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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Ashley Daigneault

The Year In 3D Food Printing

2016 shall forever be the year that printed pizza became a thing thanks to a technologist from NASA. 3D food printing hit the scene this year in a big way, and though it’s not quite ready for mainstream home use, the technology and use cases are starting to disrupt the way chefs, food chains, grocery stores and even consumers are thinking about preparing fresh food.

Pancakes and pizza and pasta…oh my 

The concept behind 3D food printing is very similar to the one behind 3D printing; raw materials are loaded into cartridges and a design (or in the case of food, a recipe) is programmed into the machine. The printer then uses the materials to produce a three-dimensional rendering of the design – in the case of traditional 3D printing, the rendering is made of plastic. In the case of 3D food printing, it could be anything, as long as its edible.

3D food printing as an industry is still in its infancy but started to gain traction in 2016. Startups appeared creating bots that printed pasta, pancakes, cheesecake – even pizza. Companies like BeeHex burst onto the scene at SXSW in Austin, printing delicious flatbread pizzas with real mozzarella, fresh dough and tomato sauce. But BeeHex isn’t just any startup, it came from the brain of engineer and tech celebrity Anjan Contractor, the guy who just happened to invent NASA’s 3D food printer with the goal of sending it on manned missions to Mars. Contractor then joined three other partners to use the technology and create a similar machine, one that would print tasty pizza efficiently and “create a new food experience–using robots–to make customized food cleaner, healthier and faster.”

BeeHex’s B2B model is squarely aimed at disrupting commercial kitchens and food chains who currently use manpower and older cooking technology to prepare food for customers. So even though you might get to taste the creations of a BeeHex machine from your local pizza joint, you probably won’t be able to buy one for your kitchen anytime in the near future.

But there are some companies building 3D food printing for consumer kitchens and the options range from the specific to the versatile to the futuristic.

Your face. On a pancake.

While several 3D printing startups are attempting to take their product to market, there’s few options for actually buying one today. One of those exceptions is a product called PancakeBot and it’s….pretty much exactly what it sounds like. PancakeBot is a printer bot that can be programmed to pump out pancake batter in any shape and cook it on a skillet. Invented by Miguel Valenzuela and backed on Kickstarter by over 2,000 backers, PancakeBot is a product you can buy today for around $300. But is printing things like pancakes on single devices the future of cooking in our kitchens?

Probably not, according to fellow Spoon contributor and food writer Megan Giller, who went and printed her face on a PancakeBot and wrote about it. The quality of the materials used and general premise behind PancakeBot seemed to put the company squarely in the novelty item camp. But the focus of the device is to put whimsical designs on a favorite breakfast item, not necessarily to change or alter the way we make food at home. And maybe it had to do with the watered down, generic batter they were using, but Megan’s experience was less than stellar.

“What I tasted was kind of like a flat, soggy animal cracker with alternating crispy and doughy bites.”

But the two things that might be wrong with PancakeBot – gimmicky premise and subpar raw ingredients – are the exact opposite approach of another startup trying to bring 3D food printing to our kitchens.

Foodini as the next microwave?

The raw materials used in 3D food printing falls into two categories: prepackaged, closed capsules that can be easily popped into a machine to print food and open capsules where fresh ingredients can be placed. The latter is the model used by Barcelona startup Natural Machines with their flagship product, the Foodini. Foodini is a 3D printer aimed at the consumer market – it’s designed to look a little like a countertop oven or microwave and uses a healthy eating and fresh ingredients approach as its hook. “Make fresh foods faster than by hand” is the theory behind Foodini and Natural Machines sees consumers popping fresh ingredients into the open capsules to create foods like pretzels, ravioli and breadsticks with no preservatives. It also makes all kinds of foods – from sweet to savory – and this point is a key differentiator as well. A decent amount of 3D food printing is singularly focused (see PancakeBot or BeeHex) or uses sugar as an easy, main source ingredient to craft desserts.

While Natural Machines wants their 3D food printer to be another countertop device, they don’t exactly expect that it will replace your current appliances. In fact, the device is really designed for consumers who already make foods from scratch – or consumers who want to but don’t because of time and convenience – and deliver an easier solution.

“Note that our proposition is not to say that everything you eat should be 3D printed, just like everything you eat now doesn’t come out of an oven.”

 

The Foodini hasn’t shipped yet, despite promises of shipping this year, and is in production and being beta tested in professional kitchens. The availability date is vague, with a “post-2016” date listed on the website and the anticipated price is a staggering $2,000. But this is a bold new venture, shipping a versatile, consumer 3D food printing device that’s meant to act and be seen as a kitchen appliance. The delays and high price reflect those factors and we’re anxious to see early reviews when it ships.

