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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Connected Kitchen

CES 2021: LG InstaView Range Adds Air Sous Vide Capability

In advance of CES 2021, LG announced yesterday the latest version of its InstaView range, which now comes with Air Sous Vide Technology.

According to the press announcement, LG’s new Air Sous Vide mode allows users to replicate the low-and-slow cooking of sous vide without the water bath. Food is placed inside vacuum sealed bags and the oven can maintain temperatures between 100 – 205 degrees F for up to 48 hours without water.

LG’s new feature immediately brings Anova’s steam combi-oven, which launched this past fall, to mind. Unlike LG’s, Anova’s oven is countertop rather than built in, but it does promise sous-vide type cooking without the water bath. The difference, however, is that Anova uses steam to create the sous-vide environment and doesn’t require food to be sealed in a bag. I look forward to some adventurous soul using both and comparing the results (paging Joe Ray!).

The new LG range sports a number of features carried over from previous models. There’s the knock-knock feature, which turns the glass front panel transparent so you can see what’s inside (though this feature seems more handy on a fridge). In addition to air sous vide, the LG oven also does air frying.

This being a smart appliance, there are also a number of software technology integrations baked into the new LG range including Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, which allow for voice control and monitoring. Additionally, LG has a number of guided recipe partnerships with services such as SideChef, Innit, Drop and Tovala that provide appropriate oven controls. There is also scan to cook functionality allowing users to heat frozen meals from brands such as Nestlé and Kraft Heinz.

CES 2021 will be virtual, so we won’t get quite the same hands on with appliances that we have had in previous years. Still, it will be interesting to see if features like air sous vide become common among this crop of kitchen appliances.

Whisk Creates Slack App to Help You Shop For Groceries At Work

Like many, I use Slack for a good chunk of the day as a way to communicate and collaborate with coworkers.

But now thanks to Whisk, I can start using the ubiquitous work communication platform as a way to manage grocery shopping lists and access recipes.

Announced via a blog post by Samsung NEXT (the company which acquired Whisk last year) head of product Travis Bogard, the Whisk app is available to anyone with Slack.

Interestingly, while there are plenty of food-related apps available to use on Slack, most of them are for things like ordering from food trucks or managing a work-group catering order. The Whisk app, from what I can tell, is the first one for recipe sharing or grocery lists.

This lack of personal meal journey management apps for Slack probably shouldn’t be surprising since it is, after all, a work tool. That said, the line between work and personal time has become blurry in these work-from-home pandemic times, and nowadays many of us are seamlessly switching back and forth between work projects and personal stuff like meal planning or grocery shopping.

So why not do it in Slack?

I decided to try the app out and added Whisk to our workplace Slack.

For anyone not familiar with Slack apps, using them means typing in command prompts reminiscent of DOS or, for anyone under 40, like those you might tap into an app like Terminal to run scripts or basic web prompts.

Once I had the app running, I used the register prompt to log into Whisk and authorize it to work with Slack. I then used the add item command to add a couple things to my grocery list. I then hopped over to my Whisk browser tab and there were the milk and eggs I had just added to the list.

I also used Whisk Slack app commands to bring up recipes and check out the items on my shopping list.

Would I use it in the future? Maybe. Since I use Slack all day, I like how easily accessible it is. That said, I’ve always found Slack apps a little annoying since every app has a different set of commands and I usually have to look them up when I use them. I also use voice assistants like Alexa to add items to my list (Whisk also has an Alexa integration), so I’m not sure this would replace that.

But if you are a Slack or Whisk user, you can try it out for yourself.

CES 2021: LG to Unveil New Knock-Knock Fridge with UV Cleaning and Voice Control

In a normal year, right about now we would be busy packing and prepping for the annual trip to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Vegas. Even though we won’t be boarding a plane to attend, CES has gone virtual and there is still a bunch of news that will be coming out of the show.

News like LG’s announcement today about its new InstaView fridge that will be officially unveiled at CES. The new fridge features an enhanced knock-knock see-through door, UVNano technology for the water dispenser and voice controls.

