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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Smart Kitchen Summit

Steve Nackers on The Evolving Role of Cyber-Security in the Connected Kitchen

Does your blender prefer a specific brand of low-fat yogurt? Is your stovetop eager to share snapshots of last weekend’s epic dinner party? Just how connected are smart kitchens, and more importantly, which appliance knows what (and who are they sharing it with)?

Steve Nackers, corporate Manager of Electronic Controls for Sub-Zero, will be at this year’s Smart Kitchen Summit discussing cybersecurity, the connected kitchen, and the chances of your slow-cooker chili setting off five alarms in all the wrong places.

We sent him a few questions before the October event about how the Sub-Zero team are tackling innovation, performance, and adaptive privacy settings.

This interview has been lighted edited for clarity. 

Tell us more about what you do for Sub-Zero Group, Inc.
I’ve been with Sub-Zero Group, Inc. for over 18 years. During that time, my career has spanned from field support to product launches to innovative research initiatives. I have enjoyed experiencing a wide part of the DNA of this family-owned company and its commitment to its customers — something I’m excited to see even more growth around with the recent breaking ground on our new innovation center that will serve as a hub for research and development.

As the Corporate Manager of Electronic Controls for Sub-Zero Group, Inc., my team will be one of the first to move to the new innovation center where we will work alongside teams from across our three great brands on developing and integrating the controls, software, and innovations that deliver on that promise of quality and value that Sub-Zero Group, Inc. is known for.

How have you seen technology transform the way we cook in the kitchen?
Yes — technology is reshaping the kitchen and the home space around us in ways we see, and in ways we don’t. However, it is important to make sure that those technologies are applied in meaningful ways that enable and enhance the consumer experience. From the NASA-inspired air filter technologies that enhance food preservation to precision software and instrumentation that has evolved greatly in the last decade to provide the consumer greater control and more predictable cooking results, these technologies are reshaping the cooking experience. We continue to take really innovative and new technologies and shape them in ways that help our consumers to have an experience in the kitchen that gives them confidence.

Do you envision a future in which all kitchen appliances are connected and controllable via your phone/voice?
The key thing is providing the consumer with choice. Homeowners still really value the ability to interact with their appliances, but are also looking for ways to improve their efficiency in the kitchen. Their data, privacy, and security should be what they have control over, and we need to enable them to interact with their appliances in the ways that are most seamless and comfortable for them. For some people, that will be voice, for others it is mobile, and still others it is a physical knob. Thoughtfully designing the appliances from day one throughout our engineering process to accommodate that choice and respecting the values of our consumers is what drives our vision of the future.

How do you address consumer concerns about privacy with IoT-enabled devices?
We take security very seriously and have worked closely with organizations like UL and Microsoft from the start to ensure proper measures are in place to be proactive about vulnerabilities. Cybersecurity is an ever-changing landscape, and is something we must continuously evolve and update our security measures to stay on top of. The most important thing is to have a mindset and commitment to security as a priority in every step of your design process and throughout the various levels of your organization. That is something we take seriously and continue to cultivate.

We also understand that consumers have concerns about IoT enabled devices. Our customer service teams are dedicated to working with consumers on their questions. Our hope is always that any concerns they might have we address so effectively that they come away with confidence and a greater sense of trust. To that end, we work to be clear, transparent, and effective in communicating what and how data is handled.

What’s the one kitchen appliance you could never live without?
My Wolf induction cooktop, hands down. Induction is finally making inroads in the U.S., and I’ve converted a few family and friends as well. I had used gas and standard electric methods for years previously, but getting my first Wolf induction cooktop was eye-opening. The power, efficiency, and absolute precision was amazing. To be able to drive a pot of water to rolling boil in under a minute, and yet leave chocolate at a soft melt for as long as needed with such precision on the same devices is incredible. There is a lot of exciting innovation to come in this space too which makes me even more eager for future generations of the product!

Come watch Steve speak on Hacking The Oven: Cybersecurity & The Connected Kitchen at SKS next month! Get 25% off your tickets here.

Suleiman Alhadidi on How to Maximize the Future Kitchen, Even in Small Spaces

We talk a lot about the appliances that go into the future kitchen — but what about the design of the space itself? As populations urbanize, millennials take over, and automation and delivery become more and more omnipresent, the actual space of the kitchen must also evolve to accommodate these new technologies.

Suleiman Alhadidi works on reimagining living spaces in the MIT Media Lab’s City Science Group project. Alhadidi will be at the Smart Kitchen Summit {SKS} next month speaking about how new housing types, automation, and generational shifts will affect the design of future kitchens. But we got curious about how our kitchens are going to look down the road (robots? foldable ovens?), so we went ahead and asked Alhadidi a few questions over email. Check out the Q&A below then grab your tickets to SKS now!

This interview has been very lightly edited for clarity. 

