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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

CES 2021

Here are the Kitchen Robots We Saw at CES & Food Tech Live 2021

One thing I miss most about heading to Vegas every January for CES is walking the basement of the Sands convention center. There, in the startup area known as Eureka Park, I’ll wander for hours and get lost amongst thousands of exhibitors in search of a few undiscovered food tech gems.

I usually find a few and, since we’re talking CES, they sometimes come in the form of a food robot.

From there, I usually head across the street to Treasure Island where The Spoon has its own product showcase during CES week called Food Tech Live, where I can also get my fill of food robots while also doing such things as eating a cookie with my face on it.

While both CES and Food Tech Live didn’t take place in person in Sin City this year, that doesn’t mean there weren’t some cool food robots to check out at their virtual versions last week. Below is our roundup of home food robots I found at virtual CES and The Spoon’s annual first-of-the-year product showcase, Food Tech Live.

Moley Robotic Kitchen

Since 2015, the Moley robotic kitchen has captured the imagination of the tech journalists and robotics industry with its robot chef concept that can that can prepare full meals from prep to cook to clean up with a pair of articulating robot arms.

And while we’ve yet to actually see the Moley cook a full meal from start to finish, the system’s inventor told The Spoon that it’s finally on sale and will find its first home in 2021. The company, which had a virtual booth at CES 2021 and debuted a bunch of new highlight videos, will sell both a home and pro version of its robotic kitchen. Prices for the fully robotic kitchen will be about $335 thousand.

The Moley Robotic Kitchen System at CES 2021

Oliver

Else Labs Oliver is a single-pot cooking robot that dispenses fresh ingredients and automates the cooking process with the help of temperature sensing and machine vision capabilities.

Else Labs, which went on sale via Indiegogo last fall, was on display at Food Tech Live last week. The product’s inventor and company CEO Khalid Aboujassoum says the major difference between Oliver and other guided cooking appliances on the market is Oliver pretty much handles the entire cooking process for you.

“The Oliver can do unattended stovetop cooking,” Aboujassoum told me last fall when the product went on sale.

Oliver, the smart cooking robot

iWonderCook

The iWonderCook is a automated cooking machine that cooks one-pot meals. The meals are provided in the form of the company’s own meal kit service, which the user orders through the device’s touchscreen. From there, as can be seen in the video below, the user inserts a bowl, embeds the food “cartridge”, and then adjusts the amount of oil and water needed.

I haven’t gotten a chance to see the iWondercook in action or taste the food, I will say is the product’s reliance on its own meal kits might be a turn-off for some users.

iWONDERCOOK robotic chef does the cooking for you.

Yo-Kai Express Takumi

Technically the new Yo-Kai Express Takumi home ramen machine is something closer to a Keurig for food than a food robot, it’s worth looking at this machine given the company’s smart vending roots.

The Takumi, which debuted at Food Tech Live last week, follows Yo-Kai’s move into the home market with its home delivery service. The Takumi takes the frozen ramen bowls, which are centrally produced in Yo-Kai’s California facilities, and steams and reconstitutes the ramen in just a few minutes.

The company has plans to not only to start selling ramen to users in the office and home, but on the go with an autonomous ramen delivery cart.

Day With Yo Kai Final

Samsung Bot Handy

Samsung announced a trio of home robots aimed at helping humans around the house. The one that was most interesting when it comes to lending a hand in the kitchen was Bot Handy, a mobile bot with large articulating hand that can help with anything from pouring a glass of wine to doing the dishes.

It’s worth noting that Samsung – like many big consumer electronics brands – has a history of showing off cool new product prototypes at CES that are more conceptual than anything close to actually coming to market, including last year’s they showed off a Moley-kitchen style robot system. Let’s hope the Bot Handy is something the company delivers on.

Julia

The Julia is another single-pot home cooking robot that allows the user to set it and forget it for pretty much an entire meal. The Julia is made by a Nymble, an Indian-based startup with plans to start selling the product in 2021. Nymble CEO Raghav Gupta showed off the product at Food Tech Live, told us that they are expanding their alpha trial program in the United States in February.

