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January 31, 2025

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.

January 27, 2025

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.

December 11, 2024

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.

December 10, 2024

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.

November 26, 2024

Sam Calisch Thinks Your Next Stove Should Have a Battery

Next-Gen Cooking

After earning a PhD from MIT, Sam Calisch spent much of the past decade advocating for electrification and shaping climate policy as a lobbyist. His efforts included helping start Rewiring America, an organization focused on electrifying homes, businesses, and communities, as well as co-writing Electrify, a book about electrification, and a series called Circuit Breakers on the same topic.

But his work as a lobbyist revealed gaps in the market. “We were at a point where we no longer need huge, science project-type ideas,” Sam said. “What we need now are products that help deploy the amazing technologies we already have—solar, wind, batteries—faster and cheaper.”

This realization led him to explore creating a company to address those gaps. In 2020, he co-founded Copper, a company with a mission to transform how we cook and power our homes, starting with its flagship product: an induction stove with a built-in battery.

According to Sam, Copper was born to address a key adoption barrier: the high cost of electrical upgrades required for induction stoves. “People were spending more on rewiring their homes than on the stove itself,” Sam explained in an interview with The Spoon. His solution—a battery-integrated induction stove—allows users to plug into existing outlets, eliminating the need for costly electrical work.

But the battery wasn’t just a workaround—Sam believes it makes for a superior stove. “When you put a battery in a stove, it makes it a much better stove,” he said. “It’s silent, thanks to DC induction, and has enough power to preheat the oven in just four or five minutes. You can cook faster and more precisely than ever before.”

After securing a Department of Energy grant and venture funding, Sam and his co-founders began developing an early prototype. The first versions, however, weren’t exactly polished. “The first one I built, I lovingly call the shopping cart,” Sam said. “It was a set of rolling wire shelves with the components strapped on. I was so proud of it, but when I sent pictures to some folks in the industry, they couldn’t quite see the vision.”

Since then, Copper has come a long way. The company now assembles its stoves in California and primarily sells them in New York and California, with plans to expand. “We’re scaling manufacturing and doing deliveries every day,” Sam said. “It’s inspiring to see people switch to our product and love cooking on it.”

Beyond cooking, Copper’s stoves could play a larger role in energy management. The built-in battery allows users to store renewable energy and use it during peak times, reducing reliance on the grid. “It’s a powerful tool,” Sam explained. “You can charge the battery with solar power during the day and cook with it at night. It’s about giving people agency over how and when they use energy.”

Looking ahead, Copper plans to launch more appliances that bridge the gap between sustainability and performance. “Look around your house—especially at the appliances that use gas today,” Sam said. “We’ve got exciting projects in the works.”

For Sam Calisch, Copper isn’t just about selling stoves—it’s about transforming how people think about electrification. “We want to make switching easy and show the best versions of what’s possible,” he said.

You can listen to my full conversation with Sam by clicking the podcast player below, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

November 20, 2024

With Second Gen Lineup, Combustion Adds Wi-Fi to Product Mix and Ups Thermometer Temp to 900°F

Connected Kitchen

Earlier this month, kitchen startup Combustion announced several upgrades to its product lineup, including a second-generation precision thermometer that can withstand temperatures up to 900°F and a new connected display that, for the first time, incorporates Wi-Fi into the Combustion product mix.

In addition to the thermometer and display updates, the company introduced a new wireless fan called the Combustion Engine. This device pairs with Combustion’s thermometer or the recently announced Grill Gauge to help control temperatures on outdoor grills.

I caught up with Combustion CEO Chris Young last week to discuss the new updates. He told me that the number one feature request from customers has been Wi-Fi connectivity.

“The thing about Wi-Fi is that consumers want it because, once you’re connected, you can keep an eye on things while you’re away,” Young told The Spoon.

Young, who previously worked on integrating Wi-Fi into the ChefSteps (now Breville) Joule, understands the significant complexity that Wi-Fi adds from a product management standpoint. This complexity is why Combustion took its time incorporating Wi-Fi into a product lineup that, until now, had relied solely on Bluetooth.

