Innovating Kitchen Safety and Comfort with Sharp Home Appliances

Summary

In this episode, Janet Engel interviews Peter Weedfald, Senior VP Sales and Brand Marketing and Harry Hessen, Associate VP Product Development and Design from Sharp Home Appliances, discussing their innovative products designed with universal design principles and aging in place in mind. 

They delve into the history and evolution of the microwave drawer, the introduction of the superheated steam oven, and the features of the radiant cooktop, emphasizing safety, convenience, and ergonomics for all users, especially the elderly.

Takeaways

Sharp focuses on universal design and aging in place.
The microwave drawer was invented by Sharp to enhance kitchen safety.
Products are designed to be user-friendly for all ages.
Superheated steam cooking preserves nutrients in food.
Low physical effort is a key design principle.
Sharp has a strong commitment to innovation and quality.
The microwave drawer has become a popular kitchen appliance.
Ergonomics play a crucial role in product design.
Sharp's products are made in Memphis, Tennessee.
The company aims to educate consumers and designers about their products.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Sharp Home Appliances
02:11 Understanding Universal Design and Aging in Place
09:03 The Microwave Drawer: A Game Changer
18:39 Innovations in Kitchen Appliances
25:32 Market Trends and Consumer Insights
31:10 Understanding Sharp's Market Position
32:00 The Superheated Steam Oven: A Game Changer
38:02 Innovative Cooking Techniques and Health Benefits
43:02 Exploring the Radiant Cooktop Technology
48:54 Universal Design and Aging in Place Solutions

Sharp Appliance Video: https://riverside.fm/shared/exported-clip/d284929400423149e466

Transcript

Janet Engel (00:01.638)
Good afternoon, everyone. I am very excited about this podcast episode because I have two senior executives from Sharp Home Appliances and Consumer Electronics. I have Peter Weedfald, which is the senior vice president of sales and brand marketing at Sharp. And then I also have Harry Hessen, which is the associate vice president of product development and design.

I had the pleasure of meeting Harry at the KVIZ show. He attended my talk during the VFTI sessions and I was just very excited to talk to him afterwards and he had tons of valuable information to share about all of the appliances that Sharp has been creating for over two decades now.

and how they all fall under either universal design or are aging in place friendly. So I'd like to start with Peter, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your position at Sharp?

Peter Weedfald (01:12.594)
Sure, but before I do that, Janet, just want to let you know the Padrone, that's Harry. Harry has been with the company, believe it or not, since 1989. That's 36 years. We call him the Padrone because he's the person that we live with and wait for the next magical moment in universal design and aging in place. He has creativity in him. He has organization. He knows technology. He has imagination. He has ideas. And so...

Janet Engel (01:17.809)
That's

Peter Weedfald (01:41.234)
Harry, I don't get to see you that often. just want to thank you for the great technologies and products you're bringing for Sharp across America. being very successful. So let's start with that. My name is Peter Weafald. I am the Senior Vice President of Sales and Brand Marketing. I kind of think of myself as the tinker to the toys. Harry's the toys. I get to tinker with him in the marketplace. But I will tell you that I've been with the company for 10 years, pleasantly for 10 years.

And together with Harry and his team down in Memphis, hundred and seven acre facility, just extraordinary engineers, cosmetics, designs, think tank. I call it the think tank. We work very closely together to make sure that we can make and take market share again under the ribs of the umbrella of universal design and AIP. One last data point, Harry, before I let you go. Aging in place. I read I renamed the acronym. Janet, don't fall on the floor.

Janet Engel (02:22.13)
Mm.

Peter Weedfald (02:40.294)
Because I'm older too and I don't want to have someone say, you're agent in place. So I say AIP, agent in place, actually stands for appreciate. So you'll find the sharp home appliances really appreciates everyone from a universal design standpoint, but also appreciates our elders. We respect our elders. We want them to do well. So the A is appreciate. The second one for I is initiate. It's not good enough to just appreciate people.

But how can you initiate products and technologies in a home that will keep our elders safe, that is a universal design, and that will give us competitive advantage? Believe it or not, Janet, we have to worry about competitive advantage in our marketplace. And then finally, the P, the P is protect. So AIP instead of agent in place, appreciate, initiate, and protect, protect people's investments on universal design and protect our elders, those that we say are agent in place that I say.

Let's call it something else. So that's us. We love to appreciate all of our customers, especially those in the class we're talking about, initiate technology and products that are simply better living, easier to use. And then finally, products that will protect our entire lifestyles. Harry, over to you, sir.

Harry Hessen (03:58.222)
Okay, well appreciate that introduction. I'm kind of a shy guy, not sure how to respond to it, but thank you for that. as Peter said, I've been here since 1989, so I'm, you know, again one of the older guys here. But my background's industrial design. I moved up into product planning and product development and so on, but I went to Arizona State University, graduated 1980.

But actually, and being an industrial designer, you're pounded to for ergonomics. That's one of the key things for industrial design. So, had like four classes on human factors, ergonomics, and so on. So, that's really pounded into our heads as designers in college. And my first job, real job was with an elevator company, Dover Elevator.

