New GE oven "cooks with light"

Anyone know what they mean by their marketing soundbyte? They're sure hyping the oven on their site but say zilch about how it really cooks "using light" beyond this in their FAQ page:

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How does Advantium work?
The oven uses powerful halogen lights to cook the outside of food, much like conventional radiant heat, but also penetrates the surface so the inside is cooked at the same time. This unique form of cooking is much faster and causes little loss of moisture, resulting in tender, juicy, and flaky foods bursting with flavor.
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Ummmm, right. Like I might not be trusted with how it works rather than just knowing the result it has.

IR+UV using Xenon HID maybe? What else would "penetrate" except UV?

Any guesses?

Binky, I'm nut sure what oven you're talking about. Is a a full-size or a microwave?

GE has had a microwave called Advantium out for years that uses halogen lights+microwaves for fantastic results. The problem with microwaves is that they heat from the inside out, pushing water to the outside edges of food. They aern't, however, powerful enough to vaporize the water. This is why microwave-reheated Pizza is mushy. Advantium fixes this by using halogens, or rather, the heat from them to evaporate the water off teh surface. It has other advantages too though, for example you can cook a steak in the microwave...I'm taking put a steak from the freezer in the microwave and come back 15 minutes later to a medium well. Advantium has been out for awhile though so I don't know why they're still calling it "new"

GE, however, just came out with a full size oven that is similar to Advantium. It uses, accordint to the Dec 2002 issue of Pop Science "bake, broil, and microwave components to cook food three to five times faster than a conventional oven."

SO tell me...are we talking about a microwave sized oven or a full size?

Thanks Saaby.

There I was reading the marketing prose: "A revolutionary breakthrough in cooking technology", and hearing from an in-law who works for GE that it's new, and interpreted that to mean that it was something new. Don't know how that coulda happened.

Now I get it... It's still part-microwave. ("Converts to a full-featured microwave at the touch of a button")

It appears that the newer oven that Pop. Science is referring to is just a higher-powered, 240V version of the same older one, and larger size.

So, have you actually seen the something get cooked in one of these? That steak for example???

Thanks again!

The old one (Still selling I do believe) started live as 220 powered. Pop Sci gave GE an award when they came out with the 110 version

Haven't personally experienced Advantium but had a friend (Isn't that how all the stories go) that was always raving about it. To both his and my credit, I have read many many good things about it too.

Not a new technology.
Heating elements in normal ovens are just very bright IR bulbs.

FWIW Saw some of these about 5 years ago at the Annual Plant Engineers show and exhibition in Fort Lauderdale.

They were about the size of an industrial microwave and had about the same amperage draw. Impression I got was that they were trying to get folks interested in them. Sampled the food cooked in them at the show, it tasted pretty good. Steak tidbits, saw some baked goods as well.

IRRC the units at that show were just heated via multiple quartz lamps. From that time till now, I've heard nothing else.

Are you guys sure you're not talking about an Ez-Bake oven?

Albany Tom
Yep, exactly the same idea, only on steroids. Actually I overheard somebody at the show make a crack about how his kid would go crazy to have such a high tech Ez-Bake oven >actually the term he used was "Tasty Bake Oven" but it was abundantly obvious that he meant the toy that you've referred to.<