text: / Updated By Stephany Bai 
   
   When Robert Wang was laid off from his software engineering job in 2008, he took his extra time to solve a personal problem that had been bothering him and several of his peers: dinner. 
   
   Busy with work, Wang said he and his friends would often resort to fast food or takeout at night. 
   
   "We all had young children at the time and found it rather challenging to fix healthy dinners when we got off of work," Wang recalled. "We all knew those are not healthy for the children, and not a good habit." 
   
   “From our experience, cooking is not a solitary event. You really cook for your family, you cook for your friends." 
   
   The result of Wang's tinkering was the first version of a device he calls the "Instant Pot." Equipped with pressure and heat sensors, as well as a microprocessor, Wang said the appliance can serve as a rice cooker, a pressure cooker, a steamer and a slow cooker, among other functions. 
   
   The device has become a hit. Versions regularly rank as top sellers in Amazon's rice cooker and electric pressure cooker categories, and an official Instant Pot Facebook group for sharing recipes has attracted more than 750,000 members. 
   
   Earlier this year, the appliance received praise from J. Kenji López-Alt, the James Beard award-winning author of "The Food Lab" cookbook, as well as James Beard award-winning New York Times food columnist Melissa Clark. 
   
   While other companies also produce "multi-cookers," Joe Derochowski, a market analyst at The NPD Group, told NBC News that the growth of the market has been "dramatic" — 68 percent in the last year and 90 percent in 2016 — and shows no sign of stopping. 
   
   "There are more and more players going into this market in part because it's hitting on the key needs consumers have," Derochowski said. "I think Instant Pot had a big part to do with that." 
   
   But while Wang believed in his product, he said it was difficult to bring it to life. The first problem he and his team had to solve was how to prevent novice cooks from burning their food. Their solution, a burn detection mechanism, took months of engineering and "burning a lot of food" to perfect, he said. In total, the team's research, design and development required 18 months to bring their first product to market. 
   
   Wang — now chief executive of the Canada-based Double Insight, the company the produces the Instant Pot — calls the first iteration, launched in 2010, the "five-in-one," in reference to the five functions of the device. The latest version is a "10-in-one," updated to include functions such as yogurt making, sautéing and sterilizing. 
   
   "Every time we add any function, we make it better than anything currently available on the market," Wang said. "We need to make sure that the food produced, that's cooked in this pot, is the most delicious." 
   
   Wang said that he makes "a lot of Greek yogurt" and that ribs and chili are also among his favorite recipes. Wang's parents-in-law have diabetes, he added, and because his family could be genetically predisposed to the disease, they are taking precautions to consume fewer carbohydrates. 
   
   Double Insight became profitable in 2012, two years after the release of the first Instant Pot, and according to Wang, it has doubled in revenue every year since. The company sold 215,000 units in a single day last year, he added, as part of a promotion on Amazon Prime Day. 
   
   But despite the company's success on social media, Wang said he and his team started with no marketing strategy, deciding to let the product "speak for itself," with an additional focus on customer service. 
   
   "From our experience, cooking is not a solitary event," Wang said. "You really cook for your family. You cook for your friends. When people try your food and they're happy about it, you will be bragging about how you used a miracle appliance like Instant Pot to do the cooking." 
   
   “Every time we add any function, we make it better than anything currently available on the market. We need to make sure that the food produced, that’s cooked in this pot, is the most delicious.” 
   
   Wang said he feels grateful to his customers for spreading the word and pays close attention to what they say online. When one customer asked whether there was a way to sterilize baby bottles using the appliance, a sterilization function was added to the next model, he noted. 
   
   More recently, Wang said he noticed customers from Florida and Texas posting to the Instant Pot Community after hurricanes Harvey and Irma. 
   
   Wang said that seeing his product help people in need was "really rewarding." While he did not intend for his product to be used specifically for emergency purposes, he said, the goal has always been to help people and families. 
   
   "Back in 2012, when our sales had reached just over 10,000, we had an internal mission statement," Wang said. "An Instant Pot in every kitchen. That is the objective of the company. We are out to change the world in a positive way." 
   
   Follow NBC Asian America on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr. ||||| A Canadian innovation is poised to be the top-selling product on Amazon — both in Canada and the U.S. — during this week's Black Friday sales event. 
   
   The Instant Pot "smart cooker" — a high-tech pressure cooker that promises to help you make tasty, homemade meals fast — was already the biggest seller on Amazon's Prime Day this past July. Close to 250,000 units were purchased on that day alone. 
   