ColdSnap

Like the Takumi, the ColdSnap isn’t quite a full-fledged food robot, but something closer to a Bartesian style automated appliance that makes cold ice cream (as well as frozen margaritas and smoothies). While we weren’t able to get our hands on the ColdSnap, the company gave CNET a hands-on preview of the appliance and the editors were impressed. The appliance, which is going to a fairly spending $500-1,000, reminds me of the Wim fro-yo appliance that never made it to market after an acqui-hire of the founding by Walmart.

Podcast: The CES & Food Tech Live 2021 Review

On this week’s episode of Food Tech Show, the Spoon editorial team talks about what they found walking the virtual exhibit halls of CES 2021 (answer: not much).

The good news is we also had Food Tech Live, the Spoon’s annual food tech showcase that happens during CES week. Normally we’re in Vegas for FTL, eating cookies with our faces on it and checking out the latest in food tech gadgets, but this year we took things online and had a bunch of cool product demos, interviews and breakout sessions.

Finally, we also talk about the June oven acquisition by Weber and what that means for the smart oven space.

So listen in on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, download direct to your computer or just click play below. And, if you’re a regular listener, we’d appreciate it if you throw us a review to start the year!

CES 2021: Samsung’s Bot Handy Helps with Dishes (and Pours You Wine)

Samsung stormed out of the CES 2021 gate today, announcing a trio of home robots aimed at helping humans around the house. Samsung announced a vacuuming robot, a care assistant robot, and a robot that we are most concerned with here — a robot that will help with dirty dishes and pour you a glass of wine.

According to the press announcement:

Samsung Bot Handy will rely on advanced AI to recognize and pick up objects of varying sizes, shapes and weights, becoming an extension of you and helping you with work around the house. Samsung Bot Handy will be able to tell the difference between the material composition of various objects, utilizing the appropriate amount of force to grab and move around household items and objects, working as your trusted partner to help with house chores like cleaning up messy rooms or sorting out the dishes after a meal.

The press release didn’t provide many more details, but CNET reports that the Handy is able to become taller or shorter, and that its gripper hands can put dishes in a dishwasher, pour a glass of wine or put flowers in a vase.

At CES last year, LG and Samsung showed off kitchen robots, which featured installed, articulating arms helping make meals. The Handy seems a bit more… practical and realistic. Rather than needing a kitchen renovation to get some robotic help, the robot scurries around on its own. Plus, the Handy seems like it could even be more useful. Cooking in the kitchen can be fun, cleaning up dirty dishes really isn’t. So yes, let’s hand that task off to a robot (they can top off my glass when they’re done).

Food Tech Live 2021: Meet The Companies

Usually this time of year we’re in Vegas for CES, weaving through crowded casino floors, hailing cabs and throwing a party for a thousand of our favorite kitchen and food tech fans in the ballroom of Treasure Island.

But since CES has gone virtual this year, so has Food Tech Live!

Today we’ll be doing live interviews all day with food tech innovators creating products ranging from food robots to 3D food printing companies to a Keurig for home ramen.

We also have virtual exhibition booths you can visit and check out the latest innovations and talk to the creators.

We still have a limited amount of free tickets available so head on over and grab one before they run out.

Below is a sneak preview of the companies exhibiting at Food Tech Live. Descriptions of products were provided by the companies.

Anova – The newly introduced Anova Precision Oven is the world’s first steam-enabled combi-oven designed for the home cook.

BBot – Bbot is a web-based contactless order and pay solution that allows guests to order food and drinks from their phone to their location.

BIOMILQ – is a women-owned, science-led, and mother centered start-up that is on a mission to provide the next generation every opportunity to thrive by producing cultured breastmilk that offers supplemental nutrition to mother’s milk with the convenience of formula.

BonBowl – Bonbowl is an induction cooktop paired with patent-pending cookware, designed to allow you to cook for one. The bowl is designed so that you can cook and eat from the same dish. Bonbowl also offers single serving recipes that are specifically designed to be cooked in 15 minutes or less.

Botrista – The Botrista DrinkBot is the next generation drink dispenser for restaurants. The patented technology can dispense more natural ingredients which tend to have higher fiber or pulp levels, like juice concentrates or even as thick as honey.

Breville/Polyscience – Breville|PolyScience is a manufacturer of cutting-edge equipment for chefs and mixologists, including sous vide immersion circulators, the Control ºFreak, the Smoking Gun Pro, Anti-Griddle, Sonicprep, Rotary Vacuum Evaporator, and other culinary technologies. The company has just released the HydroPro and HydroPro Plus sous vide immersion circulators.