Janet Engel (04:40.21)
you

Harry Hessen (04:58.638)
One of the things I was fortunate to be able to design all the controls and so on that was in an elevator. If and today these we designed it a line called impulse. And if you get on an elevator and see all the controls slant it and that was a Dover elevator. That's my design that did back then. So and it's still around today and they quit making those probably about five years ago, but they're still around. I moved into doing consulting.

work for a short time. But one of the companies I worked for, I think I mentioned to you ProMature down in Oxford, Mississippi, they, before they called it 55 plus active adult communities, they call them retirement centers. So I worked on a lot of projects with them. And this is back in the late, I would say about 80, 88 or something like there, 87.

So I worked a lot projects and was familiar with that particular market. so with all that knowledge, it's just kind of naturally, when we design any products here, Mark Waves or all the built-in products, we take an okay, universal design, that term came on board probably about 10 or 15 years ago, everybody started using it, but it's just common sense type design. You design it for everybody. So.

Anyway, that's a little bit about my background.

Janet Engel (06:27.474)
I love that and your last comment about the phrase for 55 plus communities being retirement centers. Peter, I would think you would have a real problem with that. That's way worse than the aging in place phrase.

Harry Hessen (06:41.902)
you

Peter Weedfald (06:46.002)
Well, I think to respect our elders, which I do and I am an elder now, unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, is it's interesting. We talk about all kinds of different career paths. People who are in acting in Hollywood and on TV, they run till they're 93, like Clint Eastwood. People who are in the government, they last, they're in wheelchairs and they're rolling down as senators. People who...

actually are in the music business. don't know if you've seen Mick Jagger recently, but he's still hopping around on stage. I think if you speak to each one of them, they wouldn't want to be called retiring in place and they wouldn't want to be called retiring. and in point of fact, you know, we all have families and when we hit a certain age, we don't retire from our family. We're retired from our job. Well, the fact of the matter is, that, in respecting our elders, that's why I talked about it to appreciate them, initiate and protect them.

That's what to me, universal design is all about and finding ways in that path. Now here's the really good news, Janet. Sharp Electronics, Sharp Home Appliances, thanks to Harry and his industrial engineering leadership, we have been building products for decades that well form fit into those that have decided not to go to the workplace anymore. Those that want to not travel so much, but live in their lifestyle at home.

but yeah, we'll call them retired if you will, or just simply, you know, aging in place if you want to use that term, but we've been building them for a long time. So if you look across our horizon, in fact, Harry will tell you that I came up with a tagline for sharp called sharp. Simply better living, which I think fits into a very relevant to our conversation products that are very simple to use. They're better than the competition in terms of universal design.

That's a fat claim and we'll talk about why. Universal design and aging in place, if you will. And then finally, simply better living. It's all about a living lifestyle. We spend our time worrying about making sure that your lifestyle will be enhanced and better through the sharp experience vis-a-vis what we're talking about, what Harry has been building with his team.

Janet Engel (09:03.426)
Yes, thank you for that Peter. And I want to start talking about the microwave drawer because before I met you Harry, I didn't know that Sharp Home Appliances was the original inventor of the microwave drawer. And actually you invented it. So I'm so honored and excited to have you here and have a conversation with you because

The microwave over the stove, I believe, is the most dangerous appliance combination in the kitchen. So tell us about what inspired you to create it and how has the design evolved to support aging in place?

Harry Hessen (09:55.038)
Well, idea was actually, was back in 1998, there was an executive vice president, Anne Howard was her name, product planning up there, and we were walking through a kitchen and bath show. And, you know, one of the things that the designers and so on, they want to get the microwave off the counter. That's the most common place to put it.

And we've come up with a couple of solutions. You could take a countertop and build it in, but being able to have easy access to it. And one of the things that we just, it was pretty obvious that there's a lot of products in a drawer. mean, even just kitchen cabinets, to get into a cabinet, a drawer is much easier than under the counter than trying to crawl into a cabinet that has doors on it. So.

You know, there's warming drawers have been around for a while and then they had dishwashers in a drawer and they had refrigerators and drawers So we said, you know, why not a microwave? So we as I mentioned we have a full development design center here. We we we we came up to concept we put together a mock-up and In 1999 we went to the kitchen bath show. I think it was in Orlando that year a little bitty small 20-foot booth

and we had mockups of it. And it was, you know, was kind of like everybody came in and went, wow, you know, this cool. But, you know, it had a lot of engineering challenges and I went back and we had product planning meetings every year and kept on going back to Japan and we, it kind of evolved and we prepared and we did studies, we did focus group studies and so on. And we were trying to come up with an actual range.

We were actually we trying to sell more OTR so we didn't have our own range so we were trying to come up a range that had unique features and then brought up the idea well, we kind of developed an anti-OTR we said why don't we put a microwave drawer in the range and because at that time there was Gemini Maytag out there that had a double oven that had a top small oven the bottom oven and so we built mock-ups foam core mock-ups we did some focus group studies and we actually

Harry Hessen (12:15.406)
The first application of the microwave drawer was in a range. And that range was actually way ahead of its time because it had a touch screen, it had 100 recipes in it, and so on. So we brought that to market in 2004. And then it had kind of a five-year run. then they were like, I really like the microwave drawer. Can you take it out of the range? So we made a solo model, and it was 30-inch. And then we eventually came up with the 24-inch.