I’ve heard rumors you’re working on some sort of robotic kitchen concept. Tell us more about that.
In the City Science group, we strive to design the future of cities, buildings, and homes to provide more livable communities and to make life more enjoyable. As populations swell and space is at a premium, we need to make better use of space in all facets of our lives. The Piccolo Kitchen Project explores new modes of cooking using robotically enabled cabinets and appliances to minimize the footprint of the kitchen while maximizing the ability for users to cook large meals, socialize, and utilize the same space for work during non-meal times. Our team has reimagined the kitchen as a multipurpose-system that adapts to the user needs.

The kitchen project is part of the robotic-micro-unit project which aims to provide affordable urban spaces in tier-one cities such as New York and San Francisco. As living space becomes scarce, its cost is rising and unaffordable. Unaffordability is a major cause for the displacement of people and with them, their culture.

Recently, some cities have increased affordable housing units; however, there is a strong need for innovations in space management in the home that allow for smaller groups to accommodate residents’ needs. We are hoping that the application of the micro-unit robotic systems will have a positive impact in densely populated cities by reducing unit cost and allowing people to live where they work and enjoy their life.

Piccolo Kitchen aims to accommodate all the needs of an apartment resident while occupying as little space as possible. It is a modular unit that includes appliances, storage, counter space, and a sink in a compact area that can be optimized for different needs using its various robotic components. The unit needs to be portable, modular, and compatible with consumer kitchen appliances. Through a series of robotic arms, pulleys, and actuators, the kitchen will provide users with the ability to access the cabinets and appliances they need at that time while moving the ones they don’t need out of the way. The proposed kitchen design aims to go beyond being solely a cooking space and serve as a workstation as well.

How do you think the move towards automation will affect the way we interact with food?
Robotics and automation will be an increasingly important part of our lives. We hope that Piccolo Kitchen can prioritize the culture of the kitchen with a user-focused design. It is modular in nature, giving the users choices on their space, knowing that cooking is a personal experience with many cultural attributes. It aims to optimize the kitchen space and volume without compromising its functionality, especially in micro-units.

We are hoping that automation will make cooking more enjoyable and enrich the social experience in our homes; allowing the transfer of knowledge with their loved ones, allowing the development of personal expertise on how to cook healthier, and enabling everyone to prepare and interact with food no matter how limited their space might be.

I think that cooking and food preparation should be multigenerational; accessible by the young and old and also possible for people of all abilities. We are focused on small spaces with an aim not to compromise but maximize the cooking experience.

Are there any trends you see emerging in the food space which you think are particularly interesting?
New modes of technology are emerging in the way we produce and consume food; blockchain technology is allowing new modes of decentralized exchange of food and goods. This technology is changing the food production ecosystem. Food production is becoming closer to its demand in the same city; urban farms allow for district-level food production. This new ecosystem promotes different sustainable ways of sharing food while avoiding waste, as shown in several apps like iRecycle, My Waste, and OLIO. This makes food sharing easier in certain communities, copying what old cultures were used to do to share both cooked and uncooked food.

Millennials are attracted to healthier food. We see a surge in special-diet online stores that aim to have better food choices. These platforms provide more convenient ways to shop.

Kitchen appliances are now enabled by Internet of Things; allowing a better user-driven cooking experience that is customized for different cultures and cuisines. Wireless-charging and autonomous appliances will allow more flexibility in making both home and commercial kitchens and will change the way we order, store, cook, and consume food in our homes.

In the future, do you foresee communities growing and cooking food more locally or outsourcing it from further away? In short: How will our future living situations impact our relationship with food?
I am a believer in community-driven economies. I expect that communities and neighborhoods will be able to grow and consume their food with the advent of advanced technologies. In the City Science group, we work to enable communities and neighborhoods to be equitable and autonomous; you can grow your plants without soil using hydroponics, for example, and technologies like this will enable decentralized methods of growing your food locally. This will promote sustainable approaches and empower communities by enriching culture and local values.

We see urban dwellers in the future living in dense compact neighborhoods where places for work, live, and play are all located in close proximity. Such neighborhoods will be responsive to the unique needs and values to individuals through the application of disentangled systems and smart customization. Such a system (if developed properly) will allow for more productive, enjoyable, and sustainable lives.

Come watch Suleiman speak about new, innovative and efficient kitchen design at SKS next month! Get 25% off your tickets here.

David Kay on Why Consumers Will Love Cultured Meat (Just as Soon as It Gets to Market)

When talking about cultured meat (that is, meat made without animal slaughter), one of the first names that comes up in conversation is Memphis Meats. This Silicon Valley startup was the first company to start serious development in the cell-based meat space four years ago, and they are still on the cutting edge today.

We invited Memphis Meats’ Senior Manager of Communications and Operations (also its first employee), David Kay, to speak about the potential of cell-based meat at the Smart Kitchen Summit (SKS) next month alongside Lou Cooperhouse of BlueNalu. But we got a little eager, so we went ahead and asked Kay a few questions about the meat alternative revolution and how he thinks consumers will react to eating meat grown in a bioreactor.

Check out the interview below then grab your tickets to SKS. They’re going fast!

