“There has to be a more efficient way,” Surya Prakash thought while cooking in his dorm room. Ten years later, his efficient ultra hot frying pan is used by a Michelin star chef.
Surya Prakash (in the middle) with a prototype of his Effium pan, made at the Electronic and Mechanical Development Department (DEMO) on campus. (Photo: TU Delft)
The office lobby of YES!Delft, the start-up incubator located at the very end of the Delft campus, is pleasantly bustling with activity. Surya Prakash clearly feels at home. “How’s life?” he cheerfully asks an employee of one of the other start-ups in the building by the coffee machine.
Innovative ideas are in abundance here, but few know how to market them as diligently as Prakash. Omroep West, Algemeen Dagblad, De Telegraaf: they all showed interest in his highly efficient, futuristic-looking Effium frying pan. It’s been a (modest) success: over 2,000 units have been sold so far. But behind those steadily rising sales figures are at least six years of sweat and dedication.
Albert Heijn meals
The seed was planted back in 2015, two weeks after Prakash moved to the Netherlands for his master’s in Mechanical Engineering at TU Delft. “It all started with an everyday problem,” he explains in a small office on the first floor. “I had just started my master’s programme and was living on my own for the first time. After a week of eating pre-cooked meals from Albert Heijn, I ran out of money, and it was time to start cooking.”
He immediately noticed something peculiar: most of the heat coming from his gas burner was escaping into the air around the pan. Not just a waste of gas, but also downright unpleasant due to the rising room temperature, Prakash thought. His mother, who Prakash regularly called for some South Indian cooking advice, didn’t bat an eye when he confronted her with his problem. “It’s always like that,” she simply replied.
It turned out to be the birth of a long-time obsession. “I didn’t always enjoy lectures, so I was often thinking about the cooking problem instead of paying attention.” Nevertheless, it was TU Delft that forced the first breakthrough, through a (now defunct) design course. “After I presented my creation—a cereal bowl with the bottom cut out, which was to be placed over a gas burner—the instructor rewarded me with €100 to continue developing the idea.”
ESA rocket
The bowls broke in rapid succession, however, much to the frustration of his girlfriend at the time. Moreover, their heat capturing capabilities were rather limited. But years later, while looking at a rocket engine during an open house day at the European Space Agency, something clicked: what about a pan with heat-conducting ridges?
After Prakash completed his master’s degree, the project gained momentum. Working at another startup to make ends meet, he devised one iteration after another in his spare time, all inspired by the ESA rocket.
First, he had some prototypes made in India, “for next to nothing”. He carried on at the Department of Electronic and Mechanical Development (DEMO) in Delft. “They helped me create the ultimate prototype there, with large drills and CNC-machines.”
‘Latch onto an everyday annoyance, and look for a simple yet out-of-the-box solution’
That version is almost identical to the pan now produced in a factory in Romania. From above, the pan looks like an ordinary frying pan with a ceramic non-stick coating. From below, it’s best described as a futuristic looking metal turbo fan.
Salesman’s ingenuity
Prakash advises every TU student to follow in his footsteps. “Latch onto an everyday annoyance, and look for a simple yet out-of-the-box solution. With enough perseverance, you can turn a single idea into a business.”
But he’s omitting one ingredient: Prakash is a salesman. Take his water boiling demonstration to the reporter, on an industrial gas stove in his office. The copper pan he uses for comparison still has the €399 price tag hanging onto it. His message: the Effium pan costs less than half the price, yet heats up much faster.
Another example of his salesmanship: “I went to a Amarone, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Rotterdam, and asked the chef there to test the pan.” Smirkingly: “After testing it for a week, he ordered five. He was that enthusiastic, also because it gets hotter than normal pans, producing better tasting results.” A testimonial from that same Michelin-starred chef is now shown on the Effium website—doing wonders for the sales figures, according to Prakash.
But all this wouldn’t have been possible without TU Delft, he emphasises. “The Netherlands is a great place for start-ups, and even more so here in Delft. I’m surrounded by so many smart, ingenious people here who constantly inspire me.”
And though he prefers to keep expectations in check, he certainly seems inspired. Hopefully on the horizon: bigger and smaller Effium pans, a stainless steel version for customers with a fear of non-stick coatings, and a pan for induction stoves. “But let’s try to survive this year first.”
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