Liquid food from nūfood

Remember before when I said that 3D food printing was just like regular 3D printing except for the raw ingredients? In the case of UK startup nūfood, that’s not entirely true. nūfood, the 2016 Smart Kitchen Startup Showcase Winner, is changing the 3D printing game by patenting a new technique to create three-dimensional objects from liquids. The printed food maintains its shape until eaten, when the object liquefies again, amplifying the flavors. The encapsulation method they are working to patent means the liquid actually looks like a solid state until it’s eaten. The demo at the Summit was pretty incredible but it also showed that the nūfood approach takes a pretty scientific and futuristic approach to a technology that’s not even mainstream in its original form. But the nūfood creations are gorgeous and unique and their technology could be a game-changer for this growing space.

The future of machine printed food

At a recent 3D food printing conference in The Netherlands, there was clearly excitement about the market potential. The commercial world – restaurants and grocery chains – were already looking at 3D food printing as both an option for replacing current food prep systems and an entertainment opportunity. A panelist at the conference suggested that there could be a 3D food printer in every home in just two years.

The growth of 3D food printing in 2016 leaves the future wide open for more expansion – but also more questions. What industries will be influenced by the technology? What types of foods and ingredients can be printed in the future? And what precautions should be taken to ensure the safety and maintainability of 3D printed food? We’ll have to wait and see what 2017 will bring in the development of machine-created food.

Food AI Startup Gets A Boost From Bono

The celebrity turned investor trope isn’t a new story; from Leo DiCaprio to Magic Johnson, the rich and famous have often turned to the tech world either as an investor and sometimes as a founder. Recently, we’ve seen some high-profile investments in the food tech space – including actor Ashton Kutcher and his investment in Keurig-like juice startup Juicero.

The latest celebrities to jump on the food tech train are none other than U2 frontman Bono and the band’s beloved drummer The Edge. The lucky startup? Irish AI and DNA food startup Nuritas, a company working to find combinations of elements within our food and develop supplements that could act as cures to common diseases.

Nuritas joins a wave of companies launching with the plan to study and use DNA analysis to help people live healthier lives. Startups like Habit take a similar approach but use biological data to deliver customized health and dietary plans for users, tackling their nutritional needs at the molecular level.

Nuritas is currently awaiting patents for its technology which uses a combination of artificial intelligence and DNA analysis to dive deep into billions of molecules and extract components that can benefit human health. The company calls these compounds “bioactive peptides” and claims they can be used to manage a host of issues, including inflammation and potentially blood sugar levels in diabetics.

The U2 frontmen are joined by CEO and founder of Salesforce Marc Benioff along with tech entrepreneur Ali Partovi as early investors in Nuritas’ seed round of funding. Bono is no stranger to successful tech investment, having poured money into both Facebook and Dropbox in their early days.

Artificial intelligence is one of the hottest areas of tech – 2016 was a huge year for machine learning and the technology is finding its way into every vertical. The potential for AI influence on our food – from the ways we eat and cook to the types of food we consume along with the commerce, storage and healthcare implications that accompany these changes – is enormous.

Read more about Nuritas’ plan for expansion and the investment from U2.

Gourmia Launches Wi-Fi Air Fryer And New Sous Vide Machine

Sometimes the coolest part about IoT devices has little to do with the internet connectivity. Such is the case with Gourmia’s newest product launch – an air fryer that uses air instead of oil to create a crispy and tasty food experience.

Gourmia actually launched two new connected products – a sous vide “immersion pod” – aka a sous vide machine with Wi-Fi built in and a companion iOS / Android app. The sous vide machine features a large clip on the side to affix it to the pot of water as well as a small touchscreen for at-device control of temperature and power. Gourmia is working with home chef turned author Jason Logsdon, known for using techniques such as sous vide, blow torches and whipping siphons to prepare recipes in the mobile apps to use with the device. Gourmia already has a sous vide machine with a sub $100 price, but with added Wi-Fi, the introductory price for this one is around $120. It is still cheaper than current leading competitors like the ChefSteps Joule and Anova’s sous vide machine.

But the more interesting new product from Gourmia is the Cook Center & Air Fryer, which uses a combination of convection and radiant cooking to circulate hot air via halogen heating and deliver food prepped in different styles. The Gourmia Air Fryer claims to reduce cooking time by 60% and produces “perfectly crisp exteriors with moist tender interiors.” The appliance offers 20 different cooking styles, including frying and sauteing using air heat, as well as regular stir fry, steam, roast, grill, broil, bake, rotisserie, and kebabs. You can also use it to make pizza and to defrost food – making you wonder why you even need that microwave anymore.

The introductory price for the Gourmia Cook Center & Air Fryer is $150 – a decent buy considering the functionality and versatility.

DIY Food Kits Bringing Fundamentals Back To The Kitchen

A good deal of technology we see entering the kitchen involves helping us to be better at preparing food. Whether it’s guided cooking systems or pro-level tools that help average chefs make higher quality meals, the focus seems to be on helping people cook more, and more easily. But there’s another movement quietly taking shape – one we’ve talked about in the create your own beverage space, with products like PicoBrew’s at home brewing system – that involves DIYing food itself.

DIY food creation isn’t exactly a new concept; from things like cheese to yogurt and pasta to bread, purists and hobbyists alike have been making their own foods from raw ingredients since, well, the beginning of time. In fact, before the term DIY acronym existed, before we used artisanal to mean anything not made by a machine, there were people, without modern technology, churning butter and fermenting milk and rolling wheat and oil and water into dough.