Harry Hessen (12:45.489)
The first ones that we did, we thought, had an automatic drawer and we had a manual drawer. We were thinking, well, probably 70 or 80 % of it was going to be manual drawer and some people might like the automatic. It was totally opposite what we predicted. We probably sold maybe 10 % manual drawers. Everybody loved the automation. hitting a button, it automatically comes out to you, delivers the food to you comes back in. So over the years, as it evolved,

We made improvements with the performance of it coming in and out. We created kind of a hidden control, one, as far as ergonomics go, the original one had a slanted control panel, but we have one now that has a hidden control. We have several versions of it. you can pop out the panel if you want it, and it's at a 45 degree angle so you can see it even better to operate the controls.

Then we eventually brought it out so that we a connectivity with IoT. We added voice to it and we did things like wave open where you could wave open it. It's evolved over the years and we went back to the original product with a combination and a range and now we've come out with combination cooktops and microwave drawers, combination wall ovens.

and we can get at that a little bit later.

Peter Weedfald (14:16.176)
Yeah, yeah. so I would just Harry is very kind to himself. He kind of talked about many, many features, but I will say that products make brands, brand don't brands don't make products. So we challenge ourselves consistently to come out with the next level of of product that will give back and allow better return. So I want to give you an example of that. Right.

Harry said, you can wave and you can do these things. So one of the ideas that we had about our built-in microwave drawers, in fact, some of our other products, is when you talk again about either ADA compliant, right, American Disabilities Act compliant, or universal design, or aging in place if you'd like, is it makes a lot of sense that you talk to your dog, you talk to your cat, you talk to your mom, you talk to your sister, you talk to your children.

Why not talk to the appliances? In fact, if you recall for years, you would see that for agent in place, they would have this, this device around their neck. And if they fell, they could just say, help me. I fell down. Right. Well, make it easier and part of simply better living. How about if you could say to your microwave drawer, Alexa, open the microwave drawer. How easy is that? Nope. Strain on the back. No strain on the neck.

And by the way, since it's ADA compliant, God forbid if you're in a wheelchair or you're suspended some way, it's very, very easy to tell the drawer to open up. But if that's not good enough and you don't like to use voice, then how about you walk up to the built-in microwave drawer and you wave to it and the drawer opens up automatically just by waving to it. And if that doesn't work and Harry described it, Harry designed a 45 degree drop down

angle for our built-in microwave drawer. When that 45 degree comes down, now it's perfectly designed ADA compliant, nor does the person have to bend over and look underneath the island to see what the controls say. It's right there for you. again, choice not chance. You can talk to your device. You can use a 45 degree drop down or you can actually wave to it. And that's just our generation of building a better product.

Peter Weedfald (16:36.538)
under the language and the umbrella of simply better living. And that's why we say our products build our Sharp brand. We don't just say, we have Sharp and look at these products. They're engineered for great perfection, universal design, agent in place, and for everybody in their common life.

Janet Engel (16:54.156)
Yeah, and the microwave drawer really not only does it look great because it's hidden and very easy to clean and then has this technology built into it, but people don't realize that when the microwave is over the stovetop, it automatically puts the user at risk for a head injury and burns. And it also makes it much more difficult to keep your appliance clean.

or to control how the food is being cooked because unless you're a very tall person, you cannot see into it. So those are the main reasons why I, as an occupational therapist and as a certified aging in place specialist, hate the microwave over the stovetop.

Peter Weedfald (17:47.864)
So we're probably going to talk about a couple of other products that Harry has invented for us. But I do want to make clear for the audience that Sharp is the inventor, designer and manufacturer of the built in drawer and other products that we have combined together. And they're actually made down in Memphis, Tennessee, assembled, assembled, if you will, down in Memphis, Tennessee. So we're very proud of that. But as I said,

You've got to keep inventing. So there are other products that I think your audience would be very interested in around that. That again allows them to articulate in a way that makes it easy for their body, easy for their emotion, easy to articulate and the ability to do multiple things, including safety. Safety is very, very important to us as a company.

Janet Engel (18:39.58)
So you mentioned, Peter, other products. I'd like to talk about the combination cooktop, I'm sorry, the combination wall oven microwave drawer. Tell me about that one.

Peter Weedfald (18:53.744)
Yeah, so, Harry, if you want me to take a swing or do you want to talk? I'm good either way.

Harry Hessen (18:59.228)
You can go ahead and I'll add to it.

