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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

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Combustion Acquires Recipe App Crouton

Next-Gen Cooking

Combustion, the smart thermometer startup founded by ChefSteps cofounder Chris Young, has acquired popular recipe app Crouton.

Crouton, developed by New Zealand-based software engineer Devin Davies, is a highly rated app that lets users organize all their recipes in one place. After launch, Crouton soon began gaining traction and critical attention (Apple awarded the app its 2024 Design Award for Interaction). Like many independent developers who experience success, Davies soon found himself having to manage the business side of running a startup—something he realized wasn’t aligned with his strengths.

“One thing I’ve come to realise about myself over the last wee while, is that what I care about most is designing interfaces that make it as easy as possible to get things done. User experience and what not,” wrote Davies in a blog post announcing the acquisition. “I’m not an entrepreneur or keen business leader. Stepping into full time indie and really trying to steer the ship highlighted to me just how much that jazz isn’t me. I actually really enjoy being just a part of the puzzle, not the whole puzzle.”

Davies had discovered Combustion’s open-source developer tools and had integrated the thermometer with Crouton. That work caught the attention of Young and the Combustion team.

“A year or so earlier, I had added support to Crouton to quickly set up the thermometer and also display its information as a Live Activity alongside your recipe. I jumped at the opportunity to collaborate and spent a few weeks working with Combustion to bring Live Activity support to their app like I had with Crouton.”

Before long, Young and Davies realized it made sense to join forces.

For Young, it’s clear that moves he’s made since starting Combustion – including acquiring Crouton – are based on insights he learned the hard way after building ChefSteps. At his previous company, Young spent millions of dollars creating expensive media-rich recipes for the ChefSteps website and the Joule sous vide app, only to eventually realize most consumers preferred finding recipes on the open web. With Crouton now in the fold, Young’s is now letting organic consumer usage behavior guide his product rather than trying to force behavior change on the consumer.

Young also learned his lesson with the ChefSteps Joule, where any software integration required resource-draining custom work. From the get-go with Combustion, he opened up access to the device’s real-time Bluetooth, which allowed developers, like Davies, to build cool software experiences around the Combustion thermometer.

Post-acquisition, Crouton will remain a standalone site, and Davies will lead both the development of Crouton and the Combustion app. For Davies, it seems like the perfect fit.

“So what is changing? Well, kind of nothing. I’m still very dedicated to Crouton and its future just got a lot brighter! I’ll still be the lead developer but now Crouton is backed by a whole team. A team with a deep knowledge of cooking and technology, that will help Crouton do even more! “

Food Assembly Robot Startup Chef Robotics Raises $43M Series A as it Reaches 40 Million Meal Milestone

Robotics, AI & Data

Chef Robotics has raised $43.1 million in a Series A round to accelerate deployment of its AI-powered food assembly robots, the company announced today. The funding brings the San Francisco-based startup’s total capital to over $65 million, including equipment financing. Avataar led the round, with participation from Construct Capital, Bloomberg Beta, and others.

Founded in 2019, Chef Robotics is building what founder and CEO Rajat Bhageria calls an “AI platform for food.” Rather than building a single-purpose robot, Chef’s system is designed to work in diverse food production environments—learning and adapting through software to new tasks like portioning, topping, or filling.

When I first got a peek at Chef’s system last year, I was intrigued because the company had struck a balance that seemed to elude many food robotics startups. While startups in this space seemed to make either high-volume solutions with limited customizability or use off-the-shelf robotic arms that aren’t made for true high-production, Chef has built a flexible and scalable robotics platform that can be customized for any number of high-volume food production environments.

That’s because while many robotics companies focus primarily on hardware, Chef’s approach centers on a software layer that enables “Embodied AI”—giving physical robots the intelligence to operate autonomously in real-world conditions. Chef’s system combines a robotic arm with AI models trained on millions of real-world examples. These models, powered by production data from early customers like Amy’s Kitchen and Fresh Prep, allow the robots to generalize across new ingredients and dishes. To date, Chef Robotics has helped assemble over 40 million meals.