   Only Amazon's own products, such as the Echo smart speaker, saw a bigger response from consumers. But Robert Wang, the Ottawa-based inventor of the Instant Pot, still considers his product's performance a triumph — and one that's about to be repeated. 
   
   Instant Pot inventor Robert Wang was recognized and congratulated by a shopper recently, during a visit to a kitchen supply store in Ottawa. (CBC) "It's impossible to beat the sales numbers of Amazon devices on Amazon's own day," said Wang. It's no surprise that the e-commerce giant features its own merchandise more prominently than anything else. Even so, he was thrilled to be at the top of the charts. 
   
   "To sell 250,000 units in 24 hours is close to a miracle," he says with pride. "It's like that saying about when the time for an idea has arrived, nothing can stop it." 
   
   Half a million orders 
   
   Now the former Nortel engineer is forecasting another miracle: that on Black Friday, the Instant Pot will double its sales record. Wang placed a massive order with his manufacturer in China five months ago, anticipating a potential 500,000 orders from Amazon alone. 
   
   A massive order of Instant Pot had to be placed with the manufacturer in China months before Black Friday. (CBC) "The sale is happening on one day, and the product has to be in the warehouse," he explains. "Amazon has the promise of delivery within 48 hours." 
   
   It's hard to imagine an unglamorous, electric cooker generating the kind of excited stampede that's more commonly seen for a hot Christmas toy, or fun electronic gadgets. Just what's so great about the Instant Pot anyway? 
   
   "What's not so great about the Instant Pot?" asks Carole Nelson Brown. She's a chef who also teaches Instant Pot cooking classes, sharing her boundless enthusiasm for the device. 
   
   Fanatical devotion 
   
   "This is healthier, it's cheaper and it tastes amazing. And I really think people have a sense of pride when they make their own meal." 
   
   Brown notes that frozen meat can be savoury and ready to eat in just over 30 minutes. 
   
   But even as a super-fan herself, she's astounded at the devotion some consumers feel for the pot. Many of the 750,000 members of the Instant Pot Community on Facebook are "cult-like worshippers," in her opinion. 
   
   "They are obsessed," claims Nelson Brown. "They don't use their stove anymore, they don't use their microwave anymore, they don't use anything else. If someone comes in and says 'I'm not loving it, I tried a few things, they didn't really work out', these people go insane at the thought that someone might not love their Instant Pot as much as they do." 
   
   Solving dinner time-crunch 
   
   The Instant Pot arrived on the market seven years ago. Wang and his business partners Yi Qin and Dongjun Wang had all worked in Ottawa's tech sector before deciding to put their engineering smarts to work on a problem in their own homes. 
   
   Robert Wang, right, and his partner Yi Qin inspect components at the Chinese factory that has been contracted to manufacture the Instant Pot. (CBC) "Many kitchen appliances were designed for the lifestyle of our parents, of our grandparents," says Wang, standing in an office at the company's headquarters on the outskirts of Ottawa. "Now our generation lives a different lifestyle, so we need to rethink those legacy devices and make sure they adapt." 
   
   The pair realized that the speed of a pressure cooker could solve the time-crunch so many families experience when it comes time to make dinner at the end of the workday. But old-school pressure cookers had to be watched, and they could explode if not monitored and adjusted properly. 
   
   Wang and Qin developed a "smart" device with multiple sensors — to ensure the lid is sealed properly, that the pressure is perfect, and to guarantee food won't burn. And of course they added Bluetooth, so that consumers can control and monitor the pot remotely. 
   
   "Have you seen The Big Bang Theory episode where they say everything is better with Bluetooth?" asks Wang playfully. "It's true." 
   
   More popular in U.S. 
   
   Americans caught on to the Instant Pot well before most Canadians. The momentum south of the border started in 2012, helped along by food bloggers and influencers who were recruited to use the Instant Pot. Word spread quickly that the device did all it promised, and by that summer Wang saw his invention become a "category No. 1" on Amazon, with thousands of positive reviews. 
   
   During Prime Day in 2016 — Amazon's summer sales event for its Prime members — Wang was overwhelmed by demand, and didn't have enough inventory. 
   
   "After 23 hours they were all gone," he says. This summer he made sure the company was better prepared and able to fill every order. 
   
   The Instant Pot was featured in a lengthy segment on the popular daytime TV program The Dr. Oz Show. (Harpo Studios/Sony Pictures Televisioni) The Instant Pot's fame continues to pick up speed in the U.S. Last month, Jimmy Fallon bantered about the product with his sidekick on The Tonight Show ("I'm excited, I want to get one of these things"), and The Dr. Oz Show featured a lengthy segment about how to cook with it. 
   