But DIY food kits – easy-to-use and prepackaged kits that allow someone with little experience to create food from raw ingredients – are on the rise. Julie Feickert, CEO of DIY food kit company Cultures for Health, attributes the growth of mainstream attention on their products to the growing awareness and concern for healthy living. In an interview with Food Navigator, Feickert explained,

“More and more people have diet related conditions, gut health conditions that are pushing them to step back and say, ‘i need to control my food…I need to ultimately have a real handle on what my food is.”

The nostalgia for purer foods, ones that are less processed and locally sourced are often more appealing and the rise of things like farmer’s markets going digital with Amazon Fresh delivery and sales growth of DIY food kits are just a few examples that point to this growing consumer preference.

But raw materials, even when packaged together neatly with instructions to remove the guesswork, aren’t alone going to change consumer behavior when it comes to making foods from scratch. Today people are busier than ever and put a heavy value on convenience in addition to health and wellbeing. So while the DIY food kit market is experiencing a rise, the real magic will come when there’s technology to support it.

Read more about DIY food kits at Food Navigator.

Electrolux Ideas Lab Picks Smart Watch With Food Data And Augmented Reality Baked In

It isn’t uncommon these days for large, legacy brands in the food and appliance space to dive into the startup game. We’ve seen companies like Campbell’s, Kellog and General Mills create investment arms to back food startups looking to disrupt the market; startups in the space have raised over $6 billion over the past several years with products designed to shape the future of food.

Appliance giants like Electrolux are on the prowl for the next big idea that might revolutionize food production and manufacturing but also cooking, eating and buying food from the consumer end. Earlier this year, Electrolux launched the Electrolux Ideas Lab, a competition designed to find the next big idea in food innovation. According to Electrolux,

The premise of the Ideas Lab Is to “inspire people around the world to enjoy tastier, healthier and more sustainable home cooking in the future.”

Opened to everyone from students to startups, the Ideas Lab is a crowdsourced play to bring fresh thinking to Electrolux’s own products and solutions in the market. After picking 50 finalists, the company opened voting to the public and last week announced the top 10 vote-getters, along with the grand prize winner.

WatchYourself, Ideas Lab’s first-ever winner, is a smart watch concept designed by an Estonian product design student. The watch itself looks more like a high-tech bracelet but has unique features that allow you to scan in grocery items while you’re at the store to see if it fits into your personal diet and health plan. This requires some programming upfront and inputs from the user about who they are, what they’re allergic to, what they’d like to eat and their personal health goals. But the watch goes beyond just food data delivery, it also projects recipes for food items into the palm of your hand.

This concept – combining food data and recipe suggestions – isn’t new, but the delivery method is unique. Fitness wearables have dominated the market for a while now, but the combination of food data, nutrition, and digital health is where the market seems to be moving. We’ve seen startups like Habit launch, complete with a DNA kit to develop a truly personalized nutrition system for your own body’s needs. The WatchYourself concept combines the wearable technology form factor with deeper personalization for health and wellness – along with a tiny projector allowing recipes to actually be shown in your palm. The winner receives a week in Stockholm, home to Electrolux headquarters and a startup scene that helped birth the likes of Spotify and Skype – not to mention 10,000 euros.

Consumers are shifting their purchases and preferences to find ways to eat and live healthier and legacy food, tech and housewares brands are looking for ways to capitalize. With over $6 billion in investment, startups in the space are just getting started.

Check out other runners up in the Electrolux competition and read more about the Ideas Lab itself.

The Spoon Smart Kitchen 2016 Holiday Gift Guide

It’s time for The Spoon’s first annual holiday gift guide! Since Black Friday and Cyber Monday madness have passed and it’s really the first year we’ve seen many anticipated smart kitchen devices hit the market, it seemed like the perfect time to roll out our guide. Picking this year’s selections was not easy – the food tech and smart kitchen spaces are packed with great stuff. But we wanted to limit the guide to stuff you could actually purchase (not pre-order or back on Kickstarter, with a few exceptions) and hand to your loved one around or shortly after the holidays.

Now you might be thinking – I’m the one who loves food and tech in our house! The beauty of this guide is that it’s easily forwardable – perhaps send to your spouse or loved ones with a wink emoji and some subtle hints, and you’ll find that smart kitchen gear you’ve always wanted under the tree.

High-Tech Kitchen Help

joule-sweepstakes-dinner-3If you’ve got an amateur chef on your list this year, you can’t go wrong with sous vide. Sous vide is an older cooking technique using warm water to slowly and evenly cook foods like meat, fish and vegetables. Recent devices like the Joule from ChefSteps have increased the popularity of sous vide and made it easy to incorporate into any kitchen.

The Joule itself is a long, cylindrical water circulator and can be easily dropped into a pot of water to prepare food. It looks kind of like a high-tech rolling pin crossed with an Amazon Echo – but the noticeable difference between Joule and other sous vide cookers out there is the lack of a screen. The smartphone app does all the work – including preheating the device to the right temperature. The only thing left for the chef to do is season, seal and place the food in the water. The lack of a screen makes it more lightweight and smaller than other sous vide cookers, an appeal for some who want to minimize space in the kitchen.