The InstaView has always been a fun fridge because of the knock-knock capability, which allows you to knock twice on the fridge to make the glass panel built into the door change from opaque to transparent. This handy feature lets you see what you have inside the fridge without opening the doors and letting all the cold air out. The new InstaView panel is 23 percent larger than previous models allowing users to see even more of what’s inside.

LG has also outfitted the new fridge with UVNano technology to the built-in water dispenser. The new feature uses light to create a more hygienic water dispenser, with UVNano operating “once every hour to remove up to 99.99 percent of bacteria” on the refrigerator’s tap.

Voice control is also coming to the new LG InstaView fridge. Hands full of groceries you need to put away? No problem. Just tell the InstaView to “Open the refrigerator door” and the fridge pops open. Users can also their voice to check the status of ice and water dispensers and order more filters.

If all that isn’t enough to entice you, the new InstaView also comes with a craft ice maker, which makes 2 inch, slow-melting ice balls that won’t water down your craft cocktail.

All this InstaView news is, err, cool, but considering CES is just two weeks away, stay tuned. The kitchen appliance space is just warming up.

Speaking of kitchen tech and events, you’ll want to be there for the third annual Food Tech Live. Since we can’t be in Vegas for CES, we’re taking our annual food tech innovation showcase virtual on Jan 11th, so you can join us from anywhere in the world. Register here.

HakkoBako is Making Connected Fermentation Chambers for Pros and Home Foodies

While fermented food has long made up an important and tasty part of our diets, this food powered by healthy microorganisms is finding newfound interest nowadays everywhere from the high-end restaurant to the home hobbyist to the food science lab.

However, even as this century old process enters the modern day zeitgeist, there hasn’t been much innovation in the tools in recent decades that help chefs or home cooks try their hand at fermentation. Oftentimes, chefs just use a variety of mason jars and crocks to ferment their food, or just repurpose other equipment, like combi-ovens or dehydrators, to act as makeshift fermenters.

All of which got Hong Kong-based food entrepreneur Tommy Leung asking why there wasn’t more modern equipment to empower the professional or home chef when it came to fermentation. Leung saw an opportunity to create a modern piece of equipment that would enable chefs to have multiple fermentation projects in process at once, where they could manage their fermented food with precise monitoring tools while not turning their kitchens into something resembling an eighteenth-century apothecary’s lab.

The result is HakkoBako, an IoT-connected fermentation chamber for professional food producers. The HakkoBako will have both an app as well as a touchscreen on the front of the device where users can start projects, control temperature and humidity for their fermentation food, and monitor their food with precise data logs of temperature via the app. The chamber, which will have both warming and refrigeration modes, will also have an internal camera to monitor the state of projects. Users will be able to enter and save recipes on the system.

Tommy Leung in front of a HakkoBako chamber

“HakkoBako is building a fermentation chamber that lets chefs create unique and proprietary foods and flavours,” Leung told The Spoon via email. “We are using technology to make the fermentation process easier, faster and with more consistent results.”

According to Leung, the company has developed multiple prototypes that are currently being used by chefs and food developers. They’ve also started to work with a contract manufacturer in China, but the pandemic has made in-person visits to the manufacturer difficult and has put them a little behind schedule on production of the professional unit.

He also told The Spoon via email that they have plans for a home fermentation chamber that they are hoping to launch in the spring of 2021. Targeted at a price point of roughly $200 (versus around $5,000 for the commercial version), the home HakkoBako will allow users to make things like yogurt or kimchi.

Long term, the company also has plans for a fermentation lab that would be a destination for other food innovators. According to a deck Leung provided to the Spoon, the lab will “will provide support, novel ingredients and techniques with on-going testing, recording and development of the chefs recipes.”

Midea Patents AI-Powered Rice Cooker

Sure, it’s not a full-fledged robotic chef with hands and cooking moves modeled after Master Chef winners, but a smart rice cooker system patented by Midea looks like it will use some cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology to train itself to make a pretty good bowl of rice.

