From „Hot Rods“ to „Hot Tables“:

How a German Automobile Tuning Legend. Revolutionizes Cooking

Back in the 80’s industrial designer Paul Schacht was amongst the first automobile tuning professionals, when he transformed the legendary Mercedes Benz 190 into a “Hot Rod”, literally.  

For quite a number of years Schacht’s fine Benz held the World Record for the fastest Sedan ever to roll right off the conveyor. But this was only the beginning. Many more models followed, all developed along the lines of his philosophy that good design has to have state-of-the-art engineering inside.

 Next to the engineer’s passion for fast automobiles Schacht has a faible for excellent food, and cooking it himself, too. Following his
logic, cookware has to live up to his perfectionist standards as well. Perfect it was, yet just by the measures the pieces were originally designed for, hence performing one specialty use only.

“How come one needs to utilize a sleigh of different pots, pans and other cookware to produce a decent, fresh and healthy meal?” he was wondering. That said Schacht went to work.

Along his motto “Impossible is not part of my vocabulary.”, he dove into experimenting and developing. His goal was to translate his new philosophy into making cooking and dining a fun, interactive “Experience”.

 Next thing you know – after many months of intensive research, trials and errors – he achieved the impossible: the “Hot Table” came to fruition and was ready to transport the Cook-N-Dine & Qookingtable concept into reality. State-of-the-art yet geniously straight-forward, robust technology performed magic: the center of the seamless stainless steel tabletop sinks down slightly when hot thus forming a shallow dip; imagine a quite flat type of wok. The perimeter of the “Hot Table” stays cool to allow for table settings. Switched off, the indentation vanishes like nothing ever happened.

Schacht’s patented feature makes for a piece of “Cooking Furniture” of the Third Kind, which he affectionately calls his “Hearth of the Third Millennium”. Meanwhile indoor/ outdoor drop in and portable units are on the market, all of which truly emulate teppanyaki-style cooking at  itsbest.

“In the past years developments in kitchen technologies have shown that anything is possible. Mankind needs to get ready for a small cooking revolution.” he says, smiling. Gourmets and gourmands are in for sizzling.