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Memphis Meats is growing animal meat without the animal. Give us a high-level explanation of how you do that.
We start by obtaining animal cells from high-quality livestock animals. We figure out which of these cells are most capable of self-renewal and which ones give us the potential to express the characteristics we desire with respect to taste, texture and aroma. Once we select these cells we feed them nutrients. The nutrients are, at a high level, the same nutrients that the cells would get in nature — amino acids, water, oxygen, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals. The cells grow, multiply, and create muscle tissue (aka meat). At scale, this will take place in a facility that is similar to a beer brewery. We call this process “essential nutrition” because we can produce just the meat consumers desire and nothing more.

What’s the reasoning behind developing cultured meat?
With the global population expected to reach 10 billion by 2050, demand for meat is expected to double. But given the amount of resources modern livestock production requires today — a third of the world’s arable land and fresh water — we simply won’t be able to meet that demand. At Memphis Meats, we want to enable our food system to feed an increasingly hungry planet while preserving both the planet and cherished culinary traditions. We expect cell-based meat production will coexist with conventional meat production, and that together these methods will meet demand.

When will we actually be able to eat cell-based meat? When do you guess it will first enter the market and how long will it take before it’s available in your average supermarket?
While we are working as fast as we can to bring a product to market, we are also cognizant that our number one priority as a food company – and as a nascent industry – must be ensuring product safety and consumer trust. Key to this is establishing a sensible regulatory framework. We are committed to providing consumers with Memphis meat through appropriate regulatory channels. While other innovative industries might follow the “move fast and break things” Silicon Valley ethos, we firmly believe that our product release must be done in a responsible and transparent manner.

Why is communication such a critical aspect of the alternative protein revolution?
From the earliest days at Memphis Meats, we have seen communication as a crucial responsibility of cell-based meat companies, and a necessary tool for establishing trust with consumers. We had our media debut, including a viral video of the world’s first cell-based meatball, when we were less than six months old and had only four team members. Since then we have regularly updated the public as we’ve reached milestones in product development, regulation, fundraising and our growing team. We want to empower consumers to make their own decisions. We are confident that, if provided with the facts, consumers will be enthusiastic about cell-based meat.

What do you think is the biggest hurdle cultured meat has to face? Consumer acceptance? Regulatory issues? Labeling pushback?
We will be ready to go to market as soon as a regulatory path is established in the U.S. We are grateful for the speed and openness that both agencies have demonstrated so far in regulatory conversations, and we look forward to continuing to provide them with the information they need to make informed decisions.

Keep an eye out for more speaker Q&A’s as we ramp up to our fifth year of SKS on October 7-8 in Seattle! We hope to see you there.

Orchestra Provisions Is Trying to Bring on the Insect Revolution through Cricket Spice Blends

On the whole, people are still pretty wary about eating bugs. They might try the occasional cricket tortilla chip or scoop of protein powder, but overall, consumers — at least Western ones — are a little creeped out by munching on insects.

One company pitching at our upcoming SKS Future Food competition is trying to make an easy way for people to incorporate bugs into their diet. Orchestra Provisions makes a line of spices, such as curry powder and za’atar, which are blended with cricket powder. We spoke with founder Kate Stoddard about why she decided spice blends were the way to get people to eat more insects. If you want to see her pitch live (and taste the buggy blends for yourself), be sure to get your ticket to SKS in Seattle this October!

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

First thing’s first: Give us your 15-second elevator pitch
The concept of entomophagy provides a biodiverse superfood that has the capacity to feed billions sustainably. This unique product line introduces a culture that harbors aversion to eating insects to bugs in an approachable way that changes little about the culinary process. Orchestra provisions’ spice line is used just the same as regular spices, but is based off of a cricket powder boasting 2.5 grams of protein per serving! One cannot see, taste or smell the crickets in these gourmet mixes. Gram to gram, crickets have more protein than beef, more calcium than milk and more iron than spinach. Crickets are also a great source of prebiotic fiber and taste like sunflower seeds. Requiring a fraction of the land, feed and water compared to beef or pork, crickets also emit very few greenhouse gases. Bonus: their waste is yet another useful product; garden fertilizer called “frass”. Orchestra is involved currently in the R&D phase of formulating a protein powder that will easily substitute in for less sustainable protein sources.

What inspired you to start Orchestra Provisions?
I am inspired by the way food culture and nutrition shape our ecosystems. Humans are destroying the very land that sustains them and I want to be a part of finding solutions that restore balance and harmony.

What have you found to be the most challenging part of getting a food startup off the ground?
Too many to list, but this may be yet another source of inspiration. To be brief, the top two challenges: The psychology of aversion to entomophagy and creating a market for more sustainable and responsible foods.

