Would you buy a refriger-oven?

I started cooking with the crock-pot when my youngest was a baby, and found out that you generally can’t just “fix it and forget it,” as one popular series likes to say.  Sure, a pot roast in the crock pot generally takes the full day, so you can put it in before you leave for work, but chicken or a casserole takes much less time, and the cook times that cookbooks give generally tend to produce overcooked food.  So when slow cooker manufacturers began selling fancy “programmable” versions, where you can set the cook time and it automatically switches to a keep-warm setting afterwards, I kept waiting for them to take the next step:  a version with refrigerator coils, to keep your food cool in the morning, then start to cook it at the designated time to be done, not overdone, when you get home.

But they never did.

Of course, you could take it a step further:  a toaster oven-sized device which chills the casserole during the daytime, then turns the heat on to bake it so it’s nice and bubbly, but not overcooked, when you’re ready to eat.

That would solve a multitude of complaints about home-cooking, as long as you don’t mind casseroles and other baked items (you could bake a pizza, too!).   Though you could pair this with a rice cooker with a timer and alternate between casseroles and quick stir-fries with rice, with the ingredients of the stir-fry prepped the night before so that you just need a quick cook time.  

So I said to my husband, “if I had the resources, I’d create this myself,” and he said, “I think that exists already,” and pointed me to the Whirlpool Polara.  Where I’d envisioned a small appliance, large enough to fit a casserole dish, this is a full-blown range with refrigerator coils, so that it can refrigerate your food for a full 24 hours before starting to bake, and can even fit a roast. Unfortunately, it didn’t find a receptive market and was discontinued.    

Would you buy a refriger-oven?  Would Amanda Marcotte stop grumping about home-cooked meals if she had a refriger-oven?  Because I think it would be awesome, and I’ve been dreaming of remodeling the kitchen, anyway.