CHEF iQ – The CHEF iQ Smart Cooker is an electric pressure cooker with unique features like a built-in scale, OTA firmware updates, and a connected app with over 200 included guided recipes.

CocoTerra – CocoTerra has developed the world’s first tabletop chocolate maker. CocoTerra lets you create custom chocolate from scratch in just two hours. You get to choose your chocolate flavorings, ingredients, designs, and decorations. Make chocolate your way, anytime you want.

Cuzen Matcha – An innovative at-home matcha system consisting of Matcha Maker and Matcha Leaf.

Drop – Drop is a smart kitchen platform with its KitchenOS serving over 100 different appliance models from brands like Bosch, Instant Brands, Panasonic, LG Electronics and Thermomix. The company specializes in recipe and kitchen appliance technology, connecting the whole cooking journey, effortlessly.

Edamam – Edamam licenses and provides via API nutrition data to food, health and wellness businesses. We have built the largest, broadest and deepest dataset of nutrition data with over 5 million recipes and 800K+ foods all analyzed and tagged for every nutrient, allergen, lifestyle diet and chronic condition.

Else Labs – Else Labs is the maker of Oliver, an expert chef, recipe library, meal planner and shopping assistant all in one. This robot chef replicates the timing, patience and skill of a chef at the stovetop leading to the creation of dynamic and delicious meals cooked to perfection, every time.

Ember – Ember Travel Mug² and Ember Mug² are the most advanced coffee mugs on the market, allowing individuals to set and maintain their preferred drinking temperature for hot beverages.

Grubtech – Grubtech’s product suite encompasses the entire end to end operations from demand generation, food aggregator integration, in-kitchen operations and last mile delivery integration.

HakkoBako – Fermentation Chambers for professional flavor developers

Hestan Cue – Hestan Smart Cooking provides the latest in temperature sensing cookware and leading connectivity solutions. Hestan Smart Cooking has pioneered precise temperature control for the stovetop and offers a variety of services ranging from hardware manufacturing, app development, to content creation, and more.

Minnow – Contact-free Pickup Pods take the worry out of food pickup and delivery by keeping food secure and people safe. Amazon Locker for food.

MyAir – MyAir develops plant-based nutrition bars with a personalized edge. The company’s plant-based formulations (infused in nutrition bars) are tailored to the consumer’s unique stress profile and cognitive needs.

Nymble – Home food robot. Julia, a home robot that helps you treat yourself to world food everyday, without having to spend time in the kitchen cooking it yourself. The food is cooked using ingredients you trust, all from the comfort of your home at the press of a button.

Pantri – An online platform that enables your smart appliances to shop automatically for the items they consume.

PantryChic – Simplify recipe preparation and ingredient organization with the PantryChic Smart Storage System. This multifunctional appliance stores, measures, auto-converts, dispenses and weighs ingredients.

SamsungNext/Whisk – Whisk powers the creation, discovery, personalization and monetization of food content online, in-store and at home. Whisk was acquired by Samsung in 2019.

Satis.AI – Satis.AI is an AI powered operational platform for restaurant kitchens aimed at improving decision making and reducing mistakes. The core of the platform uses computer vision to do object detection, object tracking and action recognition, enabling real time feedback to staff and connected devices

SIGMADESIGN – SIGMADESIGN supports food tech industries what it calls ‘Protoduction’. The company bridges the middle ground between prototyping and full-scale manufacturing.

Sojourn – Technology for last meter meal and grocery delivery. Computer vision platform and supply chain technology that can integrate with existing navigation techniques of delivery services and applications.

SpoonShot – Spoonshot delivers food & beverage innovation intelligence by leveraging AI and food science.

Tasteboosters – Tasteboosters makes SpoonTEK, a new tongue sensory utensil that adds a mild electric current to food (which excites the taste buds) to enhance flavor, heighten taste and improve after-taste.

The Weapon – Your beverage cans dedicated home entertainment – dispensed ice cold or hot from you mobile app.

Yo-Kai Express – Autonomous Restaurant Solutions using highly advanced technology to freshly serve a gourmet bowl in under 60 seconds 24 hours a day.

Zymmo – Zymmo gives independent chefs the power to market and manage every aspect of their careers, while providing foodies with amazing food experiences through their chef-meal marketplace.

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.

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.