How will Orchestra Provisions change the day-to-day life of consumers and the food space as a whole?
The positive impacts of entomophagy are immeasurable and vast. One intent is to conserve more wild lands to preserve native and wild ecosystems where future generations can learn, observe and be in nature. Another goal is to feed the mouths we have managed to bring onto the planet without destroying it. Perhaps the most important vision is to integrate insects into the western diet by proving them as a gourmet experience that is anything but new to human history. With all of these sustainability goals, the day to day adjustments should be seamless, changing little about the way consumers buy and prepare meals. This is why my product line overcomes aversion, because it integrates into people’s busy lives efficiently and effectively.

Come watch Kate pitch live and taste Orchestra Provisions’ buggy products at the SKS Future Food Competition next month! Get 25% off your tickets here.

The Food Tech Show: Impossible’s First Retail Product is Almost Here And We’re Pretty Excited About It

We’ve been head’s down preparing for the fifth Smart Kitchen Summit (in just three weeks!), but The Spoon crew took some time this week to talk about some of the latest news in Food Tech.

Here are some of the stories we discussed:

If you want to see the startups we talk about or hang out with the Spoon crew, make sure to go to the Smart Kitchen Summit and get your tickets before they’re gone! Use discount code PODCAST for 25% off of tickets at www.smartkitchensummit.com.

As always, you can listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also download the episode directly to your device or just simply hit play below.

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McCormick’s Hamed Faridi on How CPG Giants Can Leverage AI and Data to Stay Nimble

Anyone else remember having to rummage through the deep, dark recesses of your spice cupboard in search of a bottle of peppermint extract, or maybe some “rubbed sage”? That’s where the McCormick brand has lived for most of my life.

Which is why it’s so interesting to see the spice giant branching out to leverage AI and data to create new flavors, personalized spice blends and even a grill that plays music based on what you’re cooking. That’s a hell of a leap from taco-seasoning packets.

This new tech-y push is led by Chief Science Officer Hamed Faridi, who will be at the Smart Kitchen Summit (SKS) with Richard Goodwin, IBM lead researcher, discussing their recent collaboration and AI-powered flavor platform. We emailed Faridi a few early questions because October was too long to wait. (Buy your SKS tickets now, they are going fast!)

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and grammar.

Lately McCormick has been combining flavor and AI, for example through its Flavorprint service and its partnership with IBM. Do you think this combination is a trend we’ll see more of?
Flavorprint service is provided by the Vivenda Corp. McCormick AI is currently under development via a partnership with IBM Research and is solely focused on new product innovation. We are assembling a database of 14,000 ingredients, over 400,000 formulations, millions of culinary recipes, and over a billion sensory and consumer data points loaded on a highly proprietary algorithm to be an inspiration partner for our product developers who are working in 20 labs located in 14 countries. It is a learning algorithm that becomes smarter and more innovative when receiving feedback from the developers using it on their daily product development activities.

What role do you envision large CPG companies such as McCormick playing in the future of food?
A lot. The large CPG should become more nimble and agile and respond quickly to the changing consumer taste, habit and experience. That is exactly what we have done in the past and will continue to do in the future.

In the coming decades our industry will be facing seismic changes. Among them is the unprecedented explosion of e-commerce that has disrupted the entire retail supply chain from end to end. The food industry will go through major M&A to stay competitive. The new generation of consumers, led by millennials, is forcing CPG companies to have a greater focus on transparency, natural and organic products, GMO, sustainability, and social responsibility.

Additionally, the information technology revolution will change almost everything we are doing today. Nutrogenomics and customized nutrition will transition from experimental to mainstream. And last but not the least, global warming, droughts, and loss of cultivable land and mass migration from rural to city centers are threatening all agriculture-based industries.

As the Chief Science Officer of McCormick, my number one responsibility is to turn all these seemingly insurmountable challenges into opportunities for accelerated growth, wealth creation, and competitive advantage. For example, e-commerce will provide unlimited shelf space which in turn will offer a platform for significant increases in new product introductions and mass customization. Advances in data analytics, artificial intelligence, and robotics will simultaneously make new product development better, faster, and cheaper. Potential loss of cultivable land lends itself to the exploration of aquaculture. There is never a dull moment in what I do day in and day out.

How does a large, established company like McCormick innovate and pivot to take advantage of fickle consumer trends?
By being committed to science-enabled innovation and acting nimbly.

What’s the one spice you couldn’t live without?
I love my cinnamon sprinkled over my breakfast every day. I never miss sprinkling black pepper, oregano and taragan on my salad for lunch and dinner. I love to have my tea with a dash of cardamom. My wife always adds a blend of turmeric, cinnamon, rosemary, cumin, and saffron to cooked rice she makes almost every evening that we eat at home.

Keep an eye out for more speaker Q&A’s as we ramp up to our fifth year of SKS on October 7-8 in Seattle! We hope to see you there.

FoodNetwork.com’s Michelle Buffardi on Why Recipes (and Cooking) Won’t Be Obsolete

I can credit Food Network with kickstarting my obsession with food. When I was young I used to stay up and watch Emeril throwing his spices into pots with a “Bam!” and follow the fast-paced cooking challenges on Iron Chef. And of course cook along with all the recipes on FoodNetwork.com.