From the company’s announcement: When we thought about starting with restaurants, we ran into the chicken and egg problem – to enable robots that are flexible enough to add value, we need a highly capable AI, but to get a highly capable AI, we need real-world training data from the customer sites…. Thus, we decided to initially deploy robots in high-mix (read as highly flexible) food production and manufacturing environments where Chef could partially automate a food operation and thus add value in production to customers without requiring 100% full autonomy from the get-go. We built Chef’s systems on modern advancements in AI to make them highly flexible and adaptable enough to “pick” and plate almost any ingredient, no matter how it’s cut, cooked, or grown; this makes them an ideal solution for assembling or plating food.  

The new capital will support scaling up deployments and building out Chef’s sales and marketing teams. The company is currently active in the U.S. and Canada, with plans to expand into the UK next year.

Bridge Appliances Deploys Egg-Making Robot at First Customer

Robotics, AI & Data

Five years ago, the cofounders behind Bridge Appliances stood in line at a busy breakfast cafe. As minutes ticked by, frustration turned into inspiration. They wondered: What if the preparation of eggs could be automated? That simple question led to the creation of OMM, a countertop egg-making robot. Now, half a decade later, the Bridge team is back in a coffee shop, deploying their robot for their very first commercial customer, Beantrust Coffeebar in Beverly, Massachusetts.

Bridge cofounder Connor White recently described spending the past two months embedded at Beantrust, collaborating closely with owner Erik Modahl and his team. According to White, working alongside baristas, listening to customers, and absorbing the café’s unique culture and operational flow allowed Bridge to tailor OMM’s integration precisely to Beantrust’s specific needs.

As I wrote last year, OMM cooks two eggs in roughly two minutes, enabling Beantrust to serve around 60 eggs an hour. White notes they’ve already seen promising results, with the new sandwich lineup boosting average ticket values by 15%. Currently, one in five customers chooses to add a freshly made sandwich to their coffee order (and that number continues to climb).

This marks a significant milestone for Bridge, which raised $2 million in seed funding from Steve Papa, one of Toast’s earliest investors, in 2021. Moving forward, Bridge is likely to see more growth among small coffee shops or similar establishments that lack full kitchens or grill cooks but still wish to offer breakfast. However, they will need to raise considerably more funding to scale effectively, or they could be a potential attractive acquisition candidate for a company such as Middleby.

Smart Tea Infuser Teforia Comes Back From the Dead Seven Years After Shutting Down

Next-Gen Cooking

When it comes to zombies, you never know when they’ll spring back to life.

As we learned this past month, the same goes for zombie products. Teforia, the eponymous smart tea infuser that vanished when the company abruptly shut down in the fall of 2017, is back after nearly a decade. A New Jersey-based tea company named Adagio Teas has apparently acquired the assets and is now selling Teforia tea infusers on its website.

In its announcement, Adagio referenced the financial problems that led to Teforia’s closure but mistakenly got the timeline wrong. The release states that Teforia originally launched in 2018, when it actually shut down the year before:

“Originally launched in 2018 to widespread acclaim, Teforia was discontinued due to financial constraints, leaving a devoted community of tea drinkers longing for its return. Now, Adagio Teas is bringing this beloved innovation back, combining cutting-edge technology with the artistry of fine tea.”

“We recognized the deep passion that tea drinkers had for Teforia and its ability to elevate the tea experience,” said Michael Cramer, CEO of Adagio Teas. “As a company dedicated to providing the highest-quality loose-leaf teas, we saw an incredible opportunity to bring Teforia back and reintroduce a smarter, more intuitive way to enjoy tea.”

At the time of its original release, Teforia attracted attention because its creators claimed it could personalize each brew with precise amounts of caffeine, antioxidants, and other elements. Additionally, the hardware had a distinctive and appealing design that stood out in the tea world.