“Everybody inside the company who’s worked on this has experience doing it at scale and carries some scars from those efforts,” said Young. “There’s a right way and a wrong way to do it, so we took our time.”

That deliberate approach involved deciding where to include Wi-Fi—ultimately in the charging sleeve and display—and where not to include it, such as in the thermometer itself. The company also worked on managing battery life and ensuring efficient data transmission from the Wi-Fi chip.

Another major upgrade is the thermometer’s ability to withstand and measure temperatures up to 900°F, higher than most conventional consumer ovens can reach. Young explained the significant technical challenges involved in designing a device capable of performing at such high temperatures.

“You’re getting into exotic circuit board materials. Oxygen does crazy things at 900 degrees and starts to attack copper. So behind the scenes, it was a massive production process improvement that should result in higher reliability, better high-temperature performance, and what is essentially the most extreme submersible thermometer you could imagine.”

Early responses to the upgrades have been positive on the Combustion Reddit forum, where Young is active in answering user questions. The company expects to ship the new thermometer next month and the Combustion Engine in the spring of 2025. For those looking for a deal, the company is clearing out its Gen-1 thermometers (I have one, and it works well) ahead of Thanksgiving.

November 19, 2024

New Lawsuit Accuses Private Equity Company of Plundering Assets of Instant Brands

Connected Kitchen

The long, convoluted, and increasingly dark tale of the acquisition of Instant Brands (the maker of the Instant Pot) by Cornell Capital took another turn last week with the filing of a complaint on behalf of the company’s creditors to recoup up to $400 million in losses. The filing alleges that Cornell Capital LLC and its leadership orchestrated a series of fraudulent maneuvers that ultimately led to the downfall of the once-popular Instant Pot maker.

The story begins in May 2017, when Cornell Capital, a private equity firm founded by Henry Cornell, acquired World Kitchen, later renamed Corelle Brands. Seeking further growth through acquisition, Cornell Capital used Corelle Brands to acquire Instant Brands in March 2019 for $615 million.

However, the complaint states that shortly after the acquisition, Cornell Capital discovered that Instant Brands’ financial records had been misstated, particularly the 2018 EBITDA—a crucial metric for business valuation. A “shit show” is how Ken Wilkes, then CEO of Corelle Brands, described Instant Brands’ financials. This discovery meant Cornell Capital had significantly overpaid for Instant Brands.

In the wake of this revelation, Cornell Capital threatened legal action against Instant Brands’ sellers (Robert Wang, the inventor of the Instant Pot, and his co-founders Yi Qin and Dongjun Wang) for fraud. Wang, Qin, and Wang negotiated a restructuring agreement in February 2020, which significantly reduced the purchase price in exchange for releasing them from liability.

In a move that would later become central to the lawsuit, Cornell Capital secured for itself the sole entitlement to a future $200 million dividend from Instant Brands. Additionally, Corelle Brands filed a $268 million claim with its representations and warranties insurer in May 2020, alleging that the misstated financials had inflated the acquisition price.

According to the complaint, Cornell Capital pushed forward with its plan to extract a dividend from the company despite knowing about Instant Brands’ overstated valuation and declining financial performance. In March 2021, Instant Brands approached lenders to secure financing for a dividend recapitalization, all the while concealing the truth about its financial woes. The complaint states that Cornell Capital and Instant Brands withheld information about the misstated financials, the purchase price reduction, and the ongoing insurance claim. Adding another layer of concern, they also failed to disclose an investigation by the Consumer Product Safety Commission into potential safety hazards with the Instant Pot—a revelation that could have deterred potential lenders.

Through this withholding of information, the complaint alleges that Cornell Capital successfully secured a $450 million term loan in April 2021. This loan, along with $100 million of Instant Brands’ cash reserves, was allegedly used to fund a $345 million dividend, the vast majority of which went to Cornell Capital, its co-investors, and Instant Brands’ sellers, leaving the company insolvent.