Back then, Food Network was one of the few players in the online recipe game. Now there’s a lot more competition, including new digital recipe sources like guided cooking apps and smart speakers. That’s why we’re so excited to have Michelle Buffardi, who oversees editorial and programming strategy for culinary content at FoodNetwork.com, Food.com and CookingChannelTV.com, speaking about the future of food media at the 2019 Smart Kitchen Summit next month.

Check out our Q&A with Buffardi below and get your tickets to see her in Seattle. Save 25 percent with code THESPOON25!

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and grammar.

You oversee culinary content for FoodNetwork.com. What does a day in the life look like?
No two days ever look alike! A day could include brainstorms (those are the best meetings!) or greenlights for things like recipes for video or otherwise, holiday programming since we work several months in advance, new video series or chefs and hosts we want to work with for digital series. I also have many meetings with other teams, such as our product and tech teams, about site enhancements and other projects to make sure the content and tech come together for the best user experience.

When I’m not in meetings, I’m working on editorial calendars or plans for different platforms—my team works on content across our website and apps—researching trends and new talent. When I have time in my day, I stop by our test kitchen for a tasting, which is where our recipe developers present the recipes they’ve made that day for various digital needs and projects. We taste them and give feedback.

Consumers have a plethora of different platforms at their fingertips to discover recipes. How do you entice them to come to FoodNetwork.com?
Our fans come to us for two main reasons: our culinary credibility and our variety of chefs and hosts. We have recipes for anything anyone is looking for developed by the best chefs on the planet, such as chefs from linear shows or exclusive digital projects and chefs from our test kitchen who develop recipes, write how-tos and do product tests for us.

We work hard to make sure we have recipes and content for trends, special diets, every holiday and of course, weeknight dinner recipes specialized to popular appliances (like the InstantPot). No matter what people are looking for, we have it.

In addition to people coming to us from search, our amazing team is great at promoting all of our content on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat and Twitter), often with original content developed for each platform, and our editors work to share the best content in our weekly and daily newsletters. In short, we ensure that we’re giving our fans access to the best content in all of the places they visit and connect with us.

Two years ago at SKS Tyler Florence made the bold claim that the recipe is dead. What do you think?
I don’t want to disagree with Tyler! However, I don’t think cooking is dead, so I don’t think the recipe is dead. There is a trend, especially as more people gain confidence in the kitchen, of cooking without a recipe. That is winging it with familiar ingredients and methods, or taking a known recipe, like that stir-fry you have memorized, and swapping in different proteins, vegetables, sauces or seasonings.

The bowl and composed-food trends also lend themselves to no-recipe cooking — just layering delicious homemade or store-bought elements like grains, raw or roasted vegetables, sauces and salsa, roasted chicken or a fried egg. Even so, there are new cooks every day who need a recipe to get them going. Plus, even for experienced cooks, whenever we want to make something new or unfamiliar, we need that blueprint.

In short, I say the recipe is not dead; long live the recipe!

How do you think that recipes will continue to adapt to meet shifting consumer demands in the age of digitization and convenience?
This is so interesting and exciting to me. Recipes used to be made for magazines and consumer packaging, so they had to fit a specific format and word count. That’s not the case anymore. The formula is the same — people will always need to have the ingredients, measurements and the cooking method listed — plus a photo is important, too.

However, [I predict that] formats will change: recipes will start to look different depending on the platform they’re intended for, or will be written differently so that they can be read by a voice-enabled device, for example. The ways people consume information and the devices they use are constantly changing which means we’ll keep evolving the ways in which we deliver that information. Including recipes.

Want to see Michelle Buffardi speak about the future of the recipe in the digital age live? Get your tickets to SKS in Seattle on October 7-8th. We’ll see you there!

Meet the 10 Finalists of the First Ever SKS Future Food Competition

On Tuesday, we introduced you to the 12 Startup Showcase finalists who will pitch at the Smart Kitchen Summit {SKS} this October. Now it’s time to meet the first ever Future Food cohort: 10 startups creating innovative new CPG products out of groundbreaking or sustainable ingredients.

Read on to get acquainted with the Future Food cohort finalists, who are making everything from cricket seasoning powders to upcycled ice cream to chewing gum that boosts your immune system. Then be sure to snag your tickets to SKS to see both them and the Startup Showcase pitches live this October!

Future Food Finalists

BASE FOOD Inc is a Japanese startup which uses seaweed, beans, and whole grains to make better-for-you alternatives to carbohydrate-heavy foods such as noodles or bread.

Burden of Proof makes sparkling non-alcoholic cocktail with herbs, citrus, and adaptogen cold brew tea packaged in aluminum cans.

Ice Creem Social takes leftover ingredients from kitchens in NYC, such as grain from beer brewing, aquafaba, and hemp, and upcycles them to create sustainable vegan ice cream.

Mighty Gum is Seattle-based company that makes enhanced chewing gum. Their first product, Immunity gum, is packed with extracts of ashwagandha, astragalus, elderberry, reishi mushroom, and zinc meant to strengthen your immune system and help manage stress.

nufuuds combines sustainably grown algae with food staples to create sustainable and nutrient-rich products and meal alternatives.