As described in the patent titled “Multi-Purpose Smart Rice Cookers,” the system is armed with a food-storage chamber with multiple compartments that can hold different types of rice and other ingredients like fruit, beans or nuts. Each compartment has a gate which can open and transfer food to the cooking chamber below in predetermined amounts. Above the top of the food storage chamber is a camera that identifies food and feeds information to the system’s machine learning feature.

The Machine Learning Model for Midea’s Smart Rice Cooker

Awarded on December 15, Midea’s patent also describes a multi-phased process to build the capabilities of the artificial intelligence over time to power the smart cooking. The first phase, training, would use image-based neural network systems like AlexNet or GoogleNet to train itself to understand the food.

The next phase in building out the AI smarts happens once the system is in the consumer home. Here, Midea’s rice cooker would get in-the-field updates to increase its understanding of food and cooking, but also learn and adapt its understanding of the process based on consumer cooking behavior.

Over time, the system would be able to personalize the food based on a user’s personal preferences and health and nutrition needs, as well as environmental factors such as season of the year or temperature. The system would also be able to understand optimal taste configurations of food based on ingredients.

Finally, the Midea smart rice cooker will connect to the home network, where it could be part of a smart kitchen system that incorporates profiles of different users as well as work in concert with other cooking appliances or home systems.

While patents are often just intellectual property land grabs to horde future potential product concepts and features and keep them from the competition, Midea’s huge market share — particularly with rice cookers (29 percent online and around 43 percent in brick and mortar) — makes it worth wondering if the company plans to roll out a cooker with this tech some time in the future . The company also announced in June it was working with Chinese tech (and AI) giant Baidu to codevelop AI-powered smart appliances, so it’s also conceivable this rice cooker concept shows up as part of a Baidu/Midea lineup of products at some point.

This U.K. Team Created a Multigenerational Kitchen That Adapts to the Needs of Any Age

For senior citizens, one of the biggest challenges of independent living is getting around in the kitchen. Decreased mobility can make it hard to access what you need to make a meal, while everyday occurrences, like slippery surfaces, become potentially perilous.

At the same time, kitchens also present challenges and dangers for the young ones, too. Whether it’s high countertops or a drawer full of sharp knives, small children need to be constantly monitored when they are in the kitchen.

But what if you have a home where inhabitants of these opposite ends of the age spectrum both live?

That’s the scenario designer Johnny Grey and Professor Peter Gore, an expert on ageing, wanted to answer when they started working on a concept for a multigenerational kitchen in 2017. The two noticed that more generations were living under one roof in their country and elsewhere in the world, so they started to think about how a kitchen space could serve the diverse needs of multiple generations and age groups.

With support from the U.K.’s National Innovation Centre for Ageing, they set about envisioning a kitchen that would factor in all the various needs and adapt to those needs depending on who was using it. The first thing they did was interview families to identify what types of challenges they would face.

“Rather than focussing on why people have problems, we focused on the problems people have,” said Gore. “This gave us the insight that we needed to move to the design stage.”

After the research phase, the group set about building a prototype with funding from a national consortium of universities.

Some of the features the kitchen concept includes are:

Cook anywhere surfaces. The prototype incorporates induction heating and cordless power (like that developed by the Wireless Power Consortium) technology in a number of surfaces. While those not familiar with induction heating may think this sounds dangerous, it’s much safer than gas or electric since the cooking surface doesn’t get hot.

Adjustable height countertops. The prototype has multiple adaptable height countertops. This idea of adaptable or personalized space is one I’ve noticed getting traction in recent years, and it really makes sense for a multigenerational kitchen.

Smart assistants. The prototype makes use of smart voice assistants such as the Amazon Alexa, but gives the assistants some operating context by giving specific control permissions depending on who is accessing what.