Peter Weedfald (19:01.752)
Add the color. Add all the things I forgot to say. But we're very proud of this product because number one, it's the only one in the world, You cannot go out and buy this product that I'm about to describe from anyone, but from Sharp Home Appliance, to Sharp Electronics. And why I'm so proud of it is we've taken a wall oven. We've enhanced that wall oven with all kinds of great features.

including soft touch clothes, including temperature probe. Harry's got it. He's shown it to you right behind there right now. And the other piece is the built in microwave drawer underneath. So we've put together a product for the kitchen that's so user friendly, so ADA compliant. The drawer again is ADA compliant. So I want to make sure I'm talking about the drawer being ADA compliant. But what we did was we developed it and put it on one track. So the wall oven and the drawer on one track.

It uses one seven and a half inch LCD display. And here we go again. You can articulate and turn on the oven or turn on a microwave from the display. Or you can talk and say, Alexa, turn on the oven. And Alexa will say back, what temperature? And I would say 350 degrees. OK, I'm turning the oven on at 350 degrees. Again, on the drawer, I can say, Alexa, open up the microwave drawer.

Reach down. I can do my stirring of the soup if I like and it just tap the drawer and it closes or I can just wave to the drawer and it opens up. So one last data point that's critically important. There are some other products in the marketplace, Janet, that are combination, but they're basically you're not going to like this. What I tell you already told me you don't like it. Harry, get ready for this one. The wall ovens on the bottom and the OTR is on top.

So literally to get to the OTR, it's the same problem you have when it's up on the ceiling. You have to reach high, pull it down, take out what you want, place it in. And again, if we're talking about agent and living and universal design, it does not fit the bill. So we're very, very proud of the way this has been ergonomically designed. We're proud because it's an extension of our built-in microwave draw line that we're bringing combination products out. And we're really proud because you can articulate it three ways.

Peter Weedfald (21:28.242)
on the seven and a half inch LCD screen. You can talk to either device, the wall oven or the drawer, and you can actually wave to the drawer and open it up. Harry, in what I missed here.

Harry Hessen (21:40.91)
Well, I just want stress that this combination has been around for quite some time since the 80s where you have a microwave and a wall oven combined together. But as Peter said, it was reversed. The built-in microwave was above and typically it's a side opening door or a drop down door, but it's typically probably about 48 inches off the ground. So you have to reach up and as you know,

be an occupational therapist, reaching above your shoulders, the core and stabilizer muscles begin to wear out. And when you get above 55, the risk is still higher. And the other thing is, how many times do you use a microwave and you take things out and you stir it and you put it back in there? Well, for microwave drawer, comes out, you stir it, you push it back closed.

So what we did, if you look at the one behind us, the way we spec out how to install it, the microwave drawer is right below the countertop. And when you open up the door of the oven, it's at countertop height. So everything's at a good position for reaching in and so on. that's kind of the installation, making sure you have it right location.

And if you look at a lot of these communities or even regular homes, don't get me wrong, we sell over the range microwaves too. you know, it's big market. And to give you a perspective of this, like 5 million over the range microwaves sold every year. And the reason why it's so popular, people like that microwave adjacent to the cooktop. They like to have it close and so on.

Peter Weedfald (23:16.978)
Thank you, and good luck.

Harry Hessen (23:37.358)
Now our combination cooktop and microwave drawer, you know, it's kind of like an extension of our original range that we had. Again, you know, the over the count, you have the OTR, over the range microwave up there, again, you reach in over hot surface, you got spaghetti, the water boiling for the spaghetti and you get the sauce you're heating up in the microwave, you got to reach up there, stir it, pull it out, so.

And and a lot of these properties that that what we're trying to tell kitchen designers about the way We've had some workshops down here for for kitchen designers is that if you're actually designing for one of these communities or you have an individual client that wants to think about the future and how to plan their kitchen that you know, it adds value to your property or it's a it's marketing feature that say

You have one of these combination products and you put an induction cooktop, well for instance the combi back here, we have an induction cooktop beside it. So that's a nice package. And that's gonna add value to your property or you have a cooktop and you put just a wall oven adjacent to it. You have that cooking triangle there. So it's not only.

Is it safer? Is it easier to use ergonomically? It adds value to your property, whether it's a big 100 plus aging in place community or it's your own individual. then people are also thinking about if you have mother-in-laws that move in or you have older parents or something like that, it makes it easier for...

for everybody to use. So again, universal design is easy for everybody.

Peter Weedfald (25:32.466)
I just want to add, if I could to that, is one of the things that is really, really important is low physical effort. Low physical effort. And the way we just described it, talking to your devices, like you talk to your friends or your children, is a low physical effort. If you can wave and not have to bend and go up and down, that's a low physical effort. And then finally, as I described with the 45 degree angle,

Janet Engel (25:32.634)
And I...

Peter Weedfald (25:59.836)
That's a low physical effort. don't even have to bend to look at the control panel down below. It's right there. So we're again, very respectful and appreciative of everyone who looks at our products. But I want to say one thing, even though we're talking about universal design and agent and process, if you ask a hundred people, would you prefer, think Janet, you'll agree, would you refer a pull down, pull down microwave?

or the magic of it going into the cavity of the room and coming back out. And I think you're going to get 100 out of 100 going, I want that. So that's why we're proud of the design. We have 16 patents, by the way, on our built-in microwave drawer that we're very proud of.

