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Smart Kitchen Summit

June 28, 2018

Video: The New Era of Personalized Flavor

Personalization was a big theme at Smart Kitchen Summit Europe: in nutrition, taste profiles for dining out, recipes, and more.

One of our hit panels ‘The New Era of Personalized Flavor’ explored this idea with Daniel Protz of FlavorWiki, Johan Langenbick of FoodPairing, and Alexandre Bastos of Givaudan, moderated by Luke Dormehl of Digital Trends.

The panelists talked about how millennials are demanding a more individual dining experience, personalization in the smart kitchen, and how flavor is king.

So what’s happening next? “Personalization is going to go more mainstream,” said Bastos. “Not just personalized flavors, but personalization in general.”

Watch the full video of the panel below.

Want to join us at the next Smart Kitchen Summit event in Seattle this October? You have two days left to snag Early Bird tickets.

June 26, 2018

What is the Future of Food Delivery? Dan Warne of Deliveroo Has Some Thoughts

At the Smart Kitchen Summit Europe a few weeks ago (miss you, Dublin!), disrupting the meal journey was a big theme. And one of the biggest things changing the way we eat is food delivery to our homes.

I had a chance to discuss this shift with Dan Warne, Managing Director of Deliveroo in the U.K. and Ireland, during a Fireside Chat entitled “New Possibilities in Home Food Delivery.”

I was especially excited to talk with him about Deliveroo’s Editions project, a concept that helps to distinguish the company in an uber-crowded food delivery market (pun intended), and one reason we chose Deliveroo as one of our Food Tech 25.

If you didn’t already know, Editions is essentially a curated hub of cloud kitchens. Deliveroo uses customer data to place delivery-only restaurants in areas with unfulfilled demand. People get a larger swath of delivery options, and food entrepreneurs can open up establishments with significantly reduced overhead and less risk.

Editions is so successful, according to Warne, because it has been able to optimize both the hardware and software of running a delivery-based food establishment. “The restaurant can dedicate everything to the food,” he said. Which means that the food has to be really good, since there’s nothing else to hide behind.

“We [also] see it as an opportunity for us to aid the industry by bringing down costs,” he continued. For example, Deliveroo is working with an eco-friendly utility producer as well as a London-based app called Placed, which helps cut labor costs.

The topic of food delivery came up a few times throughout the day at SKS Europe — though not always in a favorable light. After all, companies working to get people cooking at home more often (connected kitchen appliances, guided cooking apps, etc.) should be diametrically opposed to a service that just brings food right to the door. Right?

Warne doesn’t see it that way. “Food delivery . . . has become a compliment to eating at home,” he said onstage. “We see ourselves as very much supporting the eat-at-home experience.”

“The use case of getting food delivery at home is fundamentally different than the social experience of going out to a restaurant,” he continued. Or, presumably, than the experience of cooking at home with your family, or the satisfaction of making a meal from scratch.

Deliveroo now works with around 10,000 restaurants across the U.K., has 25,000 delivery drivers, and operates in 12 different markets. “We are continually surprised with the appetite in every consumer set,” said Warne. “At first, we saw Deliveroo becoming a billion dollar business… now we now seeing it being much, much bigger.”

So what’s next for Editions, and Deliveroo on the whole? Robots — maybe. “We have a few engineers working on robotics,” said Warne. “There’s a bigger opportunity there since there won’t be the same regulatory challenges that there are with, say, drones.” Which some unnamed food delivery companies are currently piloting.

Watch the video below to see Warne’s full fireside chat on the future of home food delivery.

There’s only four days left to get your Early Bird tickets to SKS! Join us for more conversations on the future of food and cooking (or not cooking) — register here.

June 22, 2018

Check Out Powerhouse Speaker Lineup For 2018 Smart Kitchen Summit

The first day of summer may have been yesterday, but here at the Spoon we’re already focused on October. That’s when our Smart Kitchen Summit will return to Seattle for its fourth year, and we are excited to get together with the leaders creating the future of food and cooking once again.

This year, SKS will explore the disruption coming to the meal journey — whether that’s at home, in the restaurant or in your company cafeteria — and you won’t want to miss the industry’s leading food tech event.

We’ve been hard at work putting together the leading thinkers and food/tech disrupters solving the industry’s biggest problems, who will get share insights and help find real solutions. Here’s just a sample of innovators and leading execs who will be joining us in October:

Dr. Karsten Ottenberg – CEO of BSH Home Appliances, one of Europe’s biggest home appliance company. Dr Ottenberg’s team just launched Europe’s first smart kitchen accelerator.

Kyle Ransford – CEO of Chef’d, a meal kit company which made the FoodTech 25 because of its aggressive moves into the connected kitchen, grocery and office markets.

