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It is the latest culinary craze - slowly poaching food inside airtight bags for hours on end.

Now a new kitchen 'robot' will allow you to start cooking those time consuming sous-vide creations before you even get home.

Named Mellow, the device is able to take instructions from a mobile phone app so busy home cooks can start the process before they get home.

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Mellow (above) will revolutionise cooking by making sous vide open to everyone, according to its designers

The machine keeps food at refrigerator temperatures and can warm up within ten minutes to temperatures of up to 90 degrees C.

Using a mobile phone, it is possible to tell the device when to start cooking, how hot and for how long.

It will even suggest cooking sequences according to the ingredients being used and how the user would like them to taste.

However, aspiring chefs will still need to prepare the ingredients and seal them in the airtight bag before leaving them in the 4.5 litre water bath.

According to Ze Pinto Ferreira, one of the designers, said: 'We're hoping it will get people cooking great food from fresh ingredients daily.

'It makes those involved, labour-intensive dishes you'd normally only make for a special occasion fast and stress-free to cook.'

Sous-vide was initially developed by engineers in the 1960s as a way of preserving food before later being adopted by top chefs around the world.

It requires food to vacuum packed and slowly cooked in a waterbath kept at a carefully controlled temperature - usually around 55°C (131°F).

Now you can sous-vide at home with Mellow, the robotic bath

Users would still need to prepare their ingredients but they can leave them in the machine until ready to cook

Cooking meat can take several hours, depending on how rare it is to be while some recipes call for cooking times of up to 72 hours to produce tender food from tough meat.

For Mellow, which is sold by FNV Labs for around $400 (£265) has a double-walled tank, which helps increase its efficiency and requires just 30 watts of power.

The mobile software also attempts to learn from feedback it receives about meals so that it can adapt recipes and cooking times to reflect your palate.

The designers say the device will boil or poach eggs, as shown above, so they are ready in time for breakfast

The device can be controlled using a mobile phone app, above, that allows users to set the temperature and cooking time while also suggesting adjustments to alter the taste according to the users' preferences

FNV has already sold 1,000 of the devices over pre-order and is now hoping to make more available in the future.

Mr Ferreira added: 'We guide you through a set of screens to learn what ingredients you're cooking, how you'd like them cooked and when you want them ready.

"Everything else we can either take from the food you put in, because Mellow has a built-in scale, or current food science.

'You wouldn't roast a turkey or finish a lasagne in Mellow, but I do think it can make 95 per cent of dishes a lot better, less stressful and less time-consuming to cook.

"Cooking different foods at the same time is a challenge right now, but we're working on ways to do that.'