Janet Engel (26:41.33)
Well, there's no doubt about that. I'd love to have a microwave drawer. In my home, I don't even own a microwave, but if I did, I would want to have a microwave drawer. Now, I know that cost is one of the factors. From what I hear, it's about two or $3,000 to have one put in, am I correct?

Peter Weedfald (27:09.298)
Well, I think we start at about $1,199, depending on which model you're talking about. And we have $1,199, $1,299, $1,499, $1,599. Each have a little different feature to it. We actually have eight built-in micro-jaws today that are in the marketplace. We're bringing more, and I can't talk about those today.

But yeah, they're a little bit more expensive than a countertop. But if you look at a darn good OTR, you'd be looking at $499, $599. So you step up, you know, for $600 more. It makes sense. Number one. And number two, if you're redoing an entire kitchen, if you are going to redesign, if you're a builder and you're putting together condominiums for whatever age bracket, retirement or otherwise, that's going to sell the property better. You walk into the kitchen.

and you're being shown the kitchen, somebody goes, Alexa, open the microwave drawer or waves at it or uses that 45 degree angle. If so facto, that's called emotional capital. And one of the two couples is going to say, this is where I want to live. Did you see that? Did you see what just happened? Did you see that drawer come out? That's high tech. So yeah, it's a little bit more expensive, but in the scope of things, if you're rebuilding a kitchen or you're buying a new home,

and you roll it into your mortgage or you roll it into the overall cost, it is well worth the value to have a better low physical impact, low physical effort and high quality products.

Janet Engel (28:43.25)
And when you take into account that people 50 and over are spending over 56 % or are responsible for 56 % of all home improvement sales and they are spending money on high-end items such as the microwave drawer and you know other kitchen appliances that have technology features then it

make sense to create these products and market to the 50 plus demographic.

Peter Weedfald (29:16.466)
We all know whatever research we look at that the baby boomers, if so facto, those over the age of 57 years old have the largest bucket of household income, meaning savings, assets, the whole nine yards. So the majority of them, believe me, would look at it this way, but also price will come down over time. It always does. But people are willing to pay a little extra.

for high quality, a little extra for better safety, a little extra for more convenience, and a little extra for wow. And we know that because we've been extremely successful selling almost a million and a half of these built-in microwave drawers over the last couple of the last 20 years. So there is this big demand for this product, trust me.

Janet Engel (30:05.751)
yeah.

Harry Hessen (30:06.126)
So Janet, if I could also mention that, like Peter said, in 2020, we passed one million microwave drawers built. However, you'd be amazed of all the people who never heard or seen the microwave drawer. And better yet, or not better, worse than yet, kitchen designers, what we're trying to do is educate kitchen designers who specify these products. A lot of those folks have not

ever seen a microwave drawer neither. And I know you do certification for caps and so on. And what we're trying to do is spread the word that this is a great solution for what they're designing for and being able to get to specified and also, again, spreading the word that this product is around. don't think you've ever seen the microwave drawer before I introduced it to you. But anyway.

That's one point I want to make that we're just, it's kind of the best kept secret in the industry.

Janet Engel (31:09.874)
Well, that's too bad.

Peter Weedfald (31:10.66)
I will say on house, Janet on house, I'm sorry, we're architects and builders, as you know, have their own websites and show all the great designs of products. have about 18,000 builders and architects on houses, enclave that include a short built-in microwave drawer. So we are proud of it. So the builders and the architects know us quite well. Designers are beginning to know us better, but I think the general population to Harry's point.

Janet Engel (31:33.639)
Mm-hmm.

.

Peter Weedfald (31:39.254)
may not be as familiar with this product. And again, if we would just show it to them, you know, we're not the company that goes, hi, we're sharp. Let's advertise and market. We're more of a let's build high quality products. They will come to us and over time they will discover us. So that's how we've been doing in this marketplace.

Janet Engel (32:00.028)
So tell me about other products that Sharp has created, for example, the superheated steam oven. How is this product especially useful for either one person or a couple living alone? And how does this steam and convection technology help users prepare nutritious meals more easily?

Peter Weedfald (32:29.772)
Well, let me, let me, this is my favorite product in the whole company outside of air purification. So Harry, if you'll let me kick it and then I'll hand it off to you. the, the super steam oven that Harry's team has put together and it's a second generation out of Memphis, Tennessee. Not only do we build it for us, but we build for others of that product. But basically I'll describe the, before I describe the product, let me tell you what it does.

One of the things that's interesting is I did some discovery work after looking at our product and going through a demonstration. And Janet, you're not going to believe this. You ready? Did you know that corn grew up in water? Did you know string beans grew up in water? Did you know chickens grew up in water? Now don't laugh at me, Harry. Did you know fish grew up in water? Did you know cows grew up in water? Do you know that basically I would suggest that 90 % of what we consume

was created through some form of water. Now what's most interesting is when you take up, when you build a product that can take the temperature of water, the pure temperature of water with no assistance to 485 degrees superheated steam, which is what this product does, or 212 and or convection or a combination of the three. What you do is you are now cooking a hundred percent with water Janet.