Once cooking is complete, the dish can be removed and seared or finished on the stove for a perfect crust. Reviews of the Joule sous vide cooker promise some of the juiciest, most tender (insert food here) you’ve ever had.

Price: $199 on ChefSteps.com
(ChefSteps say they guarantee shipping by the holidays!)

Turn A Beer Fan Into A Brewmaster

Craft beer, spirits and cocktail related gifts are popular for those who like to imbibe around the holidays (…that’s everyone, right?) You could go a step up and get the beer fan on image001your list their own at home brew system. The folks at PicoBrew created the Pico, a simple pod-based brewing device that allows amateur brewers to customize their favorite IPA, pilsner, stout or pale ale in a week’s time. The PicoBrew PicoPaks and unique system take the mess out of home brewing and fermentation and each contains a different combo of grains, hops and yeast for each craft beer.

The PicoPaks are sold separately but come in over a hundred varieties so it’s easy to pair a few favorites with the system for a killer gift. And unlike older homebrew systems, the Pico’s compact design is ready for prime time – it’s cute enough to sit on the kitchen countertop and has a built-in steam cleaning mechanism. The digital display screen allows the user to adjust alcohol and bitterness levels for any brew and it makes up to five liters of beer at one time.

The Pico is one of those smart kitchen gadgets that will probably win you coolest family member award instantly; you might even get to sample the new brewmaster’s first brew attempt. Check out our complete review of The Pico before you buy.

Price: $799 at Williams-Sonoma

Infuse The Holidays With Perfect Tea

Tea and coffee are common holiday gifts for hot beverage drinkers, but for those who have a special affinity for tea, the smart tea infuser Teforia can create a custom cup of tea brewed to the exact right temperature and strength. The infuser looks like a cross between a traditional coffee maker and a high-tech chemistry set and comes equipped with a propriety technology called the Teforia Selective Infusion Profile System terforia(“Teforia SIPS” ™). Sounds complicated, right? Basically, Teforia has created a device that knows the best way to brew tea, taking into account things like steep time, infusion temperature and the varietal of tea you’re using.

But who really needs a tea infuser? Tea is actually considered most widely consumed beverage in the world next to water and can be found in almost 80% of all U.S. households. Most of us, even avid tea fans (raises hand) use a kettle to boil water and a simple tea bag stuck in a mug. But Teforia claims not all teas are created equal, and consuming tea the typical way actually does the ancient beverage a huge disservice.

So bypass the specialty tea box in the gift shop this year as you’re picking out gifts – chances are, if someone is a fan of tea, the Teforia Infuser, maybe with some of their hand-picked varietals thrown in, will blow their mind.

Price: $1499, starts shipping December 1 if you order on Teforia’s website.

Coffee – Right From Your Phone

Onto the coffee lovers – if you’re a true java fan, you know that there’s not one temp fits all for coffee brewing. What makes a good cup of coffee, well, good, often has to do with extraction, or the process of hot water drawing the flavor from the grounbrewer-smds. It’s a delicate process and water that’s too hot will leave coffee tasting bitter. With the Behmor Connected Coffee Maker, that problem is solved through customizable brew profiles that all coffee drinkers to adjust the brewing temperature and pre-soak time before crafting that perfect cup.

And, as the name suggests, Behmor’s coffee maker comes with a connected smartphone app that allows you to program, adjust and monitor your coffee from the comfort of your bed. The app will even text you when your coffee’s done, thus finally giving you a reason to get out of bed on a cold winter morning. In addition to the custom brew control, Behmor’s actually build in some unique technology to optimize coffee extraction with a pulsed water flow and a grounds basket designed to saturate every single coffee ground.

Pair this with a local coffee blend and you’ve got every java lover’s dream come true.

Price: $234 on Amazon

Give The Gift Of An Oven That Knows Exactly What You’re Cooking

Credit: JuneAn oven might seem like an odd gift to give someone – unless it’s your spouse and you’re in the middle of a kitchen renovation, I suppose. But what if that oven was packed with enough technology to recognize the food you place in it and know exactly how to cook it? That’s exactly what the June Oven is designed to do.

Early reviews on the June are mixed – and some are even downright harsh – but we still think the June could be an interesting gift for those with money to spare who want the most cutting edge oven tech on the market.

Price: $1495 for pre-order on Juneoven.com

For The Person Who Actually Loves to Cook

So maybe you don’t want to spend over $1k on a magical oven, but you do have someone on your list who likes cooking and is always on the hunt for new recipes. The Drop Kitchen Scale with companion smart app is a good way to dip your toe into the world of connected kitchen gear without breaking the bank. The Dro1407862226-order_drop5p Scale looks like a basic kitchen scale, but when paired with the app, provides a basic guided cooking system that walks the user through a chosen recipe and helps them weigh out ingredients along the way.