The combination of cutting edge features with warmer design featured like soft-edged counters and memory-era wallpaper resulted in a kitchen prototype that designer Grey felt was both welcoming and functional.

“The furniture is very flexible and it’s responsive -- it can behave in a way which works well for you and your family,” said Grey. “It’s about a living space, much more than just a kitchen.”

Despite the fact that more generations living under one roof has continued to increase, like many industries, the home design space is often too fixated on building towards the needs of a single generation in mind. Grey and Gore hope this prototype can influence more home designers and builders to build with multiple generations in minds.

“You can often find examples of homes that are designed and built with a specific age group in mind such as homes for older people, or apartments targeted at young professionals,” said Gore. “We think there is potential to shift design and construction away from thinking about building properties for just one or two generations toward building for multigenerational homes.”

You can take a look at the building of the prototype and hear from Gore and Grey in the video below.

The four generation kitchen prototype - enhancing home life through kitchen design

Moley’s Robotic Kitchen Goes on Sale

Moley’s robotic kitchen first burst onto the scene in 2015, wowing audiences at CES Asia with its science fiction-levels of cooking automation. Now after more than five years of development, the Moley is finally going on sale. But the kitchen of tomorrow is not going to be cheap.

It’s probably best to set the stage first. Getting a Moley requires a lot more work than just bolting a robotic arm above your existing stove. It’s an entirely integrated system of appliances, cupboards, a touchscreen, storage containers, pots, pans, utensils, a protective screen and yes, two articulating arms with robotic hands. The Moley basically takes up one entire wall of a kitchen.

Once it’s installed, or more accurately, built, into your kitchen, there’s a little bit of set up for a person to do. Ingredients needs to go into special containers and identified in the system so the robot knows where to retrieve them. Utensils and pots are placed in special storage areas that slide out of view when not in use. But once all that’s done, the digital smarts and robot take over.

Using the built-in touchscreen, the user selects from one of 5,000 (and growing) recipes. A clear, protective screen drops down and the two robotic arms slide out from their storage on a rail up above to start grabbing the pots, pans and utensils it needs. The robot can fill a pot with water in the sink, turn on the induction burner and then, using sensors and cameras, retrieve all the ingredients it needs to make the dish. Moley will even let you know when you’re running low on a particular ingredient.

The robotic arm’s movements even have some pedigree. Tim Anderson, a former BBC Master Chef winner, “trained” the robot’s movements by recording his techniques in 3D, which were then translated into specific algorithms for the machine. It’s not hard to imagine Moley enlisting other chefs down the road and offering different downloads so you could have “Nigella Lawson,” or “Marcus Samuelsson” cooking your meals.

Listen. It’s a super complex piece of high-technology and perhaps the best way to grok it is to see it in action in this in-depth launch video that Moley put out this week:

Moley Robotics First Product Launch 2020

The Moley kitchen is also a hybrid of sorts. If you prefer to do the cooking, you can keep the robot in its closet and do all the work yourself. Though, at these prices, I imagine you’d want to put that robot to work.

Moley is targeting both residential and commercial kitchens with its launch. Make that, very expensive residential kitchens. A base Moley kitchen without the robotic arms will cost you £128,000 (~ $173,000 USD) and a unit with the robotic arms will cost £248,000 (~ $335,000 USD).

Moley CEO and Founder, Mark Oleynik, told The Spoon in a phone interview this week that the first customer will be receiving their Moley robotic kitchen next year. (No further details were offered).

Oleynik also put the high price of the Moley into some perspective by likening it to a dishwasher. When those were first introduced, they were expensive and most people didn’t think they were necessary. Now dishwashers are affordable, mainstream and play a key role in our kitchen lives.

Oleynik also envisions a future where his robotic kitchen can help the elderly age in place. With just a few taps on a screen, people of any age can have a homecooked, fresh meal prepared on the spot. It’s the same vision Sony has for its take on the future of kitchen robotics.

Samsung is also working on an articulating arm-based kitchen robot, and Oleynik welcomes the competition with a philosophy that a rising tide lifts all robotic kitchen boats.