Orchestra Provisions focuses on mending broken food systems by creating products with sustainable and responsibly sourced cricket protein. Its first product is a spice line with eight flavors, and it’s developing a series of milks and protein powders, too.

Planeteer fights plastic waste in oceans by making spoons that are completely edible, vegan, and healthy for the planet.

Rebellyous Foods is a food production company creating delicious, juicy and affordable plant-based meats for the foodservice market.

Route to India provides consumers with “better-for-you” snacks inspired by Ayurveda while enhancing the lives and livelihoods of rural farmers in India. Their first product is a light, crunchy, healthy snack made from Asian water lily seeds.

Sophie’s Kitchen provides plant-based seafood alternatives, including shrimp, fish fillets, smoked salmon, crab cakes, scallops, calamari and sashimi.

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Curious about this diverse group of future food startups? Join us at the Smart Kitchen Summit on October 7-8! Be sure to get your tickets today and save 25% with code THESPOON25.

Meet the 12 Finalists for the SKS 2019 Startup Showcase!

Every year, attendees of the Smart Kitchen Summit {SKS} tell us that one of their favorite parts of the two-day conference is the Startup Showcase. It’s a time for our audience to get a glimpse at early-stage companies making innovative inroads in food and watch them demo cutting edge technologies.

This year we got so many applications for this competition we decided to split it up into two groups. The Startup Showcase will focus on food tech, such as connected kitchen appliances, recipe apps and cooking robots, while the Future Food Competition will highlight companies making innovative CPG products.

After much deliberation we’ve selected our 12 Startup Showcase finalists! Meet them below and look out for a post later this week introducing the Future Food finalists. Then be sure to snag your tickets to SKS to see both cohorts pitch live this October!

Startup Showcase Finalists

Anrich3d is developing a 3D food printer which can extrude food to match individuals’ precise nutritional requirements and taste preferences.

Anycart is a recipe discovery and meal planning app with transparent per-serving pricing for each dish. Users can search for recipes, order ingredients for delivery, and get guided step-by-step cooking assistance.

Botrista is a barista robot aimed at making craft beverages more accessible and affordable through automation.

bowl is an automated micro salad restaurant. Customers order their salad via the bowl app and are notified when their personalized salad is ready for pickup at the machine.

CocoTerra has developed the world’s first tabletop, bean-to-bar chocolate maker which can make dark, milk, and white chocolate in about two hours. Users can also create their own custom chocolate blends.

Eat Safe Verified is increasing food transparency by establishing a dedicated communication channel between food companies and consumers. Individuals can look up information about their food such as how it’s tested for contaminants.

Ends+Stems is a meal planning web app aimed at reducing household food waste. It’s a subscription-based service which provides curated meal plans and grocery lists based off of individuals’ dining preferences to reduce ingredient waste.

FET Kitchen brings a world of experts into your kitchen, via a digital screen in your kitchen backsplash, so you can take cooking classes when you want at home.

The HotSpot CookTop has the functionality of a flat top grill with the size and ease of a traditional cooktop so that home cooks can create restaurant-quality food at home.

LEVO is a countertop device that pairs with a mobile app to automate the infusing process, allowing individuals to make their own infused oils, soaps, butters, and more. It can also make CBD infusions.

Millo makes an updated kitchen blender that’s cordless, silent, efficient and beautiful enough to keep on your kitchen countertop. It connects to your phone for remote control and personalization.

StixFresh makes a food-safe sticker which can extend the shelf life of fresh fruit by up to two weeks. The sticker can be applied to produce at any point along the supply chain.

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Curious about this diverse group of food tech startups? Join us at the Smart Kitchen Summit on October 7-8! Make sure to get your tickets today and save 25% with code THESPOON25.

Amazon’s Ben McInnis on How Voice Control in the Kitchen Can Make Your Bacon Better

Ever since companies first started coming out with voice assistants, we’ve speculated over what their role will look like in the kitchen. Guided cooking? Grocery shopping? Or just simply setting a timer when your hands are dirty?

That’s one of the questions we’ll dive into with speaker Ben McInnis, Senior Manager of Amazon’s Alexa Connect Kit, at the Smart Kitchen Summit {SKS} in Seattle next month. To get a sneak preview of what’s to come, we chatted over email with McInnis about Amazon’s roadmap for voice in the kitchen and how Alexa can make your bacon taste exactly the way you like it.

Check out the Q&A below and don’t forget to snag your tickets to SKS — they’re going fast!

Note: This Q&A has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Tell us about the Alexa Connect Kit.
Alexa Connect Kit is a new way for device makers to create Alexa-compatible smart devices more easily and quickly than traditional smart device development. Through this program, device makers integrate an Amazon-managed hardware module and the provided software development kit into their product. This module, which is also a Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chip, securely connects to Alexa and other Amazon services like Dash Replenishment.

