The Smart Kitchen Summit is the first event to tackle the future of food, cooking and the kitchen with leaders across food, tech, commerce, design, delivery and appliances. This series will highlight panelists and partners for the 2017 event, being held on October 10-11 at Benaroya Hall in Seattle.
When you think about technology and innovation, the first thing that comes to mind probably has nothing to do with spaghetti. But for food makers like Barilla, thinking about the future of the food they create means thinking a lot about technology and how it will impact the design, production, cooking and consumption of their products.
They even have a Chief Technology Officer.
Behind the scenes, Barilla has – without much fanfare to date – been engineering partnerships and strategies that will allow them to take a leadership position in the food tech conversation. In the movement to create more visibility around supply chains and how food is produced, Barilla has partnered with Cisco in a “field to fork” pilot project that creates digital footprints for every food item that gets created. With complex supply chain technologies and delivery systems, it’s often hard for the end consumer to know where every element of their meal came from. Barilla aims to change that.
“Great work is going on about adapting new technologies to the foods as we know them. But what if we could imagine foods that are wholesome, natural and delicious that can work synergically with the technologies to come?” commented Victoria Spadaro Grant, Barilla’s CTO and 2017 Smart Kitchen Summit speaker.
Barilla is on the hunt for ways to use their vast technical knowledge in areas like food science, food engineering and industrial processes for foods. Last year, the company debuted a 3D printer for pasta – using the same high-quality ingredients the Italian gastronomy leader is known for – to show how technology will fundamentally shift the way food is made in the future. They also want to examine what partnerships with kitchen appliance makers might look like – and how the food they create might “talk” to the devices that are used to prepare them for consumption.
We asked Spadaro Grant why Barilla considers the smart kitchen an important space. “Barilla would like to become the Italian gastronomic “sparring partner” for appliance inventors. We are inspired by good food that is also sustainable and we want to explore ways that marrying gastronomy and technology can help drive the future of food.”
Don’t miss Victoria Spadaro Grant, CTO of Barilla Group at the 2017 Smart Kitchen Summit. Check out the full list of speakers and to register for the Summit, use code BARILLA to get 25% off ticket prices.
The Smart Kitchen Summit takes place thanks to our sponsors; if you’re interested in sponsorship opportunities, reach out to the SKS team to discuss options.
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