Copyright © Françoise Herrmann
Fouclette undoubtedly rimes with raclette, the delicious broiled "scraped-cheese", Swiss appetizer. Especially, considering that the inventors, Denis Flota and Marie Christine Ribatto, both hail from Chamonix, in the French Alps, a mountain range shared with Switzerland, in the Southeast of France. The Fouclette, an ultra-portable, all-in-one, gas grill, broiler, and rôtisserie (skewer-roaster), was invented by a professional food-industry couple, with the famous multifunctionality of the “Swiss army knife” in mind. A couple, who craved to grill, broil, and skewer-roast on high-altitude treks, using an ultra-portable, multipurpose, gas-powered cooking appliance.
The Fouclette invention was awarded the French Industrial Property Office (Institut National de la Propriété Industrielle - INPI) patent, FR 3120423, titled Ultra-portable gas cooker with orbital rotating burner. The first syllable of the term Fouclette, “Fou”, meaning “jester” in French, is also a homonym for “crazed”, which is how the inventors are purported to have felt when their invention, the ultra-portable, multipurpose, combination broiler, skewer-roaster and grill, went on to collect many accolades, including the 2022 gold medal, at the historically famous, French innovation contest, called the Concours Lépine (first launched in1901).
The Fouclette combines three-appliances-in-one: a griddle or plancha for grilling, a rotisserie for food cooked on a skewer, and a broiler. The patent Figure 1 is included below, together with an image of the marketed Fouclette in use. The patent Figure 1 depicts the appliance enclosure (1), a radiant burner (2), supplied by an air/gas pipe (3), a circular groove (4) allowing to set the position of the burner, a central axis (5), a locking ring (6), a burner rotation handle (7), and stowaway feet (8). The enclosure has pegs (9) for installing cooking accessories (e.g., a griddle), a front opening (10) for sliding in a cooking dish or food for broiling, and a groove (11) for accommodating skewers. The Figure 1 also depicts a detachable lid (12) which, once removed, enables the Fouclette to accommodate containers larger than the heating surface, and once closed, enables to use the Fouclette as an oven.
Ultra-portable gas cooking appliance with an orbital rotating burner, enabling various cooking operations to be carried out with the same appliance. The present invention relates to an ultra- portable gas appliance, whose orbital rotation of the burner enables miniaturization, and to perform several cooking operations. The orbital rotation of the burner enables it to be positioned either on the top, side, or bottom of the enclosure, which has the effect of reducing the overall size of the enclosure, unlike other rotary burner cooking appliances, which rotate on their central axis, and therefore always remain positioned in the center of the appliance, regardless of their orientation. Traditionally, portable gas cooking appliances are limited in their cooking operations due to the stationary position of the burner. The central position of rotary burners, inside the cooking enclosure, results in an increase in the size of the enclosure, and therefore also of the appliance. The appliance is intended for cooking food. [Abstract FR3120423]
References
Fouclette
Concours Lépine
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