All devices built with the Alexa Connect Kit also feature Amazon’s Wi-Fi simple setup technology, which makes it easier for customers to set up devices in fewer steps. Device makers that using the Alexa Connect Kit don’t need to maintain a cloud service, create an app, write an Alexa Skill, or invest in things like a device setup experience. We also offer the Alexa Connect Kit for a single, per-device fee. So, unlike with more traditional models of device development, device makers have certainty about their costs, no matter how much customers use their product.

The Alexa microwave is already available. What other kitchen appliances do you think would take well to pairing with voice assistants?
The best thing about working with so many device makers and developers is that they’re always thinking of creative new products. Our partners Hamilton Beach, P&G, Spectrum Brands, and others have already announced devices built with the Alexa Connect Kit, and I expect that almost all the devices we commonly use will be connected eventually.

Voice control is a big part of what’s driving the growth in smart kitchen device popularity, but simple control is really just the beginning. Devices are integrating with Amazon Dash Replenishment Service to enable automatic reordering of consumables and developers are now able to add new recipes and presets to their devices entirely from the cloud.

Amazon’s Super Bowl ad last year listed out “failed” Alexa integrated products (toothbrush, dog collar, etc). How do you decide which products will actually be improved with voice control?
Obviously, we’re poking fun at ourselves a bit but the meta point is very true. We’re convicted about the idea that an ambient intelligence with a voice interface can add enormous utility for customers by making devices and services easier to use. That utility takes many forms and varies by device type and the customer’s context, but our default is that whenever we can make something more convenient or valuable for customers by adding voice control, it’s worth investigating.

How do you think that voice technology will change the way we buy and cook food?
Customers already use Alexa to order food and; with Dash Replenishment-enabled devices, this is sometimes automated, too. Similarly, there are many Alexa-compatible cooking devices in customers’ homes already and, mostly, people use Alexa to control those devices.

For example, you might ask Alexa to set your Instant Pot to a given program, to check on the status of something cooking in your June Oven, or to reheat a cup of coffee in your AmazonBasics Microwave. Going forward, you’ll see more devices that take advantage of their connection to Alexa to do things like add new recipes, fine-tune the performance of a preset with data about your specific preferences, or work across many connected devices to execute a complex dish.

It’s useful to ask your oven to preheat to cook some bacon. But having it know that you like bacon extra crispy is even better.

Keep an eye out for more speaker Q&A’s as we ramp up to our fifth year of SKS on October 7-8 in Seattle! We hope to see you there.

Q&A: Bill Birgen is Developing New Technology to Keep Your Delivery French Fries Fresh

At the Smart Kitchen Summit {SKS} 2018, Bill Birgen got up onstage during the Startup Showcase and started talking about a problem that many of us have struggled with: soggy delivery french fries.

“We’ve all experienced the disappointment of food delivery, when our food arrives after being ravaged — ravaged I say — by the horror of condensation,” he said. Annoyed by the severe drop in quality of certain foods during delivery, Birgen, a former rocket scientist, decided to create a technology that would keep food crisp, fresh, and decidedly not soggy while en route to your home. Thus his company, Soggy Food Sucks, was born.

Birgen won the 2018 Startup Showcase. This year he will return to the SKS stage as a speaker to talk about how he’s rethinking food packaging in the age of delivery. To whet your appetite, we sat down with Birgen to do a quick Q&A. Check it out below then be sure to snag your tickets to SKS before they sell out!

You won the SKS Startup Showcase last year with your startup Soggy Food Sucks (congrats!). Tell us more about it.
The 2018 SKS was the first time I had presented my idea in public. Prior to presenting, I was so filled with tremendous apprehension regarding how my invention would be received. Condensation in food delivery is a gap and a pain that I had never heard anyone complain about. The response from the SKS audience and judges were sources of tremendous validation. Winning SKS and subsequent food industry events is an ongoing source of encouragement and motivation. It all started at SKS 2018. I’m really looking forward to returning to SKS 2019, this time as a member of the broader food industry fraternity and less as the dark horse outsider.

Looking back I can say I am happy with how succinctly I managed to describe the thermodynamic mechanisms, and the condensation nuances surrounding my product. in my 2018 SKS Showcase presentation. I had a few coaches help with my presentation, but in the end, I largely ignored their advice. The advice I kept receiving was to tell a story and avoid being overly technical. For me to be authentic meant being technical. While I didn’t tell a story in a traditional sense, I do feel I was able to be engaging and dare I say entertaining. The Facebook Live stream that I shared online has thousands of view. SKS was fantastic exposure.

Has anything changed for your company since you won the Showcase?
Immediately following SKS2018 TechStars offered me a position in their upcoming accelerator. I did not realize what a huge opportunity TechStars was. Naively, I turned down TechStars, with the expectation that I would be selected as one of the eight startups for Chipotle’s first ever accelerator. When I was not accepted into Chipotle’s accelerator I continued forward, bootstrapping as I had before.