The Moley is available for purchase now, and if any Spoon reader does get one, may we recommend pairing it with the WineCab Wine Wall robotic sommelier for the ultimate in futuristic dining.

Bosch Enlists Alexa and SideChef to Teach People How to Use Its Ovens

Ovens are getting fancier with new connectivity and automated cook programs. Someone replacing a traditional oven they’ve had for decades with a newfangled smart oven could be forgiven for not understanding or taking full advantage of all their new device’s automated bells and whistles.

To help with this, and to educate its users, European appliance giant BSH is enlisting the help of Alexa and SideChef. BSH is running a pilot program in the U.K. for Bosch Home Connect oven owners. Users there with an Amazon Echo Show (or Fire TV Stick 4K, Fire HD Tablets) can download the Alexa Home Connect Cooking Challenge skill.

Once downloaded, users can follow one of 25 guided recipes (pizza, pastries, proteins, etc.) created by SideChef. After preparing the dish, users tell Alexa to turn on the oven. The connected oven will then use an automated cook program to, presumably, cook whatever the meal is to perfection.

For food tech fanatics like many Spoon readers, this type of feature may sound a little ho-hum. Alexa already integrates with plenty of appliances. But the goal for BSH is to surface new and interesting capabilities on its devices that their customers might not know about. In addition to automated cook programs, the recipes could introduce people to a steam feature, and the dish being made illustrates how to use that feature.

This is also just the beginning for the Home Connect Cook Challenge skill. I spoke with a BSH representative by phone this week, and they outlined how shoppable recipe functionality is on the product roadmap along with expanding the library of recipes to include any recipe a user finds on Alexa, not just ones from SideChef.

Heatworks Partners With BASF to Bring the Tiny Tetra Dishwasher To Market in 2021

When Heatworks introduced the Tetra at CES 2018, I imagine they were just as surprised as anyone when it became one of the most buzzed about new products at the annual tech show.

The tiny countertop dishwasher, which promised to clean a few settings of dishes with just half a gallon of water in 10 minutes, appeared on dozens of top of CES lists and the product’s small form factor, sexy design and estimated price point ($299 at the time) had many of us signing up to be notified when it was available.

All of that buzz was probably new for a company that had focused on making tankless water heaters to that point, which probably added a bit of pressure when the original ship date of end of 2018 slipped by.

When I asked them about it last year, Heatworks said the reason for the delay was they were primarily focused on bringing their latest generation water heater, the Model 3, to market. It turns out they also had another reason, which is they would ultimately need a partner to build the sophisticated detergent dispensing system required for such a small form factor device.

That partnership, announced today, is with German conglomerate BASF.

According to the release, the Tetra cartridge system “will be designed to deliver custom solutions and dosing, dependent on the selected wash cycle, ensuring each cleaning cycle is optimized. Tetra’s cartridges will last for multiple loads and consumers will be able to sign up for a subscription, so that cartridges are shipped to them automatically.”

Obviously a subscription based detergent system is a new wrinkle for the Tetra, one that might be a cause for reconsideration for those still waiting for a Tetra. Another potential concern might be the slightly higher price tag ($399) for the new device.

Still, unlike many of the other countertop dishwashers on the market, the Tetra doesn’t require plumbing or hoses and uses less than half of the water. Because of this self-sufficiency and the product’s attractive design, I imagine the 25,000 or so customers the company says have signed up expressing interest in the Tetra might still pull the trigger.

Hopefully soon they’ll have a chance: According to Heatworks and BASF, the Tetra will be available in the second half of 2021.

The 2020 Kitchen Gift Guide: Bonbowl, BEERMKR, PantryChic and More

There hasn’t been much cause to celebrate during this past year, but maybe the holidays can bring with it a little retail therapy.

If you’re looking to give (or get) the best kitchen gear, than look no further than this list that we’ve put together for you!