Unfortunately, the product never gained widespread popularity, likely due to its initial $1,500 price tag. While the newly re-released version is significantly more affordable at $500, many potential buyers might still question why they would invest in what remains a premium-priced tea brewer, especially when established brands like Breville offer comparable “smart” tea brewers for roughly half that price.

I’m curious to see if Teforia can succeed on its second attempt. The tea and technology landscape in 2025 is vastly different from a decade ago, with many tech-powered tea infusers available. However, backed by a reputable tea company, perhaps Teforia stands a better chance this time around.

The 5 Questions Big Green Egg’s New CEO Asked 86 Employees When He Took The Job

Business of Food

How does an outsider step into leading a company that has only had two previous CEOs over its half-century existence?

For Dan Gertsacov, who became CEO of Big Green Egg last summer—the barbecue company renowned for its devoted following and signature green ceramic kamado-style grills—the answer is straightforward: “Seek first to understand, then be understood.”

Gertsacov adopted this mantra from author Stephen Covey, spending his initial months speaking extensively with people across the company, asking them the same five questions to gain deep insights about the business and shape its future direction.

“I interviewed eighty-six individuals and asked every one of those people the same five questions over a four-month period,” Gertsacov explained.

He borrowed these questions from his former Harvard business professor, Michael D. Watkins, who published them in his influential book, “The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter.” Those questions are:

  1. “What is the company’s biggest challenge?”
  2. “Why is that the biggest challenge?”
  3. “What are the untapped opportunities for our company?”
  4. “How would you approach those opportunities?”
  5. “If we were to switch places—if you were in my shoes—what would you focus on?”

After conducting his extensive interviews, Gertsacov distilled his findings into a concise one-pager, summarizing key insights and charting the strategic direction under his leadership. His primary message emphasized growth, cultivating a mission-driven team, and continual innovation.

This innovation intrigued me, especially since Gertsacov previously built his career at tech giants like Google and assisted global brands like McDonald’s with digital transformation. Now, he leads a company distinctly known for its traditional, low-tech ceramic grills—products that, apart from their iconic green color, would fit comfortably into culinary history a century or more ago.

Yet, according to Gertsacov, innovation at Big Green Egg must respect and leverage its greatest strength: the passionate and loyal community of users that has driven the company’s success for decades.

“Big Green Egg has grown through word of mouth and the community,” said Gertsacov. “Preserve the core and stimulate progress.”

So, what does meaningful innovation look like for a company whose products have remained relatively unchanged since founder Ed Fisher began selling them in the early ’70s to supplement his pachinko import business? Gertsacov believes innovation lies in solving practical consumer problems—specifically, making food preparation easier—without unnecessary complications like digital connectivity.

“Rather than adding digital connectivity for its own sake, [we’re] focused on customer experience enhancements—such as enabling the grills to reach cooking temperatures more quickly—without compromising the integrity of the grilling experience,” he explained.

Improving how quickly the grills heat up directly benefits users by fitting the Big Green Egg seamlessly into more everyday cooking occasions. Gertsacov believes that simplifying the user experience will sustain and amplify the powerful word-of-mouth marketing that has always propelled Big Green Egg’s growth.

“We need to make it less intimidating and lower the barriers so it feels more accessible,” Gertsacov said. “We need to make the tent of Big Green Egg bigger to fit more folks, all while preserving the core beliefs of the community already inside.”

You can listen to our full conversation below or find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Fast-Growing Restaurant Chain MOTO Pizza Is Building an End-to-End Pizza Robot

Robotics, AI & Data

Last month in Las Vegas, we sat down with one of our favorite restaurateurs, Lee Kindell of MOTO Pizza, to discuss his vision for the future of restaurants. Lee was in town to speak onstage at CES about the industry’s direction, so we made sure to catch up with him for a one-on-one interview.

One revelation that surprised us during our conversation was that MOTO is developing an end-to-end pizza robot—one that automates the entire process, from dough preparation to boxing the finished pizza.

“Our robot is going to be fully autonomous,” Kindell explained. “It takes the pizza from refrigeration, brings it out, proofs it, tops it, cooks it, finishes it, cuts it, and boxes it. So that’s what we’re building right now. It’s truly end-to-end, and that’s what excites me the most.”