The product itself has recently been redesigned for aesthetics and re-branded as SAVR-pak. The first automated, real production inventory has been received at our distribution facility. Deliveroo has placed a purchase order. GrubHub, and Door Dash cannot be far behind. Marina Bay Sands, Wynn Casinos, Disney and Virgin hotels have all reached out for product and demonstrations. Cambro wants a larger size product that will integrate seamlessly with their larger food delivery platforms.

Subsequent patents have been filed in an adjacent food packaging space. The focus of this new product being the elimination of frost inside frozen food packaging. One of the largest fresh fish processor in Hong Kong has adopted this new anti-frost packaging product.

Think big: How do you envision your technology changing the food delivery experience?
B2C is a massive market that I plan on addressing a year or two down the road, due to the scale of the education and marking required. I will let the public become familiar with seeing my SAVR-pak in food delivery and catering applications before putting it on the shelf at supermarkets, next to cellophane sandwich bags and brown paper lunch bags.

The goal all along of my humble invention was to create a higher expectation for food quality, when it comes to food delivery and storage. Delivering food that is fresher, means less food will be discarded. Aesthetically, it is so much more appealing to open a container sans hundreds of water droplets clinging to every surface. So much of our food experience is aesthetics and perception. Soggy Food Sucks has introduced the SAVR-pak to help with food quality and to reduce waste.

What’s the absolute worst food to eat soggy?
By far the resounding answer from the food delivery industry is French fries. This perspective is biased in my opinion, by the pervasiveness of French fries on our menus. I would challenge this obvious answer, and say spinach salad is the worst soggy food. The spinach leaf has a delicate structure that is quickly compromised by condensation. The result is not just soggy but limp and even slimy spinach, which is wholly inedible. A salad that has been touched by condensation cannot be eaten.

Keep an eye out for more speaker Q&A’s as we ramp up to our fifth year of SKS on October 7-8 in Seattle! We hope to see you there.

SKS Q&A: Andreas Wuerfel on How Big Grocery Can Stay Innovative, Agile and Competitive

If you’ve eaten out in Europe, Russia, or Asia, chances are at some point you’ve patronized a café, hotel, or kiosk that purchase food from mega-retailer METRO AG. As the largest non-U.S. wholesale and foodservice company, the Germany-based METRO functions in 35 countries and serves over 24 million businesses.

One place it doesn’t serve is the U.S. However, Andreas Wuerfel works for METRO as Group Director for U.S. Strategic Partnering; keeping a finger on the pulse on retail trends in the U.S. through local partners and applying them to the METRO network. Which means that he is uniquely positioned to track innovation across foodservice and grocery across the globe.

If you want to hear Wuerfel speak about the ways that METRO is forging the future of retail — digitally and otherwise — get your ticket to SKS. Then get a sneak preview with the Q&A below.

You’re the Group Director for U.S. Strategic Partnering at METRO. Tell us about what your role entails.
While METRO Group has no local operations, the US is a key “lighthouse” market for us. US restaurant, hotel, and retail innovation trends often foreshadows development in our Europe and Asia markets. Gaining an understanding early, and working with key US players is important to the degree [with which we] can cooperate across our Europe customer footprint. With that in mind, my role is to help initiate our “bridge-to-Europe” strategic/commercial deal opportunities, to help create win-win-win value for our Europe customers, our US partners, and METRO at large.

You were involved with founding the METRO Accelerator program, powered by Techstars. Why did Metro AG decide to help create an accelerator?
Globally, the retail sector is undergoing rapid change. Much of that dynamics comes from outside our traditional channels. Outside established large IT firms, it is often young startup teams that best ideate, invent and disrupt “the future of retail”. In working with retail tech and hospitality tech founder teams from around the world, our METRO Accelerator is specifically designed as an outside-in innovation program — to help capture, fund, and shape the relevant early-stage digital applications most meaningful for our small business customers and our own stores long term.

How do you stay competitive in the competitive wholesale retail space, especially against giants such as Walmart or Tesco?
Despite the aforementioned retail industry transformation — simply put — it’s still all about ensuring we offer “the right product for the right customer at the right price exactly when and where needed.” To ensure this “contract with our customers” is fulfilled, METRO leverages its unique footprint and supply-chain advantages. (Globally, METRO Cash & Carry is the only wholesaler doing business in 35 countries, with deep access to local assortment and competitive pricing).

What are a few ways you’ve seen tech transform retail?
Inside METRO, we’ve found tremendous value in helping educate and consult the “long tail” of the hospitality and retail industry. We are unique in that our primary customers are 24+ million small business owners. Not consumers but rather the many independent restaurants, hotels, retail operators, catering companies, and small professional offices — all looking to understand and benefit from the use of digital innovation as well as new “next-gen” food & beverage choices. Our down-market innovation programs and corporate investment initiatives therefore all center around enabling our small business customers and their guests, in the process helping to transform the independent retail customer side of our business.

Keep an eye out for more speaker Q&A’s as we ramp up to our fifth year of SKS on October 7-8 in Seattle! We hope to see you there.