One of the best features of the Drop Kitchen ecosystem is its adaptability. Within the app, you can find and customize a recipe for the exact quantity or taste preference you’d like and the recipe will adjust portions and ingredients for you. So no more guesstimating how much flour you should use for a cupcake recipe you’re trying to half, Drop will give you precise measurements for the amount you need. With so many people using their smartphones and tablets in the kitchen to read recipes, the Drop Kitchen Scale and app will make cooking that much more enjoyable.

Price: $78.98 on Amazon (product is being end-of-lifed as Drop transitions into platform based technology)

Alexa, Finish My Holiday Shopping

160517094422-amazon-echo-alexa-00003213-1024x576Ok, this might not technically be a kitchen-specific gift, but the vast majority of Amazon Echo users I’ve encountered (myself included) keep the device in the kitchen – and for good reason. Alexa isn’t just a helpful virtual assistant, she can also be a pretty handy sous chef. From the very advanced – enable the Allrecipes skill and get step-by-step walk-through of any recipe available on Allrecipes – to the basic – ask Alexa how many teaspoons is in a tablespoon (1 tbl = 3 tsp, handy when your tablespoon constantly goes missing), Alexa is a hands-free help during meal prep.

The other helpful kitchen-specific feature, aside from listening to a news flash, a podcast or Spotify with a simple request, is the shopping list feature. Ask Alexa to add things to your shopping list as you run out of it, ensuring the next trip to the grocery store will result in a full pantry restock.

The Amazon Echo is usually $179.99, but is often on sale (and out of stock) around the holidays.

Connect To Your Tea

Maybe you have a tea lover on your list, but the idea of 800 bucks for the Teforia Infuserappkettle isn’t realistic. Before Teforia, there was a device called AppKettle, a connected tea kettle with less bells and whistles, but an easier price to swallow.

AppKettle is a connected tea kettle with a companion app that allows users to heat water on demand, from anywhere. With a nice stainless steel finish and both app and native device controls, this is a nice little upgrade to your traditional tea kettle. With the ability to control the temp of the water, AppKettle might be a perfect gift for new parents on your list who are bottle feeding. There’s nothing worse than waiting for water to heat up while your new baby cries for milk.

Price: AppKettle sadly is only shipping in the UK for around $160, but the CEO told The Spoon they have plans to ship in the US in 2017 with added Alexa integration.

Celebrate The New Year With A Perfect Drink

The season of gift-giving will soon be over which means it’s not too early to be making New Year’s Eve plans. And generally speaking, the most vital part of a good New Year’s Eve at17509bc290a4e2ab8ed6ca1c193d86e6 home, whether you’re parenting a toddler and stuck home playing Cards Against Humanity or single and hosting a fancy dinner party with a DJ and a large crowd, are the beverages. And if you’re going to be at home, you want cocktails that taste like they were made by a professional mixologist at a swanky bar, no?

That’s why the Perfect Drink 2.0 Smart Scale and Interactive App make such a great gift – it’s the smart kitchen substitute for an expensive bartending course. The Perfect Drink scale has over 400 drink recipes and walks you through ingredients, letting you know when you’ve poured the perfect amount of each. And if you pour too much, let’s say, gin, Perfect Drink Scale will help you adjust the rest of the ingredients so you don’t ruin the drink. The Cabinet feature lets you keep track of what you have on hand and there are recipes for every season, along with tried and true favorites.

Price: $39.99 on Amazon

Make Spaghetti Out Of….Everything

Credit: Williams-Sonoma

Tech lover or not, everyone loves a good kitchen gadget that’s useful and helpful without many bells and whistles. I once asked a well-known chef what he couldn’t live without in the kitchen and he said – basically – a good pan and some heat. But the extras can be fun too, which is why we’re putting the spiralizer into our first-ever gift guide.

The spiralizer is one of those low-tech gadgets that has amazing utility and, as a result, has a huge following. It’s basically a handheld device that turns average vegetables into pasta, creating a healthy (and delicious) meal. The spiralizer is best known for its ability to make zucchini spaghetti, but pictures (and testimonials) indicate it can be used to create garnishes and turn other vegetables into a pasta shape, too.

For anyone on your list looking to eat healthier, add this to their stocking and tell them to look forward to a spiralized 2017.

Price: Depends on the model, this basic one is $12.99 on Amazon while this slightly fancier (maybe less labor-intensive version) is $39.95 at Williams-Sonoma.

Read Up On The Future Of Food + The Kitchen

One of my favorite gifts to give and receive are books – you can’t go wrong. And there are a few books in the food tech and food science space that would make excellent presents under the tree.

The Food Lab by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt – The Food Lab is a tour de force – the food bible for foodlabanyone looking to infuse science through simple techniques to enhance everyday cooking. The 1000+ page plus recipe book is quite a departure from ordinary cookbooks; authored by Serious Eats managing culinary directorJ. Kenji López-Alt, also a James Beard Award winner, The Food Lab focuses squarely on food science. Looking at the interactions between heat, energy & molecules and how they all work together to create truly delicious food. The techniques to achieving better food aren’t necessarily complicated, and for anyone interested in nerding out over the science behind your favorite recipes, this book is a perfect (and heavy!) gift.

