Hey All, Chris here,
As Swedish hair metal band Europe once sang, “It’s the final countdown” (nuh-nuh-NUH-nuh!) until our flagship Smart Kitchen Summit (SKS) conference happening in Seattle on Monday! While we are super busy making it the best. show. ever., we wanted to make sure you didn’t miss any of the big food tech news we’ve been covering.
Catherine Lamb broke the news about how ChefSteps is launching Joule Ready, a rotating selection of pre-made sauces home cooks can use to fight off sous-vide ennuiTM. Customers just scan the package with the ChefSteps app, place their preferred meat (or veg) into the sauce, and throw the whole thing into a pot for the Joule to do the rest. Getting, errr, sauced will certainly be a subject for Mike’s panel with ChefSteps CEO, Chris Young, at SKS on Rethinking Business Models In The Era of FoodTech.
Speaking of must-see things at SKS (sweet segue, bro!), Hestan Smart Cooking will be publicly announcing its third-party cooktop integration at our show next week. This will bring Hestan Cue’s guided cooking capabilities to outside manufacturers like GE Appliances, who is already partnered with Hestan for its Cafe line of cooktops.
One countertop appliance that has been booming is Zimplistic’s Rotimatic flatbread maker. Though technically, it’s very much a robot and not an appliance because of the way it adapts to variable ingredients. During a recent interview with Mike Wolf, the company’s CEO said that they have sold nearly 40,000 Rotimatics, which by our estimation makes it the most popular food robot in the world. At $1,000 a pop, that’s nearly $40 million in revenue for Zimplistic. Further, people who own Rotimatics are using it every day.
Something else people do on a daily basis is eat lunch. And one trend Jenn Marston is watching in the office lunch space is the adoption of in-office pickup. Sweetgreens made headlines when it launched it’s Outpost delivery/catering hybrid. Basically, instead of going out into the world to grab a lunch or pay a big premium to have it delivered, companies can set up designated pick up areas in their office. That way people can order what they want and grab it without going out into the world. Minnow (formerly Kadabra)(formerly Veebie) is another player in the space putting similar delivery pods in offices.
Note to self: remember to grab lunch. While things are busy here at Spoon HQ, we’re excited to be on stage showing everyone the future of food at Smart Kitchen Summit.
To all the attendees — see you in Seattle! Be sure to say hi.
STORIES IN THIS ISSUE
With Joule Ready, ChefSteps Establishes Sous Vide Food Delivery Business
Joule Ready is a line of sous vide-ready bags pre-filled with sauces in flavors like Thai Green Curry, Salsa Chamoy and Roasted Red Pepper Walnut Muhammara.
Hestan to Announce its Smart Cooktop Solution at Smart Kitchen Summit
Until this year, using the Hestan Cue guided cooking system required a standalone induction burner with accompanying sensor-embedded smart pans. With this move, Hestan Cue’s smart cooking technology to be built directly into cooktops from other companies.
Zimplistic has Sold Roughly 40,000 Rotimatics
It looks like Zimplistic can lay claim to having the most popular food robot in the world. In a recent interview with The Spoon’s Mike Wolf, Zimplistic CEO, Rishi Israni said that his company has sold approximately 40,000 Rotimatics, and while we haven’t conducted a massive global audit, we can’t think of another food robot that even comes close.
Will Sweetgreen’s New Outpost Service Disrupt Lunchtime Delivery?
For the delivery-catering hybrid, Sweetgreen partners with companies and sets up drop-off points for food at said companies’ offices. Currently, WeWork, Nike, and Headspace are partners. There is no fee for companies to participate, and no delivery fee for the workers ordering food.
Leave a Reply