JENN

Bonbowl ($149)

My colleagues can attest to the fact that I won’t shut up about the Bonbowl, so it’s only fitting it lands somewhere in this gift guide. As food tech gadgets go, the device is ridiculously simple: it’s an induction cooktop the size of a stove burner and an accompanying bowl you can both cook in and eat from. But you can get a lot of uses out of this simple setup. Since purchasing mine a few months ago, I’ve made single-serving soups and pastas, scrambled eggs, reheated countless leftovers, and made rice krispie treats. Sometimes I use it as a fifth burner for heating sauces when cooking a big meal. Obvious recipients of this device would be a college student (if they ever get to go back to the dorms). That said, I’d buy it for just about anyone who regularly needs to throw a quick meal for one together and hates washing dishes.

Imperfect Foods Gift Box ($24.99)

Fight food waste through holiday gifting. That’s the credo behind online grocer Imperfect Foods’ new holiday snack box. Each box contains a mix of snacks made from “rescued” food — that is, foods that would have otherwise gotten chucked out of the grocery store because of cosmetic imperfections. Some of the included snacks are dried mango considered too “sunburnt” to sell, peppermint- and dark chocolate-covered pretzels that broke into pieces during production, and surplus seasonings. Imperfect Foods says each box saves about nine pounds of food from going to waste. It’s also just a fun way to get your loved ones alert to the world’s 1.3 billion-ton food waste problem. Finally and most importantly, proceeds from the boxes go to Feeding America.

The Personal Rise Garden ($279)

While we’re on the subject of kitchen tech for small spaces, The Personal Rise Garden, a countertop version of Rise Garden’s automated smart farm, just launched and will ship in time for the holidays. Like Rise’s other indoor farms, this one is meant to be used in the average person’s home and doesn’t require agricultural experience or even tech savviness. The accompanying app does most of the work: it calculates temperature, manages the nutrient levels of plants and alerts the user when it’s time to water the garden. The price point is a little high for the average holiday gift, but if you have a loved one who’s a leafy greens devotee and is tired of having to haul ass to the grocery store every other day in the midst of a pandemic, this might be a good investment.

CHRIS

BEERMKR ($499)
I have a full review of the BEERMKR system coming out soon, but here’s all you need to know. I have never attempted to brew beer before. With the BEERMKR, though, I was able to make what is, according to everyone I’ve shared it with, a delicious stout on my first try. BEERMKR’s unique system is simple enough that a N00b like me can use it, but open ended enough that a pro can customize their brew however they like. What’s nice is that it doesn’t require buckets and hoses and bottles, and it doesn’t take a bunch of your time and attention. It just works and is perfect for the BEERLVR in your life.

Photo: Crowd Cow website.

CrowdCow Gift Certificate ($25 – $250)
When the pandemic first hit and we weren’t sure how safe it was to go to grocery stores, I immediately started buying meats through CrowdCow’s online marketplace. It’s been eight months and I’m still buying fish and chicken from CrowdCow’s small farms and fisheries. The service is fast and the quality is top-notch. I highly recommend the halibut!

Philips 3200 LatteGo Superautomatic Espresso Machine ($799)
Look. I’m sorry that I’ve put two very pricey items on my gift guide here. Really. But if you are able to swing it, this superautomatic coffee machine is worth every penny. I saved up and got one for my wife for her birthday+mother’s day towards the beginning of the pandemic. My reasoning? If we’re going to be stuck on lockdown, she may as well start each (Groundhog) day with a delicious cup of coffee. This machine grinds and brews (excellent!) espressos, cappuccinos and straight-up coffee. Plus, the LatteGo system is a super-easy, hose-free way of steaming your choice of milk. And yes, it’s expensive, but given how often it gets used in our house, the cost comes out to about $3.60 a day, which is less than getting a Starbucks latte everyday. And given that this pandemic won’t be over anytime soon, that cost per day will continue to drop.

