With the matter of making our selection of sorbet's as airy and light as possible, ofsays Patrick O Connel, chef and co owner of the Inn at Little washington in washington, Va.

For O' Conell, the recipient of the 2001 James Beard Foundation Outstanding Chef's award, the pacojet is the ideal machine for creating his dresses called painters palate of sorbets- thumb Size portions of barely sweetened, pureed fresh fruits, which, when sampled from left to right, escalate in pure flavour intensity.

Chef Gary Fick spotted the diminutive Pacojet in O' Connells kitchen and ordered one for himself. Now every night he pacotizes sorbet in flavours such as Key lime and blue berry lavender.

A heck of an investment but Pacojet is an incredible machine, says Fick, executive chef at crossing at Casey Jones in La Palata. Its fast, easy, durable.

The principal parts of the Pacojet are a base unit equipped with the motor; a one-quarter quart chromium steel beaker; and a titanium coated blade. Most ice cream or sorbet makers required a chef to blend Ingredients before they are placed in the machine, where they are churned and frozen. But with the Pacojet, a chef merely adds the raw Ingredients (for example, chunks of mango, water and pinch of sugar) to the beaker then puts the beaker in the freezer for 24 hours.

When it's time to make sorbet, he puts the frozen beaker in the Pacojet and pushes of button. The high-speed blade shaves and blends one portion from the frozen Ingredients, leaving the rest of the Ingredients ready for the next order. A chef can have a dozen beakers frozen, ready and waiting, and produce a rainbow of sorbets at a moment's notice.

Developed in the early 1980s by Swiss engineer Wilhelm Maurere, the Pacojet was initially manufactured in 1992 for the European market as a multifunctional device for mousses, soups, sauces, fillings and frozen desserts. In 1996 the Pacojet was test marketed in the United States. Worldwide 10,000 units have been for sold, in estimated 250 in North America. Owners are primarily restaurants and hotels, but there are notable exceptions.

Hollywood stars and other prominent personalities have got Pacojet is for their own kitchen is most employees a private chef, but they have requested anonymity, which we endeavour respect, said Pacojet managing director Gunter Scheible via email.

Washington area chefs who have invested in the Pacojet love this machine.

Chef Gerard Madani's rich bitter chocolate Valrhona sorbet, served in the Willard room of the Willard Intercontinental Hotel downtown, is spun to perfection in a Pacojet

The Pacojet is the only piece of high-tech equipment in Gerard Pangaud's kitchen. Other than the Pacojet all I have is pots and pans and a stove, says Pangaud, chef owner of Gerard's place , and intimate, 50 seats French restaurant on Mcpherson Square.

What's really extraordinary about this machine is how it lets you to do unsweetened or barely sweetened sorbets, said Pangaud, explaining that the Pacojet eliminates the problem of balancing the sugar content of sorbets that makes them either too Icy or mush.

For his baked tomato dessert Pangaud starts, one day in advance, by pressing heirloom tomatoes and basil leaves into the Pacojet steel beaker, adding olive oil, tomato juice and a little salt and pepper. The beaker is then stored for 24 hours in a freezer at minus one degree Fahrenheit.

At service time,Pangaud places a wedge of green Zebra tomato beside a baked, baseball Size yellow golden jubilee tomato that has been stuffed with citrus scented dried nuts and fruits. Time to Pacotize.

Seconds before the Dish leaves the kitchen the frozen beaker is inserted into the Pacojet. The high-speed blade shaves one serving of tomato basil sorbet The unprocessed portion is popped back into the freezer for later use.

Says Pangaud, who purchased his Pacojet three years ago. The best thing is that this is a reliable machine. Nine out of ten times with other machine it is the cooling system that breaks down. You are already using the frozen products with the Paco, so there is no problem there.

The restaurant consultant and pastry chef Steve Klc does not like ice cream and sorbet made with stabilisers- Ingredients that are often added to an ice cream or sorbet based to maintain a smooth emulsion. Stabilisers give a gummy taste in the mouth. Gummy detracts from the taste of the fruit, says Klc, whose elaborate wedding cakes can be viewed at www.pastryarts.com

Enter Paco, says Klc who has used the Pacojet to make an olive oil sorbet, served with grapefruit sections and fresh basil. You don't need stabilisers. Make your mix. Freeze it rock solid. Pop in the beaker. Bang. Perfect sorbet on demand no waste.

Sorbet and ice cream are the most popular uses for the Pacojet but any quick frozen foods can be pureed to create soups, sauces and mousse. Quail bones can be pureed in seconds for a consomme. Whole red chilli peppers, garlic and shallots are frozen and, on command, reduced to a paste.

"It declined the living daylight out of stuff like nothing I'd ever seen". Says Doug Anderson, the new executive chef of the Four Seasons hotel in Georgetown. With the Pacojet at his side, Anderson has created nine infused oils, such as watercress-chive and horseradish, which are used throughout the menu.

Chef Robert Wiedmaier purchased his Pacojet ten months ago to take on a variety of tasks " I was using a traditional meat grinder to make baudin blanc from chicken, squab and foie gras," says the Wiedmaier chef and owner of Marcel's in the West End. "But the Pacojet saves me hours of work because you don't have to pass any thing through a tamis (a fine cloth strainer) In the end you get a superior product."

With the Pacojet he blends Salmon , Whitefish, scallops for a salmon souffle. He takes lobster shells and butter, grinds them into a paste to incorporate into a sauce. "It makes it is so fine."

Says Weidmaier " More Chefs have to experiment, try new things and get the Paco out of the pastry shop."

You can see many indicative recipes at the link below

http://www.pacojet.com/html/en/pacojet.htm

In India, Thakar Equipment Company are marketing this wonderful machine which has been featured in the Washington Post's Food Section. "Pacotize" has become a verb in a Chef's Dictionary.