London, October 14:

Breaking news: a British inventor insisted that boiling an egg was not all it’s cracked up to be as he trumpeted his gadget that cooks them without water. Simon Rhymes’ Bulbed Egg Maker uses high-powered light bulbs to cook the egg and then chops the top off at just the right height for dipping toast into the yolk. The 23-year-old egghead came up with the idea while at university and has hatched a plan to make the BEM an indispensable kitchen item.

“I thought that boiling an egg was rather labour-intensive for the rewards you get,” said Rhymes, who has now graduated from his product design course.

“I read that light bulbs gave off so much heat it might be more energy-efficient to leave lights on in the house to heat it rather than using central heating. I started to experiment and cooked an egg under a table lamp and that took about half an hour.”

“Then I came across the halogen lights and adapted them to put in the BEM. I experimented with about 600 eggs. I got sick of testing them but now I can produce the perfect boiled egg every time,” he added.

Eggs are lowered into the 30-cm high device, which uses four halogen bulbs. It takes six minutes to create the ‘perfect’ egg, but the timer can be changed to alter the runniness

of the yolk. Once cooked, the top of the egg is lopped off at a circumference of 40 mm, just wide enough for dunking in toast.

Rhymes has patented the gadget and has formed his own company to court manufacturers and investors. “Hopefully, the machine will become a common household item like a toaster,” he said.