It means the stream beans look up and go, thank God you're not putting me in this giant oven and just sucking all of my liquids and my nutrition and everything out of me because I grew up in war. So when you cook in a superheated steam oven from sharp, you actually bring the natural juices out of the food. The chicken is now when you take it out of the superheated steam oven, when you go to cut it, the meat falls right off the bone.

right off the bone. So we designed a product that literally outside of the United States and in Asia, people are cooking with steam and superheated steam on a daily lifestyle. In America, none of us have promulgated the value proposition, the healthy value propositions of cooking with steam well enough. So when I cook and basically my wife will only use the superheated steam oven. We don't use the big giant six, you know,

Peter Weedfald (34:55.44)
six cubic foot oven anymore. We usually use the superheated steam oven because what it does is it refreshes, it refreshes food. So for example, if you took a piece of pizza, right, that you hadn't eaten for two days ago and you put it in the superheated steam oven, it refreshes the bread, it refreshes the tomatoes, it refreshes everything. And it's like a brand new slice of pizza. So it's quite magical and, and,

From a healthy standpoint, I'll let you imagine what that means from a health standpoint. But frankly, we never put any kind of seasoning on our food anymore. We don't have to put seasoning on broccoli. We don't have to put seasoning on asparagus because when it comes out, you're tasting the real broccoli and asparagus. Last data point. We do something called sheet pan cooking, You can put your potatoes, your string beans, your chicken, your salmon.

all on one tray and cook them at the same time. The oven is actually designed that you can take frozen food out of your refrigerator, put it in, start cooking right away. You don't have to defrost it. You don't have to wait for the oven to get 350 degrees. You basically take the food out, you bring it in. There's no plumbing, no plumbing. So you don't have to hook up all kinds of plumbing because it has its own water well. And it runs not on 220.

Harry, believe I'm correct. It's 110 volts.

Harry Hessen (36:23.502)
Yeah, 120 volt.

Peter Weedfald (36:25.458)
120. It's a miracle product. Harry, you want to add some color to that, please?

Harry Hessen (36:30.722)
Yeah, as I've mentioned to you before, I have this oven in my kitchen too. And I have a big giant oven and I probably use that oven maybe once a month. But I cook everything in this oven. You can use it as a regular oven. But the thing about it, know, actually having a steam oven in your kitchen, it encourages you to, you know, cook more healthy items like vegetables and so on. Instead of, you know, putting it on a pot on the stove to overcook your vegetables and so on.

And the other thing about the, know, basically everybody says, how can you get, you know, steam hotter than 212 degrees Fahrenheit? And what it does, and commercial, there's commercial ovens out there like this, where it actually accelerates the steam, the gas, the gas state and pulls up to 485 degrees. And we have, we force the heat down from these little holes up in the top.

And you can steam bacon. So when I say steam bacon, you're steam grilling bacon. So what it does, it caramelizes the outside. But when you bite into it, it's still crispy inside. Now, I'm not a meat eater anymore, but I eat fish and vegetables. But I cook all my fish in there. For instance, I'll take a small salmon filet and I do a superheated steam roast. And again, put it in there for about 12 minutes.

Janet Engel (37:36.496)
Hmm.

Harry Hessen (37:57.152)
Again, it's very crispy on the outside, caramelizes outside a little bit, but the inside is like it just steamed. So it's a great little, it's a very powerful little oven and you can cook a lot of food in it too, even though it's small in capacity, it has two trays and it's just, I can't, I could talk, you know, two hours on the oven, but.

Peter Weedfald (38:02.386)
Yeah.

Janet Engel (38:22.064)
Well, I'm sold. So I wanna know, is this a wall oven or is this one that you place on your countertop?

Peter Weedfald (38:32.378)
So, so it's, it's a, it's a, this is the built-in, this is the built-in wall oven version, which is complete to everything we just said. There's the weld. Harry's showing you, you fill this up and you can cook for about an hour, an hour and a half with water. So you don't need plumbing coming into the device. It has its own staging lights. Again, it's got two rows, so you can do two rows of cooking if you'd like.

Harry Hessen (38:32.526)
This is it right here.

Peter Weedfald (38:59.074)
And the combination of you can have convection or regular steam or superheated steam makes it a delight. will. do. Harry, I'm sorry. I'm to have to warn the audience because this is critically important. Warning, warning. If you purchase the Sharp 485 degrees superheated steam oven, the combination, you're going to have a hard time eating at the finest restaurants going forward. And I know and Harry, you know, he's smiling because I'm sitting there going to restaurant. I'm order.

Harry Hessen (39:23.15)
Thanks.

Peter Weedfald (39:28.986)
I'm ordering my salmon and I'm looking at it and going, this salmon is dead. I'm going to eat a dead fish here. When I cook it in the superheated steam oven, as Harry described, brown on the outside, so moist. Janet, you put your fork in it and the salmon just drops right onto the fork. And it's so delicious, the natural juices. So I'm going to do something, Harry, if you're okay, Janet, you're okay. We do have what we call,

our countertop super steam oven. It's slightly different technology. But we use it to send out to editors so that they can understand what superheated steam food tastes like. So I'd like to send you one, Janet, for your review and usage. And I'd like you to review it. I'd like you to cook old pizza in it. I'd like you to cook salmon in it, cook some chicken, do some sheet pan cooking, put your potatoes and...

your string beans and so on in there. And Harry, doesn't that make sense? That way she can really taste a form of a countertop superheated steam oven. By the way, you can cook a whole 12 inch pizza in this baby. So if it's all right with you, I'd like to send it to you and have you take it through your process and then you give us a review on it. Would that work for you, Janet?

