Abstract: This invention relates to apparatus for making waffles or other batter-based cooked moulded food products, the apparatus comprising a support frame supporting a cooking chamber defined by a pair of co-operating platens comprising an upper platen and a lower platen at least one of which is heated in use to cook the batter, the frame carrying a mechanism by which each one of the pair of platens is selectively driven to move toward or away from the other of the platens. The apparatus is automated to produce the cooked food product rapidly. A controller controls the process of making of the food product from opening of the cooking chamber, to dispensing of a required dose/volume of batter from a source of supply into the cooking chamber, closing of the chamber, cooking of the batter in the chamber for the required time, opening of the chamber and delivery of the cooked food product.

Abstract: A fountain for edible fluids includes a bowl and an open tubular column extending substantially normally of the bowl from a fluid intake position near the bottom of the bowl to a fluid outlet position remote therefrom. The tubular column contains an auger or other drive to drive edible fluids up through the tubular column. The tubular column has on its exterior a plurality of lugs spaced apart at intervals along the length thereof and the fountain further comprises a plurality of mounting members that mount onto the tubular column, each mounting member mounting onto a lug at a different respective position along the tubular column. Each mounting member serves to supportively mount a respective tier of the fountain thereon. This system is easy to assemble and disassemble, there are no loose fixings and the column may be made of uniform diameter and the tiers of simple form.

Abstract: A fountain for liquid chocolate, comprising: a heated bowl, at least two parallel adjacent open cylinders extending normally of the bowl from a fluid intake position near the bottom of the bowl to a fluid outlet position remote from the bowl, each cylinder containing a coextensive auger whose spiral flight has a rim engaging an inner cylindrical surface of the cylinder and the auger being mounted for rotation about the axis of the cylinder, means for rotating the augers to cause fluid entering the cylinders from the bowl to be conveyed axially to the fluid outlets, and a partition extending across the bowl to prevent mixture of fluid in different portions of the bowl, the arrangement being such that, when the fountain is orientated in use with the cylinders vertical, fluid falling from the top of each cylinder reaches only the respective portion of the bowl from which it was taken.