cookup200 can be disassembled and fit into an included case for easy carrying.  Assembly is pegged at around 10 minutes, which would probably be shorter when you’ve got a horde of hungry campers hankering to get their supper cooked.

Mirrors are made from 100% recyclable optical polyester laced with one gram of aluminum per square meter, with the frame built out of Portuguese wood.   Since it uses natural light for power, you’ll need to point it right at the sun using the sight; for turning off, just remove whatever you’ve got cooking and turn the whole thing over.

The Cookup200 is available from iD Cook, priced at €499.95 (around $700).

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7 Responses

  1. We’ll get to the cooking queries a bit later, but I have got to admit that this is a fascinating design. I had always imagined solar cookers to resemble something that students generally reproduce in their general science exams when they are asked to write a note on the working of a solar cooker. The reality seems a lot more parabolic than that! I have an idea of how parabolic reflectors concentrate the gist of the sunlight right onto the desired spot. But does it mean that a solar cooker can replace the conventional barbeque arrangement is something I doubt. Plus, there has got to be some limitation to the variety of cooking that can be carried out using the Cookup 200. I would be pretty well amazed if it can bake, stew and steam grub, as is mentioned in this post.

  2. I remember the experiment we all used to do in our laboratories, focussing sunlight on a piece of paper by using a lens, to witness a spot of black appear on the parched paper after a few seconds. I think this is the same experiment, taking place at a much bigger scale. But the idea of doing all the outdoor cooking through such primitive means does not sound appealing, and I know such an opinion is bound to be questioned by the members of the green brigade out there. I will put it this way. On a camping tour, I would choose the conventional barbeque over some portable parabolic reflectors.

  3. With the energy crisis staring in the face of mankind, thinking of alternatives to conventional energy sources has become of immediate importance. The Cookup solar cooker from Id Cook sounds like a good product, purely because of the fact that it brings in natural solar energy for the purposes which generally consume non renewable fuels. A strange query popped up inside my ignorant head. Wouldn’t it be a bit risky going near the cooking assembly, considering that parabolic reflectors would concentrate a lot of sunlight on to a small area, thus creating a very hot surface?

  4. It is really commendable of the Cookup 200 gives cooking time close to that of a barbeque system, though it is hard to imagine that there would be a corresponding equivalence between the tastes of the results of the two different cookers. Though I am at a loss to discuss the reasons, but something assures me that there would be a compromise on the taste by using a solar cooking device such as Cookup 200. Try telling that to somebody from iD Cook, my room mate tells me!

  5. There is no dearth of solar cookers in the market, and most of them would be priced at a lot less than seven hundred dollar. That would most probably be the biggest damping factor for prospective buyers, even bigger than ones such as dependence on the availability of sunlight (imagine stuck on a picnic spot with all inventory laid out, waiting for the sun to show up) and lack of dependability in general. Its portability adds on at least some degree of value to it, and so does the pride of owning a green device with the same ideology integrated into its design (the recyclable optical polyester).

  6. Will the Cookup grill be able to match the performance of the ordinary grill? I would appreciate if any user posts the time it takes to cook, let’s say sausage. It would be great if this device can handle grilling, stewing and seaming in a manner even to close to that of the good old charcoal grill.

  7. The company’s website presents a pretty confident picture of the capabilities of the product. I wonder if my interpretations are right, but the Cookup 200 can develop more than 200 degrees Celsius. And considering the dimensions of the feeding area, the food cooked shall cater to five people with normal appetites. It weighs around six and a half kilos, and takes something like 10 to 12 minutes to set up. There are no additional tools required to set it up. If you happen to be living in an environment where sunlight is prominent for a good part of the year, and weekend getaway plans crop up each time, the Cookup 200 is just the product for you. The French company has patented the design and innovation. This cool cooking device comes with two years’ warranty.

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