As someone who loves both pizza and robotics, I was intrigued by MOTO’s move to develop its own technology. To clarify, I asked Kindell directly about his plans. He confirmed that MOTO is indeed building a fully automated pizza-making solution—one that could potentially integrate with existing automation partners, such as Picnic (Picnic’s pizza robot adds sauce, cheese, and toppings but doesn’t handle cooking, cutting, or boxing).

MOTO has been expanding rapidly, entering new cities and sports venues. Kindell, who started as a hands-on pizzaiolo mixing dough by hand, became a firm believer in automation after an arm injury forced him to adopt a mixer. That moment reshaped his perspective—he realized that automation wasn’t just about efficiency; it was a tool to scale his business while maintaining quality.

Now, Kindell and MOTO are taking that mindset a step further, developing an end-to-end pizza robot to help the fast-growing chain keep up with demand and reach more customers than ever before.

You can watch our full conversation below.

Moto's Lee Kindell on Using AI & Robotics to Make Pizza

While Amazon Struggles With Futuristic Retail, Sam’s Club is Doubling Down on Computer-Vision To Aid Store Exits

Delivery & Commerce

An interesting set of stories came out over the past week, which showed how two retail giants are leveraging technology to help consumers get out of the store faster.

One one hand, you have Amazon halving its Go store count to 16 locations, shifting focus to licensing its “Just Walk Out” technology to third-party retailers.

On the flip side, Walmart’s bulk membership club Sam’s Club is investing more heavily to use computer vision to aid shoppers to get out of the store faster.

The key difference? Sam’s Club is using computer vision for receipt verification. Previously, members had to stop at the exit while associates manually checked receipts, causing bottlenecks. Now, cameras at the exit automatically scan carts and verify purchases, allowing members to walk out without interruption. AI works in the background to refine accuracy, while employees are freed up to assist shoppers rather than policing receipts.

Contrast this with Just Walk Out, which is Amazon’s effort to eliminate the checkout experience all together which, it appears for many people, is still too weird and feels a little to close to shoplifting.

As I wrote last year, Just Walk Out is “a radically tech-forward evolution of checkout, but one in which Amazon appears to have widely overestimated just how many people would use it and how easy it would be to implement. Self-checkout fits most shoppers’ needs when they are in a hurry, and there aren’t that many situations where consumers feel they need to skip checkout altogether.”

FirstBuild’s Latest Funky Kitchen Gadget is a Device Which Feeds & Manages Your Sourdough Starter

Connected Kitchen, Next-Gen Cooking

In a world where many kitchen appliance brands have downsized or eliminated their innovation arms, FirstBuild, the device innovation and incubation for GE Appliances, is generating (and building) more ideas than ever.

The group, which celebrated its 10th anniversary last year, has developed 104 products and features, with 37 making their way into the GE Appliances portfolio. Along the way, it has raised over $5.2 million through crowdfunding and built a community of 245,000 builders who submit ideas, vote on projects, and occasionally back them financially.

Unlike traditional corporate R&D departments, FirstBuild invites its community of makers, engineers, and consumers to contribute ideas and test prototypes in its 35,000-square-foot makerspace at the University of Louisville. This approach has led to some viral hits, including the Opal Nugget Ice Maker, which launched on Indiegogo and raised $2.8 million before a prototype was even completed. FirstBuild was also the birthplace of the Arden indoor smoker, a CES 2024 hit that is rapidly gaining a fanbase in the grilling community.

Sourdough Sidekick - Design Reveal (UPDATE)

FirstBuild’s latest project is designed for home bakers who love sourdough but don’t want the hassle of maintaining a starter. Currently in prototype stage, the Sourdough Sidekick automates the feeding process, ensuring the starter stays healthy and ready without the daily commitment. While traditional methods require constant attention, FirstBuild claims the Sidekick can sustain a starter for up to seven days, adapting to the home baker’s schedule. The device features a built-in flour hopper, water tank, and a smart dispensing system that measures and delivers the right amounts to keep the starter thriving. It will also monitor ambient kitchen conditions, making adjustments as needed to optimize fermentation.