As Instant Brands’ financial situation deteriorated, Cornell Capital engaged in what the lawsuit describes as a desperate attempt to salvage its investment. In January 2023, less than two years after the dividend payout, Cornell Capital orchestrated the transfer of almost all of Instant Brands’ tangible assets—estimated to be worth $200 million—to newly formed unrestricted subsidiaries. These assets were then used as collateral for a $55 million loan from Cornell Capital Partners LP. This maneuver, termed the “UnSub Transaction,” was allegedly designed to strip Instant Brands of its remaining valuable assets and shield the earlier dividend payout from scrutiny under bankruptcy laws. However, the UnSub Transaction only served to worsen Instant Brands’ financial standing and ultimately failed to prevent its bankruptcy filing in June 2023.

Needless to say, the complaint paints a damning picture of Cornell Capital’s actions, accusing the firm and its leadership of orchestrating a scheme to enrich themselves at the expense of Instant Brands’ creditors. The complaint seeks a comprehensive accounting of the financial maneuvers undertaken by Cornell Capital, requesting that the court void the $345 million dividend and other payments made to the defendants. Additionally, the trustee is asking for the recovery of the value of those transfers and is seeking an award of no less than $400 million to compensate for the losses incurred by Instant Brands’ creditors.

Luckily for everyday consumers, most of this news will never reach them, and Instant Pots still appear to be making their way to store shelves. However, the heyday of Instant Pot as the hottest kitchen device is long gone, and Instant Brands no longer churns out new product variations every six to nine months. While we may never know why Instant Brands’ founders misstated the financials to facilitate the sale, it’s possible they were trying to strike while the iron—or Instant Pot—was hot, given the influx of Instant Pot clones flooding the market at the time.

November 11, 2024

Anova Serves Up a Generous Helping of AI With Launch of Anova Precision Oven 2.0

Connected Kitchen, Robotics, AI & Data

Last week, Anova announced the second generation of its Precision Oven, just over four years after it began to ship the first generation Precision Oven. The Anova Precision Oven 2.0 is packed with a number of new features, including an in-oven camera and Anova Intelligence, a suite of new AI features designed to power new ways for users to assist in the cooking process.

In fact, the company listed a bunch of features currently offered by their AI-powered cooking and a number of features that they are working on. The features the Anova Precision Oven 2.0 currently has include:

  • Ingredient Recognition: The AI system automatically identifies what’s inside the oven with the internal camera.
  • Suggested Cooking Methods: The oven’s AI will suggest cooking methods tailored to the ingredients, ranging from basic roasting to more complex sous vide style.
  • Packaged Food Conversion: The oven will scan the packaging, and the AI will choose the right settings.
  • Recipe Conversion: The company says the Anova Precision Oven 2.0’s AI can convert nearly any recipe to make it work with its settings, with the caveat that this feature will improve over time as it gains more data.

According to Anova, upcoming features for Anova Intelligence include:

  • Assistant Mode: Anova’s AI-powered co-pilot will simplify complex cooking techniques and offer personalized cooking guidance.
  • Complex Meal Creation: When preparing multi-component dishes, the oven will suggest optimal settings for each ingredient, “streamlining” the cooking process for recipes that typically require juggling multiple cooking techniques.
  • Cook Recall: The oven will recognize repeat recipes for dishes you prepare frequently and return to your last-used settings.
  • Doneness Detection: Powered by the internal camera, the oven monitors the cook’s desired crispness level and alerts them when it reaches the preferred doneness level.
  • Auto Shutdown: The oven will detect when a cook cycle has finished and whether food has been removed, then notify you before automatically shutting off.
  • “Clean Me” Reminders: Equipped with an internal camera that monitors for dirt buildup, the oven will remind you when it’s time for a cleaning.

With the addition of the camera and new AI features, it looks like Anova hopes to fill the void left after Weber sunsetted the June oven about a year ago. While some features (like auto-shutdown) don’t seem all that interesting, I am intrigued by features like the coming co-pilot mode.

In addition to the new AI features, the second-gen oven includes even tighter temperature management (powered by three internal temperature sensors and a more powerful on-board processor) and better steam management. The new oven also includes a new app and an additional recipe subscription service for $1.99 a month or $9.99 annually.