Modernist Bread: The Art and Science by Nathan Myhrvold and Francisco Migoya – The firstmodernist Modernist Cuisine book series spawned a cult-like following of the brand and its founder, former Microsoft CTO and technologist turned food connoisseur, Nathan Myhrvold. These books – hundreds of dollars worth – are truly for the hardcore food science nerd, someone who wants to dive deep into the art, science, design, techniques and research on human diet staple: bread. Housed in a stainless steel case, the five-volume series delivers over 1500 recipes, a wire-bound kitchen manual and over 2300 pages of knowledge on bread. While it’s not available until 2017, the right person will swoon over the gift of a Modernist Bread pre-order receipt. 

sousvideSous Vide at Home: The Modern Technique for Perfectly Cooked Meals – From Lisa Fetterman, the founder of Nomiku, one of the first mainstream sous vide machines, Sous Vide at Home just hit the shelves in early November. Sous vide is becoming increasingly popular as a technique using the slow heat of a water bath (described above in our Joule write-up) and this cookbook is a guide to creating chef-quality food using any sous vide device at home. It would pair well with a brand new sous vide machine as a perfect foodie gift.

So there you have it – our first annual holiday gift guide! We hope you find something for every food and tech lover on your list.

Happy Holidays!

Virtual Eating: How Virtual Reality Can Make You Think You’re Eating Pizza When You’re Not

The rise of virtual and augmented reality systems have only just begun; we’re almost positive we’ll see even more VR demos at CES this year, and the convergence of smart home technology and VR/AR has only just begun. But what about virtual eating? Virtual reality is designed to simulate sounds and sights of an environment – but could it simulate taste and smell too?

That’s the premise of a project from researchers in Japan and Singapore who have been testing out electrical and thermal probs that can stimulate muscles and trick the human brain to believe it was tasting food that wasn’t really there. In one experiment, scientists focused on the neurons that are sensitive to hot and cold temperature changes that also play a role in how we taste things. By rapidly heating or cooling a square of thermoelectric elements on the tip of someone’s tongue, the user experiences a sweet taste. The thermal experiment also produced some strange results, with some participants reporting a spicy flavor when the probs were heated up and a minty flavor when they were cooled down.

In another experiment, electrical currents were used instead of heat to enhance or create a salty, sour or bitter taste in someone’s mouth.

The last experiment used electrode’s attached to the masseter muscle, one of four muscles in the jaw used for mastication (chewing), to simulate biting through actual food. The strength of the electric impulse controlled the texture, or hardness of the simulated food and the duration of the impulse controlled the elasticity sensation of the jaw opening and closing during chewing. By varying the strength and duration, researchers were able to more realistically produce the sensation of biting into real food.

Study on Control Method of Virtual Food Texture by Electrical Muscle Stimulation

The role of heat as it relates to taste isn’t a new concept, it’s one chefs have been using to transform dishes and create unique flavors. But using solely heat or electricity to mimic a specific taste or sensation So it turns out, your taste buds, and even jaw muscles can be hacked – making it possible to have a virtual reality dining experience without having to suffer the calories.

Amazon Using Delivery Arm To Accelerate Mom + Pop Food Shops

Amazon has long been known for its desire to own all parts of online commerce and with the growth of AmazonFresh, its grocery delivery, it has extended its reach into millions of kitchens. But the online giant has also been intentional about its support for the little guy – from startups to small companies, Amazon is often seen providing a platform for anyone to expand their reach. Like their startup platform LaunchPad, which serves up physical products from startups to millions of Amazon consumers, AmazonFresh is now offering artisanal and “local” fair to customers on the Eastern seaboard.

The shop local and farmer’s market movement has faced growing competition from online commerce, particularly the move to automate grocery ordering & delivery. But it’s not a perfect replacement because it often doesn’t allow for customers to find local produce or handmade items similar to the ones they’d find at their local farmer’s market.

And then there’s the farmer/artisan perspective. Many of these small businesses do less than $50k in revenue every year and are unable to grow beyond their geographical region do to economies of scale. That’s where AmazonFresh comes in. The company’s delivery arm offers a vehicle and a platform to serve up items like specialty cupcakes, unique and local meats and nitro coffee.

The companies who have already signed on to participate in the AmazonFresh delivery program have already seen an increase in sales and are reaching new customers they otherwise would have no way to engage with. In a comment to the Washington Post, Amazon spokesperson commented on the program’s early success, “Many of these companies began with Amazon in mid-September and only six weeks into the program have seen sales that will be significant and impactful to their businesses.”

From a convenience perspective, it’s easy to see why it would be appealing for a consumer, who might not always get to the weekly farmer’s market, to be able to have access to local and fresh goods while also supporting small mom and pop operations. And for Amazon, the company knows that few people do their entire household shopping at a farmer’s market or small marketplace, so they’re offering the best of both worlds – large superstore goods and artisanal and specialty items – and benefitting from customers seeking the convenience of all-in-one shopping.