Of course, FirstBuild’s Sidekick isn’t the first smart sourdough manager on the market. Fred Benenson, former head of data for Kickstarter, created Breadwinner during the pandemic, a smart sourdough monitoring device that tracks a starter’s growth and notifies bakers when it reaches peak activity, ensuring optimal baking times. Priced at $50, Breadwinner features real-time monitoring and smart notifications, allowing bakers to receive alerts via email, pop-ups, or SMS.

The Sidekick, in contrast, is more of a full-fledged automated feeder and management appliance, offering a more hands-off approach. Given its more advanced functionality, it’s likely to come at a significantly higher price than Breadwinner’s affordable $50 price tag.

While the sourdough craze of the pandemic has certainly cooled, my guess is there are still far more home bakers today than there were five years ago and there’s a good chance rising food prices may even spark a new wave of would-be bread bakers looking to make fresh loaves at home. If that’s the case, FirstBuild’s Sourdough Sidekick could arrive at just the right time to offer enthusiasts an easy way to feed both their baking obsession and their hungry starters.

How Working the Land (and with Steve Jobs and Michael Dell) Led Tim Bucher to Build a Farming Automation Company

Robotics, AI & Data

While many tech entrepreneurs dream of retiring as a gentleman farmer, Tim Bucher’s journey took the opposite trajectory. It was only after he bought and started working on his own farm at age 16 that a young Bucher discovered his love for software programming in college. That realization embarked him on a career that would eventually see him working alongside Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, and other Silicon Valley legends.

Yet, despite all his success in tech, Bucher never left the farm behind. In fact, for most of his life, he has straddled the high-tech world of innovation in Silicon Valley and the vineyards of California’s wine country. Now, as the founder and CEO of Agtonomy, Bucher is merging his two lifelong passions—technology and agriculture—to address one of the farming industry’s biggest challenges: labor shortages and operational inefficiencies.

On a recent episode of The Spoon Podcast, Bucher reflected on his early efforts to use innovation to tackle real-world farming challenges. His farm, Trattori Farms, produces grapes and olives—high-value crops that require precise, labor-intensive care. Over the years, he automated irrigation and winemaking processes, but one critical challenge remained: mechanized labor in the fields.

“The gap between rising costs and revenue was closing,” Bucher explained. “I kept automating everything I could, but I couldn’t automate the skilled labor that was needed out in the vineyards and orchards.”

It wasn’t until Bucher watched a documentary about NASA’s Mars rover that he began thinking about how automation could be applied to farming in a way that made sense for both longtime farmers like himself and the manufacturers of the equipment they trust.

“If we can have self-driving vehicles on Mars, why can’t we have them in our orchards and vineyards?” Bucher said. “There’s no traffic on Mars—just like in agriculture.”

This realization led him to found Agtonomy, a company that transforms traditional tractors into autonomous farming machines. But rather than disrupt the farm equipment industry, Agtonomy’s approach is to partner with manufacturers—helping them integrate drive-by-wire and AI technology into their existing models.

“Farmers trust their brands,” Bucher said. “They need the dealer networks, the parts, the service. Buying farm equipment from a startup isn’t realistic. That’s why Agtonomy is helping manufacturers digitally transform, rather than disrupt.”

As AI continues to evolve, Bucher envisions a future where farmers manage their fields remotely—relying on AI agents to analyze data, recommend actions, and deploy autonomous tractors at optimal times.

“Imagine sitting in a command center where AI tells you, ‘Given the soil, weather, and crop conditions, you should send your autonomous tractors out at 9:12 AM on Wednesday,’” he said. “And you just hit ‘Go.’”

While Bucher sees the potential of automated farming, he doesn’t believe technology will replace human farmers—instead, he sees it as a tool to make them more efficient.