All of these new features come with a hefty price tag increase at $1199, double that of the launch price of the first-gen oven. While some may pass on the 2.0 due to the price increase, given the void left by June and the cult following Anova has, I expect the new Anova oven to sell fairly well when it ships.

November 1, 2024

Brava’s Latest Update Enables Blind and Low-Vision Users to Cook Independently With The Light-Powered Oven

Next-Gen Cooking

This week, Brava, a company that makes countertop consumer appliances that cook with light, has announced the launch of the first major update to the software since 2021.

The biggest change announced is the ability to fully access and control the Brava through the app. Unlike previous versions, which required some interaction with the Brava’s touchscreen, users can now manage ingredient selection, doneness, and recipe instructions entirely through the Brava app, reducing reliance on the oven’s interface. This update is particularly impactful for those with physical limitations, allowing them to enjoy the Brava’s convenience and precision with ease.

While full app control of an appliance is something some folks make like (and others may hate), what’s neat about this update is that Brava chose to also enable new features that make the Brava more accessible to individuals who are blind or have low-vision.

As can be seen in the video below, the key advancement hear is the Brava app works with screen readers, which are digital assistants that work with apps that allow those that are blind or have low vision to navigate.

“Screen readers so it changes the behavior of your touchscreen device, “said Fernando Macias, Access Technology Specialist at San Francisco Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired. “So that everything you touch on the screen, (the screen reader) will read out loud, and that is what enables us to navigate, especially if you’re a blind or have have low vision.” Brava worked with San Francisco Lighthouse to enable the screen reader features.

In addition to greater accessibility features for low-vision users and full control of the appliance via the app, the updated software provides users with more granular info on light intensity and duration parameters that drive each recipe, empowering them to modify or create recipes with greater insight.

Long-time Spoon readers may recall that The Spoon was the first press org to get a look at the Brava back in 2018. Just over a year after the Brava was introduced to the work, Middleby acquired the company. Interestingly, Brava’s founding team (Thomas Cheng, Daniel Yue, and John Pleasants) are all still with the company five years after the acquisition, a sign that Middleby continues to invest and show interest in the platform.

October 30, 2024

A First Look at Roku Shoku, Sony’s Culinary Recording System to Capture and Replicate Chefs’ Recipes

Connected Kitchen, Next-Gen Cooking

This past week in Japan, Sony unveiled a project they’ve been developing in secret called Roku Shoku, a culinary recording system designed to capture exactly how a chef prepares a meal. The system also serves as a guidance tool, helping casual or inexperienced cooks create dishes with the precision of an expert with years of training.

Sony has been working on this project, which stands for “Record” (Roku) and “Cooking” (Shoku), for the past five years. Last week, the entertainment and consumer electronics giant held the first-ever press demonstration of the recording studio for The Spoon team.

“We have a recording studio here in Tokyo,” said Tomoko Nomoto, Project Leader for Roku Shoku. “We invite Michelin-starred chefs, or even grandmothers, to the studio and ask them to cook with our system. We then record their culinary data, including temperature, steam levels, and the entire cooking process.”

The project is led by a Sony R&D team out of Tokyo and is separate from research in the area of gastronomy that has taken place at Sony’s AI Research division Sony AI (the formal Gastronomy program announced in 2020 has been sunsetted, but Sony continues to work on gastronomy-related projects). Since launching the Tokyo recording studio in 2021, the team has captured thousands of recipes across a range of cuisines, including Japanese, Chinese, French, Italian, and Thai.

The Roku Shoku system features induction cooktops with temperature sensors, scales to monitor and weigh ingredients, cameras to capture a chef’s movements, and an off-the-shelf game controller made by Steam to control the setup.

Nomoto shared that users can replicate meals precisely as chefs cook them, a claim I tested myself. You can watch me trying it in the video below.

First Ever Look at Sony's Roku Shoku Culinary Recording System

According to Nomoto, the goal is to use Roku Shoku both to document recipes for restaurants and food service locations and to preserve culinary creations for future use.

“The first step will be to work with restaurants that want to share a consistent experience worldwide or recreate dishes that are no longer available, like when a chef passes away or retires,” said Nomoto.