   "Now Americans realize that eating healthy has become more and more important — and they also understand eating fast food, manufactured food, is not good for their health," says Wang, explaining his thoughts on why the invention is surging in popularity in the U.S. "Also, consumer culture is very strong there." 
   
   Word of mouth 
   
   Now Canadians are starting to catch on, too. This year, Instant Pot hit the No. 1 spot during Amazon Prime Day in Canada as well. 
   
   "It's developed a cult following so quickly," says Candace Sutcliffe of CA Paradis, a kitchen supply store in Ottawa. 
   
   "They've put zero advertising into getting it out into the public, and so really everything is created either through Facebook groups, or people are exchanging recipes on other social media. It's developed its fan base just through word of mouth, which is incredible." 
   
   But could the Instant Pot craze fade fast, and become just another over-sized gadget gathering dust in a closet — along with the bread-making machine and waffle iron? 
   
   Wang believes the device is still in its infancy, citing a statistic that only five per cent of North American households have a device similar to the Instant Pot. "So 95 per cent of them still don't have a smart cooker yet. That's our objective, putting an Instant Pot in every kitchen." 
   
   He also says the company has a "large cache of new products" ready to be launched starting in 2018, but is tight-lipped about what they will be. "Unfortunately I can't disclose that at the moment," he says with a smile. 
   
   "We see lots of opportunities in improving what we call the legacy devices in your kitchen." ||||| The Farm Cooking School in Titusville, NJ, is a proponent of steaming foods in new-fangled pressure-cooker machines like the Instant Pot (right). 
   
   Last holiday shopping season, one kitchen gift ruled them all: the Instant Pot. The device (an electric pressure cooker that doubles as a slow cooker, rice cooker, and yogurt maker) debuted in 2010, but it took until the end of 2016 to become a best seller. Spurred on by popular food bloggers, the craze reached full frenzy over the summer, when more than 200,000 of the units were sold on Amazon’s Prime Day. 
   
   This autumn, many Instant Pot-themed cookbooks were published, and what recently seemed like just another passing fad started to feel like a new classic, a modern-day must-have. The Instant Pot is here to stay. Its promise to make slow-cooked foods, like braised meats, stewed beans, and hearty soups faster (if not instantly) has proved irresistible to a nation of time-strapped home cooks. 
   
   For all its bells and whistles, the Instant Pot is nothing new. It’s an electric pressure cooker made over with digital controls, modern safety features, and a few extra functions that go largely unused. Its most notable innovation has been taking the fear out of pressure-cooking. 
   
   “People think pressure cookers will explode,” says Ian Knauer, a former Gourmet magazine food editor who now runs the Farm Cooking School in Titusville, N.J. During the school’s first hands-on Instant Pot workshop, Knauer reassured his students. 
   
   “The only way it will explode is if you put dynamite in it,” he says. 
   
   The cooking class is designed to show off the things the Instant Pot does best — which, it should be noted, is not everything. In spite of the many pasta recipes you’ll see online and in the new wave of cookbooks, pasta cooked under pressure has an unpleasant, mushy texture. Fish is too delicate for this kind of high heat. Because you can’t exactly keep a close eye on food inside a sealed pot, chicken breast easily becomes a dried-out, stringy mess. (Chicken thighs, on the other hand, are an Instant Pot’s BFF.) 
   
   One splashy recipe Knauer and his co-instructor, Shelley Wiseman, teach in their Instant Pot class is octopus salad with gigante (or large lima) beans. This dish is a good teaching tool because octopus normally requires hours of gentle braising to achieve a tender texture. In the Instant Pot, it’s cooked in 30 minutes under pressure, though the time required to reach pressure brings the total time closer to an hour. 
   
   Cooking beans, especially when you start with unsoaked dried beans, can take all afternoon on the stove. The Instant Pot renders most dried beans tender in 20 to 40 minutes. Dense, slow-cooking vegetables like beets are ready in as little as three to five minutes versus the half hour or hour they would take to bake or steam. And though only the most adventurous cooks are likely to wrangle a whole octopus, most Instant Pot aficionados love the convenience of a spontaneous weeknight pot of beans. 
   
   One Farm Cooking School student, Kathy Hoffman, 42, of Delaware Township, admits that though she’s owned an Instant Pot for several months, she hasn’t take it out of the box. That’s why she signed up for the class. An hour in, her perspective on the appliance had shifted from anxiety to eagerness. “I’m going to start using it this weekend,” she says after tasting the octopus salad. “My kids would actually love this.” 
   
