Building a Better Oven

Boggled by the amount of time the family spent cooking this holiday season? By next year, these trips to the kitchen could be cut in half.

Thermador, the appliance manufacturer based in Huntington Beach, has signed a licensing deal with a Texas high-tech research firm to bring fast-cooking technology to consumers’ home ovens.

The Dallas-based Enersyst Development Center has developed a system that can cook food up to four times as fast as a conventional oven, and without turning the turkey into a rubber chicken.

The technology, which combines heat jets and microwaves, was originally developed for a NASA space shuttle, said Bob Norris, president and chief technical officer for Enersyst.

Several restaurants and fast-food chains, such as Domino’s and Pizza Hut, already use this system, Norris said.

The newly powered ovens will be available to consumers by late 1998, Thermador officials said. Details about the price and name of the appliance line have not been established.

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P.J. Huffstutter covers high technology for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-7830 and at p.j.huffstutter@latimes.com