Janet Engel (40:46.148)
The answer is a resounding yes.

Peter Weedfald (40:49.596)
Great. Hey, we sold something today, Harry.

Harry Hessen (40:52.532)
Okay. You gave it away, so...

Janet Engel (40:55.815)
Hahaha!

Peter Weedfald (40:57.584)
Well, only if I'm sure she likes it. And I know you will. She's going to call us up and say, why did you send it to me? I can't use my oven anymore. I can't use this. I love this product. You're going to love it, Janet. It's going to blow you away, trust me. Sharp.

Janet Engel (41:00.166)
philosophically, we still lived.

Harry Hessen (41:00.609)
Okay.

Janet Engel (41:11.416)
Okay, well I love to cook, so trust me, I will use it and I will cook all kinds of things in it. So I can rate it for when it comes to cooking vegetables, meat, fish.

Peter Weedfald (41:26.854)
Yeah, try it. And I'll just tell you that that is a junior, very junior version of the technology that Harry has built. So if you like that, imagine how great it would be to have this in the wall. And you asked a question earlier, how would this fit in with aging and process? How would this fit in with universal design? Well, frankly, Harry was explaining we have an induction cooktop. You can literally put the superheated steam oven underneath it in the island or underneath the counter.

And again, now it's ADA compliant because it's low on the ground and you can do all your cooking in there. You can do regular cooking in there. You can do your steam cooking. You do your convection cooking. You can bake in it. Right, Harry? You can cook meat in it. We cook hamburgers and steak whenever we want. But I will say what Harry said. We all want a healthier living lifestyle, simply better living from sharp and eating the right foods, but eating them with the right preparation.

critically important and once you taste the food Janet you're gonna you can go online I'm so sure you're gonna love this you can go online and say Peter Wheatfall said that the sharp super steam oven and steam oven that he's gonna send us is gonna make me really love steam it will I promise you you can call me someone who said the wrong thing you're gonna say wow he said the right thing to sort of harry

Janet Engel (42:49.564)
Well, I'm excited because I've never cooked with steam, you know, other than putting things on the Maria bath. So I'm very excited. Thank you.

Peter Weedfald (43:02.254)
No problem.

Janet Engel (43:04.306)
Tell me about the Radiant stove because I really am not familiar with that at all. I'm familiar with the electric gas induction. Tell me about the Radiant cooktop.

Peter Weedfald (43:19.442)
Sure, Harry, you want to take that from a technology standpoint?

Harry Hessen (43:23.142)
Yeah, maybe, let's see if I move my computer over here so you can actually, if you can see it here. So, it's basically a cooktop with all your controls, we slant those around and then we have a microwave drawer in this location. So if you're cooking a dish or something,

You can put it down here. If you have to stir it, you can open it up and stir it. You simply just bump it, it closes, and you're not reaching, again, over a cooktop. We tried to design this. You see a lot of cooktops that have flat controls. We slided this at about a 45 degree angle. We have big control knobs that you can grab onto and turn it on very easily.

We have glass touch controls. Even our displays, we've changed our displays to a white display so that you can see it, the contrast is stronger. And this one actually has a triple heater, double heater and three heaters in the back or a warmer in the middle. One of the other things I want to point out, because again, we're trying to make a good experience of working here.

We actually create a workstation not only with this one with all our cook tops. They all come with a Accessories on the side if you notice, you know, how often are you looking for someplace? Put your spoon after you stir something so we have these these spoon rests and they're in a Frame and you got two of them and you can simply take these out putting your dishwasher you can put them on each side or

You can keep it on one side, but basically when you want to stir and you don't want to mess up something, so you put it there. How often do you have a situation where you're heating something, you're looking for a lifting rag or a pot holder to stick it on while you cut it off? Well, we have cooling. It's a cooling surface, you put it on there and let it cool off. So it's actually more than just a product. It's a complete workstation, I guess.

Harry Hessen (45:45.518)
you might want to call it. Peter, if you want to add to the...

Janet Engel (45:47.878)
That's brilliant.

Peter Weedfald (45:48.178)
Yeah, actually we were two years ago at the KBiz, NKBA KBiz show, we were a finalist as the best product in the show for this combination. And again, if we look at universal design, we look at agent in place, how wonderful you can actually cook on your radiant cooktop while at the same time you can cook in your built-in microwave drawer. And as Harry said, you can wave to the drawer, you can use the

Universal control panel on top. But again, when we talked about Sharp Simply Better Living, this is just another example. This is our product. This is our, we developed it, we manufacture it, and we originated it. And it's just something that makes sense, more sense than having the radiant cooktop over there somewhere in the kitchen. And then the OTR over here.