   Another student, KC DelPlato, 46, of Doylestown, has been cooking in her Instant Pot up to four times a week for several years. She is active in the official Instant Pot Community Facebook group, which has more than 750,000 members. (There are dozens of Instant Pot groups, one for every culinary niche or special diet imaginable, but the general group is the largest and most active.) 
   
   “I use it mostly for bone broth and chicken thighs. I came to the class looking for new things to try with it,” DelPlato says. Like all the students, she was excited to add a fast and easy technique for risotto to her weeknight repertoire. 
   
   Risotto recipes appear in almost all of the new Instant Pot cookbooks for a reason. Cooking this classic dish under pressure frees you up to do other things as the rice becomes rich, tender, and creamy without the traditional constant stirring. You sauté a few ingredients right in the pot, add everything else at once, flip a switch, and walk away. The machine will even hold the finished risotto at a food safe temperature for up to 10 hours if you aren’t ready to have dinner when it’s done. 
   
   Dinner in an Instant (Clarkson Potter) by Melissa Clark will walk you through her version of saffron risotto. The Essential Instant Pot Cookbook (Ten Speed Press) by Coco Morante offers risotto infused with lemon and dotted with green peas. But Daniel Shumski’s aptly named How to Instant Pot (Workman Publishing Co.) is your next best bet to crack the code of Instant Pot risotto if you can’t make your way to a hands-on cooking class. 
   
   For risotto and an array of other dishes, Shumski provides a master method plus several variations, making it likely you’ll be able to create your own versions of risotto with whatever you have on hand. This approach of pairing adaptable methods with variations and ideas makes How to Instant Pot the most useful book of the bunch. It also helps the new user decode the various functions, buttons, and programs. 
   
   Best of all, Shumski reveals the Instant Pot’s greatest tricks — quick ways of whipping up long-lasting, flavor-boosting flourishes that can make all the difference in your home cooking. For example, you can make a cup of buttery faux-roasted garlic paste in less than 10 minutes. Shumski provides a method for speedy, hands-off caramelized onions. His master recipe for all-purpose chicken stock leaves you with the kind of concentrated, gelatinous stock that would make a case for owning an Instant Pot even if this were the only thing the machine could do. 
   
   For the moment, the Instant Pot brand has cornered the multi-cooker market, but other companies now make rival machines — a sure sign the thing is with us for keeps. Fans of Breville’s multi-cooker claim its controls are simpler to use (though it costs roughly $250 — more than twice as much as an Instant Pot). Crock-Pot just rolled out its own version at a lower price (about $70) than the Instant Pot, whose most popular six-quart model sells for about $90, though you can frequently find it on sale for less. 
   
   If you’ve been holding out, thinking this is a fad, it might be time to keep your eye on the internet for post-Thanksgiving sales. It isn’t often that something comes along that changes the way we cook — but the Instant Pot, like the slow cooker before it, seems destined to be a cooking craze that doesn’t quit.
target: – Robert Wang has a simple goal: "an Instant Pot in every kitchen." And CBC reports the Canadian inventor is poised to make significant strides toward that goal this Black Friday. Wang invented the Instant Pot in 2008 after getting laid off from his software engineering job, according to NBC News. The device is essentially an electric pressure cooker that also serves as a rice cooker, steamer, slow cooker, and more. It has sensors to prevent burning and make sure everything's cooking properly and Bluetooth for remote monitoring. Now, seven years after the Instant Pot hit the market, Wang has a legitimate phenomenon on his hands, selling nearly 250,000 units on Amazon's Prime Day. "To sell 250,000 units in 24 hours is close to a miracle," Wang tells CBC. "It's like that saying about when the time for an idea has arrived, nothing can stop it." And the Instant Pot's popularity is still growing. It's predicted it will be Amazon's biggest seller during the company's Black Friday sales event in the US and Canada this week. Wang thinks he'll move 500,000 units on Amazon alone. He chalks the Instant Pot's popularity up to people's growing desire to make healthy, home-cooked food while avoiding fast food—and because "everything is better with Bluetooth." The Inquirer states the Instant Pot's biggest innovation is "taking the fear out of pressure-cooking." Whatever the reason for its popularity, Instant Pot owners are fanatical. The Instant Pot community on Facebook has 750,000 members, and a chef who teaches an Instant Pot cooking class describes some fans as "cult-like worshippers." But they probably said the same thing about all those people buying Tickle-Me Elmos.