Spoon readers might recall Cloudchef, another system that records chef creations. Nomoto explained a key difference: Sony plans for Roku Shoku to enable only human chefs to recreate these meals, while Cloudchef eventually aims to use robots for meal replication. Currently, both systems are focused solely on human use (see Spoon’s Tiffany McClurg using the Cloudchef system here).

The company has launched a website where you can find out more and request a demo.

October 28, 2024

Meet The Reimagining Restaurants Podcast, and Check Out The First Episode With Wow Bao’s Geoff Alexander

Business of Food

Here at The Spoon, we’ve covered hundreds of restaurant operators over the past half-decade, in part because we love restaurants and restaurant tech, but mostly because restaurant operators are some of the most creative and hard-working entrepreneurs in the food business.

The truth is they have to be. There’s no business changing faster than the world of food service, with the advent of ghost kitchens, digital ordering, automation, and AI, all against a backdrop of high food costs, changing consumer tastes, employee turnover, and more.

All of which is why we’ve decided to start a new podcast focused on entrepreneurs who are finding new ways to run a restaurant in today’s modern world. We wanted to hear their journey into restaurants, hear how they are rethinking how to do business in today’s world, and where they see the restaurant business going in the future.

For our first episode, we knew no one better to discuss approaching the restaurant business in new and innovative ways than Geoff Alexander. The CEO of Wow Bao got his start in hospitality with a college job as a bartender, where he discovered his talent for connecting with people, and he hasn’t looked back.

He joined Lettuce Entertain You shortly after graduation and rose through the ranks over the next three decades, gaining operational expertise and eventually overseeing his own division. In 2009, he took the reins at Wow Bao, where he embraced technology as a way to turn the business around and innovate on new business models. He introduced self-ordering kiosks, mobile ordering, and partnered with third-party delivery platforms early on, which laid the foundation for Wow Bao’s unique model that spans over 500 locations with a mix of virtual kitchens and centralized food production.

Alexander shares insights on Wow Bao’s approach and how a lack of capital fostered a culture of creativity and efficiency. This approach led to successful innovations like centralized production and distribution, which he says has kept cost low while ensuring quality. Alexander also discusses scaling with hot-food vending machines and dipping the company’s toe into the metaverse.

It was a fun episode, and I think you’ll enjoy it. Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts!

October 16, 2024

Robot Delivery Startup Starship Teams Up With European Food Delivery Company Bolt

Delivery & Commerce, Robotics, AI & Data

Sidewalk robotic delivery Starship Technologies announced this week they are teaming up with Bolt, a European multiplatform delivery company, to launch a new food delivery service using Starship’s autonomous robots in Tallinn, Estonia.

The launch, centered in Tallinn, has the potential to reach up to 180,000 residents according to Bolt. Starship’s robots will operate from three Bolt Market locations—Tulika, Pallasti, and Mustika—via the Bolt Food app. During the launch period, customers will get to use the service for free (the companies did not disclose how much the service will cost post-launch).

Starship robots can carry up to three bags of groceries within a 3-kilometer radius. Bolt customers can opt for “robot delivery” through the app, meet the robot outside their location, and unlock it using the app to retrieve their items.

“This collaboration is not just about convenience and choice,” said Ahti Heinla, who cofounded Starship Technologies with fellow Skype cofounder Janus Friis. “Integrating our robots into Bolt’s service offers a scalable, sustainable delivery solution that reduces traffic and emissions. This is an exciting step forward toward greener cities across Europe.”

Starship, which was the first company to launch the first sidewalk delivery robot a decade ago, has completed over 7 million deliveries globally and traveled more than 14 million kilometers in 100 locations worldwide, according to the announcement. Operating at L4 autonomy since 2018, the company says its robots perform 150,000 crossings daily.

The two companies plan to expand beyond Tallin, but have yet to give a timetable for expansion. The news comes a week after Starship became the first sidewalk delivery platform approved for delivery in Minneapolis, delivering from Panda Express, Starbucks and Erbert & Gerbert’s.

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