Read more about the AmazonFresh farmer’s market approach at The Washington Post.

Food Tech Investment Report: Fall 2016

Lighter fare with a hint of international flavor.

No, that’s not what’s on the menu today, but instead a summary of the latest funding, M&A and partnership report from Rosenheim Partners, a strategic and financial consulting firm focused on the food-related tech and media sectors. Led by consultant Brita Rosenheim (also a Smart Kitchen Summit 2016 speaker), the roundup looks at the sector overall and dives deep into a variety of deals.

We combed the last roundup in the latest report, published at FoodTech Connect, and found interesting pieces to highlight. As Rosenheim notes, the deals for the past few months have been pretty light, with a decent amount of activity abroad. Meal kit delivery and grocery delivery continue to pop up in the U.S. food tech sector, including recent funding announcements:

  • Home Chef, a Chicago-based meal kit delivery startup picks up $40 million in a Series B round. The investment brings Home Chef’s total to $50 million in 2016 alone, and the startup argues their big differentiator is its focus on home-cooking, friendly menu items (think: stuff your kids might actually eat) and the ability to customize your box from a deeper variety. The startup is growing rapidly, with 600 employees and a reported 1.5 million meal boxes delivered each month.
  • Fresh Direct, amidst rumors of an IPO or sale, announced an investment of $189 million to add to its manufacturing capabilities and move into new geographies. The company is currently focused on the east coast (NY, NJ, PA, CT) but has been cash positive since 2010 and runs FoodKick, its on-demand service that brings food in an hour to customers. Operating since 2002, the company has fought hard to stay alive alongside big competitors like AmazonFresh and more recently, the rise of meal kit delivery startups.
  • NYC home meal delivery startup Umi Kitchen raised its seed round, bringing in $1.4 million to grow its mobile app that connects home chefs in Brooklyn and Manhattan with hungry customers. The idea of making prepared food delivery easier and more ubiquitous isn’t new, but Umi’s differentiator comes in the kind of food they’re offering – home cooking, straight from someone’s actual home. Umi’s also not trying to reinvent or invest in a delivery infrastructure – they’re taking advantage of Postmates presence in NYC to bring meals to their customers.
  • We recently wrote a piece about Brava, the stealth smart kitchen startup led by former media execs at Disney and the former hardware lead at smart home company August. What exactly they’re working on remains a bit of a mystery, but it will be a smart kitchen appliance – maybe even a smart oven. They’ve just picked up $12 million A round investment led by True Ventures and plan to launch their product sometime in 2017.
  • The last interesting one comes in the form of a partnership rather than an investment – one that has implications not just for consumers but food brands as well. Hershey’s has announced its intention to partner with Chef’d, an online meal kit store, to create branded dessert meal kits. The idea of a meal kit with chocolate dessert recipes and ingredients sounds pretty yummy, but what Chef’d is doing is even more intriguing. Partnering with content companies like Allrecipes and Good Housekeeping and now food brands like Hershey’s, Chef’d is not just delivering meal kits. They’re taking recipes from familiar consumer brands, recipes that home cooks are likely to be preparing in their homes, and bringing them to life using the convenient form factor of a meal kit. And for brands, Chef’d meal kits are in many ways branded content – a less sales-y way to build awareness and cultivate loyalty.

While the food tech investment roundups continue to demonstrate the popularity of meal kits and food delivery, we’re starting to see the connected kitchen emerge regularly as well. Startups like June and Juicero have picked up sizable investments in within the past few years and we believe 2017 is where we’ll start to see even more break throughs in the space.

June Ships Smart Oven To Early Backers

If you were at the 2016 Smart Kitchen Summit, you probably noticed a huge growth of smart kitchen startups in the space. From creating brand new smart appliances to printing 3D food to growing food inside your own kitchen, there are no shortages of companies trying to come up with the new big thing in kitchen tech. A few of those startups have made big waves in recent years, including smart oven maker June. The June Oven, which includes a unique heating architecture, HD camera and a built-in food thermometer, promises to take literally all the work out of cooking your food. It’s got built-in Wi-Fi and an app that lets you control, monitor and even see your food as it cooks. And after a half-year delay, the company announced it has begun shipping the $1500 appliance to its early backers.

June’s co-founders Matt Van Horn and Nikhil Bhogal debuted the oven in mid-2015 after leaving startup Path (both had solid resumes, including stints at startup that became Lyft and Apple). They were pretty secretive about what they were up to, and when they came out to debut their new concept for cooking, there was some skepticism. But they quickly pointed out that kitchen innovation had been stale – Van Horn commenting, “there hasn’t been any real innovation in the kitchen since the 70s with the introduction of the microwave oven.” And maybe he was right – looking around the kitchen today, we see products that might look sleeker, but basically function the same today as they did 30 or more years ago.

But what does the June Oven do that’s so unique – and why does it cost $1500?