“People fear AI taking jobs, but in farming, we don’t have enough labor. This technology doesn’t replace people—it enables them to do more with less.”

For Bucher, Agtonomy was the logical next step, given his lifelong love for both technology and farming. But beyond personal passion, he believes automation is necessary for the survival of modern agriculture.

“Agriculture has to evolve,” he said. “If we don’t automate, we won’t survive.”

You can listen to the full podcast below, or find it on Apple Podcast, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Is LG’s Majority Stake in Bear Robotics a Sign That Food Robotics Is About to Have Its Moment?

Robotics, AI & Data

Late last week, LG Electronics announced it had acquired a majority stake in Bear Robotics, increasing its ownership of the San Francisco-based startup from 21% to 51%. According to South Korean newspaper The Dong-A Ilbo, LG initially acquired its 21% stake in early 2024 for $60 million. The company values its latest stake at $180 million, giving Bear Robotics an overall valuation of $600 million.

While a 60%-of-a-billion-dollar valuation might not compare to the staggering figures often associated with AI startups—though recent events, such as China’s DeepThink’s troubles, may prompt reevaluations—it’s a really good valuation for a food tech company, especially in the challenging food robotics sector.

Where Are All The Unicorns?

Anyone who’s been following The Spoon (we were the first publication to write about Bear Robotics in early 2018) knows food robotics startups have had a tough go of it the last few years. High-profile flameouts like Zume have dominated headlines, while quieter exits, such as Mezli and Vebu, have underscored how challenging this is.

Vebu, formerly Wavemaker Labs, played a pivotal role in launching Miso Robotics, creator of the Flippy burger bot, along with other food robotics concepts like Piestro and Bobacino. However, by the time Serve Robotics acquired Vebu Labs last fall, its only notable product in the portfolio was the Autocado, an avocado-coring robot adopted by Chipotle.

Bear Robotics, however, has achieved steady traction in the restaurant and food service industry. This success, combined with LG’s strategic plans to develop a service robot platform for commercial and home applications, has driven its higher valuation. As The Dong-A Ilbo reported, LG plans to create an integrated solution platform that “encompasses commercial, industrial, and home robots” using Bear Robotics’ software to manage various robot products through a unified system.

Service Robots Over Food-Making Robots

What Bear doesn’t provide LG with is an actual food-making robot; instead, it offers a fairly open platform for service robotics in restaurants and other hospitality spaces. At this point, it’s still unclear whether there will be the same level of interest in food-making robots. Some players, like Picnic and Miso, continue to make progress, but they face significant competition for what is undoubtedly a limited number of big quick-service and fast-casual chains that have yet to acquire their own solutions.

Could Serve and Starship be next?

As major tech companies and consumer brands increasingly view robotics as critical to their future strategies—in what Nvidia’s CEO has called “physical AI”—it’s likely that we’ll see more acquisitions in the service and delivery robotics space. Companies with limited proprietary IP (and my sense is LG didn’t have much here) may be particularly desperate to snap up firms similar to Bear that have been around enough to create a foundation of discernable IP and a varied set of products and build a customer base.

Potential acquisition candidates include Serve Robotics, known for its sidewalk delivery robots, and Starship Technologies, a leader in autonomous delivery systems. Both companies have gained traction but operate in an environment where consolidation is becoming inevitable.

CookUnity Acquires Cookin to Accelerate Growth As it Nears $500 Million in Annual Revenue

Business of Food, Delivery & Commerce

CookUnity has acquired Cookin, an online chef culinary commerce platform based in Toronto, the two companies announced this week. CookUnity, a New York City-based platform that delivers chef-created meals to consumers, will integrate Cookin’s 1,500 creators—ranging from home cooks to restaurant chefs—operating across 40 U.S. states and 10 Canadian provinces into their network of chef creators to power the company’s delivery service.

The deal will also bring Cookin’s SaaS technology to CookUnity’s chefs, providing a turnkey storefront that enables home cooks and chefs to create “Drops”—essentially short-term pop-ups without a big capital investment—as well as sell à la carte meals.