MIKE

Misen Carbon Steel Pans ($55)

Like many, In recent years I’ve started to move away from chemical heavy non-stick surfaces and rely more heavily on things like my Lodge cast iron skillet. The only problem is the thing weighs more than Thor’s hammer and requires an oven mitt to move around once hot. Enter carbon steel. Carbon steel has been one of those pro kitchen secrets that has started to make its way into the consumer kitchen, and now it’s one of the fastest growing categories for consumer cookware. The growing popularity is due in part because carbon steel offers most of the same benefits of cast iron (durability, high heat tolerance) without its downsides. So when Misen, which got its start as an Instagram purveyor of knives, recently launched their line of carbon steel and I picked up the 10 and 12” bundle. They work great. You still need to season them, but if you or your loved one is looking for a new set of go-to pans, I’d try them out. 

The PantryChic Smart Storage System ($350)

Do you have a hyper organized type on your gift list who wears out their label maker organizing everything into little containers and bins? You might want to consider buying them the PantryChic smart storage system. Sure, the system allows you to store food into interchangeable bins and then dispense using exact measurements with the built-in scale, the container system is BPA-free and airtight, and it all works with the Chefling smart kitchen app to manage food inventory. But you can also feel good buying the product from a founder who has worked long and hard to get the product to market: PantryChic was invented by Nicole Lee who, together with her husband, showed off a prototype at the first Smart Kitchen Summit back in 2015. After half a decade of persistence, they finally started shipping the product last month. You can find the on  PantryChic’s website or on Amazon.  

Stasher Bags

Like everyone else, I’m cooking more at home during the pandemic, and that has meant firing up my sous vide circulator at least once or twice a week. While many are still using plastic bags – either in the form of Ziploc or vacuum seal bags – a couple years ago I started using reusable silicon bags for all of my sous vide. The category got its start when Kat Nouri launched Stasher bags back in 2016 and a couple years later got an investment by Mark Cuban on Shark Tank. The bags aren’t cheap – the half gallon bag (which I use) costs $20 – but you won’t have to keep buying Ziplocs or a vacuum sealer and don’t have to feel bad about putting more plastic into the waste stream. If you’re just getting started or buying for a sous vide fanatic in your family, start at least with a half-gallon or go up to the stand up mega bag, which holds almost up to a gallon. 

Rise Gardens Launches a Countertop Version of Its At-Home Smart Growing System

Rise Gardens is best known for its indoor smart farms that are geared towards the average consumer and roughly the size of your average bookshelf. But those living in small spaces may not be able to easily accommodate another piece of furniture, and with that in mind, Rise released a countertop version of its farm this week. According to a LinkedIn post from the company, the device, dubbed The Personal Rise Garden, can grow “8+ plants at any given time” that can be harvested in “as little as 25 days.”

The Personal device is essentially a smaller version of Rise’s flagship product, a multi-shelf smart garden that uses nutrient-enriched water and a “recipe” of LED lighting to hydroponically grow leafy greens and herbs. An accompanying smartphone app does the bulk of the work in terms of calculating the temperature of the garden, determining nutrition and pH levels, and telling the user when it’s time to water the plants. Users can purchase a subscription service that automatically mails growing supplies on a regular basis. They can also use their own plant seeds if they prefer not to be locked into a subscription. 

Speaking to The Spoon earlier this year, Rise Gardens’ Head of Product and Strategy, Diego Blondet, said he believed automated indoor farming would make its way into most kitchen designs in the future. But we’re still years away from having a smart farm built into the cabinetry like a microwave, and in the meantime, many would-be users live in small apartments that can’t accommodate farms the size of furniture.

Hence Rise’s move to release a countertop version of its smart garden. The new device clocks in at 18 x 11 x 16 inches and weights 20 pounds. According to a press release sent to The Spoon, it can grow four large plants (tomatoes, peppers, kale, etc.), eight medium-sized plants (herbs), or 12 small plants (chives, lavender). Cost-wise, the farm will run you $279, which is on par with other countertop growing devices, including those from Aspara ($259) and AVA’s Byte Smart Garden ($349).

