Visit any vending show and you can normally be assured of one thing: the aroma of coffee will permeate the place.
Well, not any more. If there was one smell for which Vendex North would be remembered, it was the mouth-watering one of pies cooking. Y’see, the boffins at Pukka have come up with a pie that’s baked to be microwaved. Don’t ask me to explain the science, but the case in which the pie is baked is not your average foil container. In fact, it’s fiendishly clever, in that it’s designed to reflect the heat into the pie as it cooks, which prevents it from presenting to the punter as a soggy, floppy, unappetizing mess.
This could be the best thing since sliced bread.
The machine, however, is a behemoth of a beast and its bright orange hue, although reflective of the company’s corporate colours, might be a tad difficult to live with day after day. It’s easy to use, though: the purchaser chooses a pie, which is forthwith delivered; then he or she places it in one of two built-in microwave oven, pushes a button and hey presto,Robert’s your relative…
It’s easy to imagine such a machine in every railway station in the land and judging by reaction of the Vendex guinea pigs, the quality of the fare overcomes the disadvantages of the machine’s size and appearance. Everywhere you looked, somebody seemed to be enjoying a Pukka pie.
On offer is a range of Pukka’s finest, which are stored in a huge freezer; entry to which reminded me of those old movies about breaking into bank vaults. With the Old Trafford venue in mind, to say that the freezer door looks ‘robust’ is akin to saying Sir Alex Ferguson ‘did ok’.
Be that as it may. On the Pukka stand, and off it, vast numbers of people seemed to be tucking in to their pie of choice with gusto.
And who can blame them?
IR-Y
