Among various types of grill devices, waffle iron is a device particularly used for making waffle, which is made from a batter containing flour, sugar, milk, etc. Examples of various types of waffles are Belgian waffle and Liège waffle. A conventional waffle iron includes a lower grill plate and an upper grill plate that are gridded, that are hinged together, and that cooperatively de fine a cooking space therebetween. Each of the lower and upper grill plates has a horizontal grill surface. During cooking operation, an uncooked batter is poured onto the horizontal grill surface of the lower grill plate, and the upper grill plate pivots down to cover the lower grill plate with the batter held therebween. The lower and upper grill plates are then heated for heating the batter to make a waffle.
Since the batter has a certain degree of viscosity, the batter cannot spread quickly and evenly on the horizontal grill surface of the lower grill plate by itself. Thus the batter requires manual spreading by an operator before the upper grill plate pivots down to engage the lower grill plate to heat the batter. As a result, the batter cannot be heated and cooked uniformly by the upper and lower grill plates, and it is relatively difficult to obtain a waffle with top and bottom surfaces having the same degree of crispiness.
In addition, if too much batter is poured onto the lower grill plate, an excess amount of the batter may ooze out of the lower and upper grill plates and form crumbs that need to be removed after the batter is heated and solidified, or the excess batter may drip down from the conventional waffle iron and need to be removed for sanitary purpose. If too little batter is poured onto the lower grill plate, the batter may not contact the upper grill plate, and the waffle produced may have an undesirable shape.
A conventional grill device, which may be used to grill steak and/or vegetables, is similar in structure to the conventional waffle iron, with the main difference residing in that the lower and upper grill plates are provided with a plurality of ribs protruding therefrom instead of being gridded. Since the horizontal grill surface of the lower grill plate is flat, a sauce has to be spread manually, which demands attention.