And so how that's not to me, universal design, that's not agent in place. And that's not even convenient for young people like Harry and I. Right. It's just not convenient. So we're always thinking about what we're thinking about low physical effort, high return on investment in terms of emotional capital, usability and low physical effort. So I think those are the products we're talking about.

Janet Engel (46:50.577)
anyone.

Peter Weedfald (47:10.096)
that we get fired up. Big of us are getting fired up about our short products. It's just, it's just, that's what we do. Right, Howard?

Harry Hessen (47:16.846)
Yep. And Jenny, if I could take you back in time for a second. You know, it's really not a new concept because we did this back in 2004. This is our original range we had. And this was the microwave drawer. And the bottom was the wall oven and cooktop. So basically what you saw there was from here up.

Peter Weedfald (47:27.247)
there it is.

Harry Hessen (47:44.846)
And you can even see, you know, it's pixelated, but it's almost like this was our touch control. So this was 2004. So this was way ahead of its time. It had 100 recipes in it. So this product over here, again, it's an extension. You just take old ideas and you make them better and better and better. So that's what we did.

Janet Engel (48:12.658)
I'm so glad you showed that to me because I don't ever remember seeing the microwave drawer on the bottom of a stove top.

Peter Weedfald (48:25.65)
Yeah. Well, listen, so again, I think we're doing it best for consumers out there in the marketplace, whether it's those that are older, younger, whatever it might be. I think we're cosmetically, I mean, our visual brand language you can see is the black edge to edge glass. Our technology is inclusive. Some of the products, most of them you can talk to, you can articulate it on an LCD screen, you can wave to our built-in microwave drawers and

We're pretty humble about it until you get us on camera. Then we get all fired up and excited, but we're really building high quality products that are meaningful, meaningful to the marketplace. And our return on investment is the fact that consumers and builders and architects and designers have been voting with their pocketbooks and voting with their hearts for Sharp and the kind of disciplined, you know, differentiated products we'll bring into the marketplace.

Janet Engel (49:22.866)
Yes, well, I'm a fan.

Peter Weedfald (49:23.725)
Yes, well.

Great. Very good.

Janet Engel (49:28.274)
Thank you so much Peter and Harry for being on my show today. I loved learning about all of the appliances that Sharp has created that fall under universal design and are aging in place friendly. I've been saying for years that appliance manufacturers don't do enough to create universal design products that will also help.

prevent accidents and just make cooking and preparation and cleanup easier for people in the kitchen. All of the things that we do in the kitchen that are so important. as you said, Peter, they need to be convenient for people regardless of your age.

But as we get older and we have our vision that deteriorates, our sense of touch, things that make cooking and prep and cleanup more dangerous for people. And so having these products that have these features that just really increases convenience and safety, well, they sell themselves.

Peter Weedfald (50:42.87)
Janet, thank you for saying all that. That was well said. she knows how to articulate and navigate our brand and products. Well done, Harry. But I do want to say you're also going to say that when you think of Sharp, you think of delicious products and technology, because once we send you that countertop super steam oven to kind of exhibit the power of our built in super steam oven and convection oven, I think you're going to also say not only are you all the things that you kindly said,

Harry Hessen (50:50.509)
Yeah.

Peter Weedfald (51:12.22)
But sharp is also delicious. That's the most delicious salmon I've ever eaten. I want to see if you tell me that. Harry, you think she'll say that to us? Harry? She will, I'm telling you. Wait till she tastes it. She's gonna be my God, what is this? You'll see.

Janet Engel (51:19.05)
wow, I'm excited.

Harry Hessen (51:21.128)
Maybe. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah

Janet Engel (51:29.554)
I'm excited about bacon because I didn't think that you could cook bacon in steam and it be crispy.

Harry Hessen (51:37.676)
Yeah, I'm not sure if in the countertop you can do that, but you can cook a lot of things in the countertop. yeah, if you're ever in Memphis or if you ever want to test one of these units, if you have an application, we'll be more than happy to supply one for you to get the full oven too. By the way, we have a pedestal that

that it mounts on two, if you got a 24 inch opening in your kitchen, you simply put on the pedestal and that's true of our microwave drawers. It's a very simple application, mean, simple installation. You put it on there, screw it on, slide it in place and secure it. And you got an oven underneath the counter or a microwave drawer underneath the counter with two storage drawers. just another innovation that we have here.

Peter Weedfald (52:32.978)
By the way, the super steam oven that we're going to send you comes with a cookbook in the box. So you'll be able to see if it's bacon or hamburgers or fish. You'll have a lot of fun, we really appreciate the time. Thank you for having Team Sharp on with you, Janet. It's really our pleasure. You got us more fired up about our products and what we're doing and we'll try to do better every single day.

Janet Engel (52:33.127)
all that.

Janet Engel (52:38.093)
What?

Janet Engel (52:54.532)
It was my pleasure to have both of you. Thank you.

Peter Weedfald (52:57.874)
See soon.

Harry Hessen (52:58.092)
Okay. Thank you.