An innovative chicken roaster called the ‘Cock au Pan’ grabbed the attention of leading retailers on the first episode of Channel 4’s four part TV series, Buy It Now For Christmas, which aired last night (November 28).
The show enables wannabe entrepreneurs to pitch their products to an audience of consumers and a panel of top retailers. The latter consists of Ken Daly, ceo of JML, Wendy Miranda, customer ambassador for Lakeland and Amazon Launchpad’s director of consumer retail, Fiona McDonnell.
The first entrepreneur was Roger – a home cook and professional pianist – who was fed up with dry chicken breast when roasting. His invention feeds steam inside the chicken to ensure even cooking. It creates “juicy chicken in half the time,” said Roger, who summed up: “Nothing looks like it and nothing cooks like it.”
The patented roasting pan won orders from all three retailers, with Wendy stating: “I love the innovation.”
The show’s other pitches included an “easier to clean cafetière” that has been developed over six years with an investment of £100,000. The patented invention solves the frustration of cleaning ground coffee from the filter, base and sides of a conventional coffee press. Coffee grounds – or tea-leaves – are collected between two fine mesh filters. However, with only two members of the audience willing to purchase the coffee and tea press, it did not win any orders from the retail panelists.
Top: A scene from Channel 4’s Buy It Now For Christmas where home cook Roger explained the benefits of his chicken roaster.