Notably, Rise received an investment from the Amazon Alexa Fund last month to “fuel new products, accessories, and further R+D.” At the time of the announcement, Rise CEO and founder Hank Adams hinted at an Alexa integration for his company’s devices, which means voice tech might be coming to smart farms soon, with Rise leading the way. The company also recently expanded distribution to Canada, according to a Rise spokesperson.

Offering a smaller version of its standard product could also connect Rise Gardens to a potentially different audience, which is those who are new to the at-home smart farming concept and may not want to commit $500 or more to learning about it. From the looks of it, the Personal device won’t feed an entire family, but could be sufficient for one- and two-person households. I’ll let you know as soon as I’ve purchased mine.

Meet the Aurora Nutrio, a Smart Cutting Board With Built-In Food Sensor

Nowadays it takes a lot for me to consider putting a new piece of technology on my countertop.

It’s not that I don’t love kitchen tech. (Heck, I did start an event on the topic.) It’s that I long ago ran out of countertop space and my wife only has so much patience for my expensive habit of buying new kitchen gear.

Which is why I’ve never made room for a kitchen scale. Intellectually, I understand the arguments for one: more precise measurements, less clutter than a hodgepodge of measuring cups and bowls, and a good way to track food calories and intake. In the end, though, I still can’t see where I’d put it.

But what if I could combine it with a cutting board? And better yet, what if I could also use this new cutting board-scale as a food inventory and tracking system?

All of this may be possible with the Aurora Nutrio, a new smart cutting board that has debuted through Indiegogo. The device weighs and identifies raw food, scans packaged food, calculates nutrition information, helps users track food inventory and ingredients on hand.

When you look at the Nutrio’s cutting surface, you’ll see the actual board part of the cutting board is made of wood. The wood board (or boards; the system offers bamboo, beech or nutwood board options and you can buy more than one board to use during a cook) reside on top of a base which houses all of the technology and sensors.

One of those sensors is a spectrometer. The spectrometer, the small circle in the upper left hand corner of the board, uses infrared light to scan the molecular properties of the food and give you the caloric and nutritional composition of food.

You can see a demonstration of how a scan would work in the Nutrio Indiegogo video below:

The device also has an on-board camera for scanning packaged goods, and a built-in NFC reader to track food inventory with the provided NFC food tags.

Like a lot of connected devices, the Nutrio has an associated app that unlocks more features, including the ability to log food in a diary and access nutrition information of food you weigh and scan. The app, called Lighthouse, is also where you’d track food inventory through the associated NFC tagging system.

I have to admit, all of this technology sounds pretty neat. Not only would I get the scale I want disguised as a cutting board, but I’d also get a full food-tracking and nutrition-management system.

That said, I’m still hesitant to pull the trigger for a few reasons.

The most obvious one is this is still just a prototype being offered on Indiegogo. And as we’re all too aware, super tech-forward products like this have a real mixed track record of ever making it to market. Add in that this product is promising a bunch of features using fairly complicated technology, and you have to wonder if the company will actually be able to deliver on all of those claims.

My second reason to hesitate is price. The Nutrio is expensive, with an early-bird price that’s over $400 on Indiegogo. That’s much higher than basic digital scales or even smart scales like the Renpho, which go for $20 nowadays on Amazon.

The final concern is that this product would be yet another proprietary system and app that relies on a subscription model to unlock all the features. According to the campaign’s FAQ, the system’s Pro edition of the app will cost between €5 and €10 per month, or roughly $6 to $12 USD, after the first year. I don’t know about you, but it takes a lot for me nowadays to pull out a credit card for an app, let alone for a cutting board and scale app (though the campaign promises to give lifetime access to the app if they hit €250,000).

All that said, the Nutrio is still an interesting appliance, presenting a fairly holistic approach to food tracking and management. I’ll be keeping an eye on it, and if you’d like to follow (or buy one), you can find it here at Indiegogo.