According to Cookin CEO Morley Ivers, the seeds for the deal were planted last summer when he met CookUnity founder and CEO Mateo Marietti.

“We immediately recognized the powerful synergy between our visions and the vast potential of combining our strengths,” wrote Ivers in a post on LinkedIn. “Together, we represent an unparalleled ecosystem that will make the food industry better, forever.”

While Cookin launched with a focus on smaller culinary creators, such as home cooks making meals out of their home kitchens (in this way, it was similar to the now-defunct Josephine or the Cook Alliance, a non-profit that launched last year to act as a marketplace for home cooks to sell meals), CookUnity focuses on chefs looking to launch an online business from their commercial kitchens. CookUnity’s expertise in logistics, ingredient sourcing, packaging, and delivery will bring additional services to the home chef community currently operating on Cookin’s platform.

On the ingredient side, the newly combined entity is launching the Ingredients Club, which will provide home chefs with access to wholesale food supplies. According to Ivers, CookUnity is responsible for spending around $100 million annually on ingredients for its chefs.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Ivers says all 52 Cookin shareholders approved the agreement, giving them equity in CookUnity. According to CookUnity, prior to the deal, they were approaching half a billion dollars in annual revenue and growing at 80% year over year.

Tomorrow Wants To Reinvent The Refrigerator to Make Fresh Food Last Longer

Connected Kitchen, Foodtech

If there’s one appliance category in the kitchen that’s stayed stuck in time, it’s the refrigerator. Sure, cool new features like see-through doors and touchscreens have been added to some models, but in reality, the fridge has largely remained the same for most of the past century: a big, cold box where we put food inside and hope we remember to eat it.

A new Seattle-based startup called Tomorrow hopes to change that with their eponymous new refrigerator, the Tomorrow Fridge.

So how is the Tomorrow Fridge different? The company is keeping most details under wraps for now, but according to CEO Andrew Kinzer, the main difference is in how the Tomorrow Fridge treats fresh produce. Kinzer says the typical modern refrigerator is built to extend the life of produce through dehumidification, or the drying out of air to slow spoilage.

“What most people don’t know is that that stuff’s actually alive,” Kinzer told The Spoon. “It’s got metabolism, it’s breathing, it’s generating heat and carbon dioxide.”

In fact, pretty much all modern refrigerators function like dehumidifiers, drying out fruits and vegetables. While this helps eliminate mold, it also leads to more rapid spoilage.

“Anytime you see carrots that get really bendy, broccoli that gets kind of floppy, or lettuce that looks sad, that’s water loss,” Kinzer explained.

Kinzer says the Tomorrow Fridge will be able to adjust the environment in different storage spaces within the fridge to better preserve fresh produce.

While Kinzer and Tomorrow aren’t sharing specific details about their cooling system, he did reveal that they’ve filed for a patent and plan to release more information as they approach the fridge’s 2025 delivery date.

Another big feature of the Tomorrow Fridge is its ability to track what’s inside. Kinzer says the fridge will have overhead cameras to monitor inventory and help households plan meals. By leveraging AI-based large language models, the fridge can suggest recipes or notify users of what’s running low. This feature will be accessible through the Tomorrow Fridge app.

Unfortunately, we don’t yet have a clear picture of what the fridge will look like, feature specifics (such as whether it will include a freezer), or pricing. The company is keeping most details secret for now. One feature it won’t include, according to Kinzer, is gas-detecting sensors like those hinted at in Amazon’s patent or found in products like BlakBear food storage containers.

No matter what features the Tomorrow Fridge ultimately offers, we’ll be keeping an eye out. Readers of The Spoon know I’ve often bemoaned the lack of innovation in refrigerators. Sure, there are occasional new takes, like Samsung’s Family Hub or futuristic patents, but for the most part, fridges remain big, cold, air-drying boxes where a large percentage of our food goes bad.

Let’s hope the Tomorrow Fridge delivers on finally bringing some fresh ideas to the fridge.