June Intelligent Oven

Unlike the majority of other early attempts at smart kitchen devices, June’s Intelligent Oven goes beyond connectivity and app control and puts a heavy focus on artificial intelligence (AI) to help consumers cook food. Powered by a quad-core NVIDIA processor, the oven’s Food ID technology uses an internal HD camera and AI software to identify the food and recommend multi-step cook programs.  Once programmed, the June oven kicks into guided cooking mode, monitoring and shifting cook modes based on internal temperature readings from the oven’s internal thermometer. The oven can currently recognize 25 food types and the company expects that to continue to grow.

And while some balked at the hefty price tag for what looks like a countertop toaster oven, investors have flocked to the company, helping June raise a Series A round of $22.5 million in early 2016. In many ways, June is attempting to replace more than just your dumb oven sitting against the wall. It’s trying to replace your microwave, toaster oven and even your cookbook.

Initially targeted to ship in spring, the company said the delay was due to updates to the heating mechanisms and materials. The delays may have been worth it, as early reviews of the product seem positive, important in a market that is likely to become much more crowded in the coming year. For now, however, June is the first truly AI-powered smart oven available to consumers.

Jenn-Air Wi-Fi Ovens Add Support For Nest

Often times in the smart home space, companies announce integrations or new functionality that seem…less than useful. Part of this is a result of the race to make the case to consumers that connected devices are going to make their lives better. But sometimes we hear about device integrations that not only seem like a good idea – but also just good common sense.

One example of this is an announcement this week from appliance manufacturer Jenn-Air that it has integrated Nest thermostat functionality into the Jenn-Air Wi-Fi connected ovens. The integration will allow the oven and the thermostat to talk to one another to communicate important information. If the Nest senses that there is no one home but the oven has been left on, it will send a quick notification via the Jenn-Air app to the user to let them know and give them the option to shut off the appliance.

The other integration is even more useful, allowing users to create rules that will change the Nest’s temp settings when the oven is set at a certain temperature. This is an aim to solve a fairly common problem – the kitchen and dining room areas getting too hot, especially in the warmer months, when the oven is on for long periods of time. The custom rules will allow Nest and Jenn-Air owners to be proactive and ensure the rooms remain comfortable during the cooking process. Perhaps the only thing missing from this announcement is an integration between the oven and Nest’s connected smoke detector. The oven is the culprit of many false (and maybe some real) smoke alarms, so an integration between a smoke detector and the oven to determine whether it’s appropriate to switch off the oven in the event of a real fire seems useful.

Jenn-Air has been an early appliance leader in the smart kitchen space, announcing earlier this year a strategic partnership with food data platform startup Innit to bring a new level of intelligence to cooking using their appliances. The new Nest integration will work through the Jenn-Air app and current Jenn-Air connected oven users will receive notification to update the app to the newest version, which includes the added Nest functionality.

Read more about the Jenn-Air news here.

 

Tea Startup Teforia Gets $12 Million Infusion In Series A Round

Last year at the inaugural Smart Kitchen Summit, there was a small team gathered around a high-top round table pouring delicious tea for Summit attendees. Their startup, Teforia, was still relatively unknown, having officially introduced itself only a week earlier. A few months later, Teforia announced a $5.1 million seed funding round and began the work of evangelizing the magic its technology was attempting to bring to tea drinkers everywhere. Accepting around 500 pre-orders to early backers, the company is now about to start early shipping and has just announced a $12 million Series A round led by Translink Capital.

Teforia’s premise is based on a propriety technology and sleek design. Using what’s called the “Selection Infusion Process,” users can customize their tea’s caffeine levels, antioxidant levels and flavor profiles. Teforia’s infuser will know exactly the right brew time and temperature and the result is a unique twist on an ancient drink.

The company has enjoyed early success in part based on founder Allen Han, who in a previous life was one of the designers behind the original XBOX. A trip several years ago to Asia and an excellent cup of tea led Han to explore the niche beverage industry and discover a significant lack of innovation or modern investment.

“…the $90 billion dollar global tea market largely consists of commercialized brewing methods and treatments. Most tea drinkers don’t know what they’re missing, so I wanted to create a way to perfect the process of brewing tea while honoring its tradition.”

Teforia’s device uses a pod-based system, made popular first by Keurig but then replicated by many modern beverage machines. The difference in Teforia’s model lies in the customization features. The pre-packaged “Sips” are filled with gourmet teas that can be “read” by the Teforia infuser and the companion app allows tea drinkers to personalize infusions of any loose-leaf tea to their preferences.

Teforia is banking on the continued popularity of tea around the globe, but particularly within the Millennial generations. While older generations typically prefer coffee, surveyed Millennials drink tea and coffee equally – and while the company is currently only shipping in the U.S., the opportunity abroad may be even bigger. Jay Eum, co-founder and managing director, Translink Capital commented, “As the tea market continues to grow globally, we know that as the company gears up for a successful launch in the U.S., that will only be the beginning. We believe the opportunity for the company could be huge in Asia where tea is deeply integrated into the culture.”

The startup’s Series A round included participation from returning investor Upfront Ventures and Lemnos Labs along with new investment from Mousse Partners and Correlation Ventures, bringing total funding to date to over $17M.