Robin Liss – CEO of Suvie (and founder of Reviewed.com). Robin, who helped build one of the leading review sites in the world, is now using that experience to build a multizone home cooking robot.

Ben Pote – Director of Culinary Innovation for Starbucks. Ben’s job is to bridge the gap between culinary operations and innovation for Starbucks Global Innovation team.

Brett Dibkey – GM, Integrated Business Units, Whirlpool. He helped engineer the acquisition of Yummly and is heavily focused on helping to create the digital strategy for one of the world’s biggest appliance manufacturers.

Joe Ray – Kitchen tech reviewer for Wired. Joe has developed a reputation for brutally honest reviews of new kitchen technology. You’ll definitely want to hear him on the art of the kitchen product review.

Fukata Masa – Director, Panasonic’s Game Changer Catapult. Fukata Masa is leading the team helping to create future-forward concepts for Japan’s biggest appliance manufacturer.

Lisa McManus – Executive Editor for America Test Kitchen’s Tasting & Testing team. Lisa is driving one of America’s most respected kitchen review editorial brands into the era of the future of food.

And can’t forget our resident celebrity chef, Top Chef All-Stars winner Richard Blais!

That’s just a sample, and we’ve got lots more to announce in coming weeks, so stay tuned.  You’ll want to make sure you pick up your ticket before early bird pricing expires at the end of June.

June 20, 2018

FoodPairing Unveils FlavorID, A New Tool for Taste Personalization

Of the overarching trends that emerged at the first ever Smart Kitchen Summit Europe last week in Dublin, a big one was personalization. At the reception the evening before the event, FoodPairing wow-ed the crowd with a robot that made cocktails based on people’s individual taste preferences (spicy, sweet, floral, herbal, etc.). We at the Spoon were pretty impressed with the boozy results — definitely something we’d order again.

The next day, at a panel on the new era of personalization in food, FoodPairing founder Johan Langenbick unveiled a new solution for individualized food recommendation. Dubbed FlavorID, their service draws from over 8,000 different aromas and taste molecules, as well as 600 dietary descriptors, to develop a sort of flavor fingerprint for each individual.

Since they launched in 2009, FoodPairing has been developing a digital flavor database (the world’s largest, according to their press release) based on the aromatic profiles of over 2,500 ingredients. By synching this tech with individual consumer’s behavior — such as food experiences, preferences, and genetic predispositions — they can create a specific flavor identity (or “passport,” as their website calls it) for each user. “FlavorID was the missing link in our technology stack and portfolio of solutions,” said Langenbick.

This new tool will be used to create hyper-personalized recipe suggestions, menu recommendations, and meal plans linked to health goals and dietary restrictions.

Langenbick explained that they planned to partner with 3rd party apps, such as smart kitchen appliances, e-grocery services, mHealth apps and more, to bring FlavorID’s recommendations to the consumer. This will make it free for consumers to use. While FlavorID will be embedded in these other services, Langenbick said that they will also have their own mobile app so that consumers can access and control their personal data.

So where will this data come from? “The first input is, of course the 3rd party application in which FlavorID is embedded,” said Langenbick. But he and his team are also exploring other sources which do not require actual data input or questionnaires, such as purchased goods history, as tools to build out individual taste profiles.

FoodPairing is currently piloting a few use cases for FlavorID and told The Spoon that they expect to announce their first partnerships soon. Whether or not the service lives up to its lofty goals of granular recommendations right from the get-go, however, it’s a strong indicator that food personalization will become more and more present in our daily lives. And more and more companies, from Flavorwiki to dishq to PlantJammer, are leveraging this trend as a tool to better predict what we want to eat.

I could see a future where everyone has a flavor “fingerprint,” which restaurants, grocery e-commerce sites, and food delivery services can access to give uber-personalized recommendations, something like the personal food profiles Mike wrote about last year. Maybe someday Amazon will be able to look at this fingerprint to predict exactly what you want for dinner — and then have corresponding groceries, meal kits, or straight-up food delivery waiting for you on the kitchen counter when you get home from work. Services like FlavorID could play a large role in these futuristic meal journeys.

June 18, 2018

Thoughts On Dublin: A Look Back At Smart Kitchen Summit Europe

We held the first Smart Kitchen Summit in an old cannery.

Part of the reason was it was affordable. Events are big investments, and we are in many ways a startup; when I founded SKS, it was just a crazy idea about getting the people who were working on the future of cooking and food together in the same place for a day and to start a conversation.

But to be honest, I also liked the idea of having an event about the future of cooking and the kitchen in a hundred-year-old building that had its roots in food. As nearly 300 people gathered between those exposed beams and brick walls to talk about the future back in November 2015,  we were reminded it’s necessary to be mindful of the past behaviors, traditions and cultures that have shaped our food experiences as we discussed how innovation will impact every aspect of the meal journey.

And so when we began planning to take SKS across the Atlantic, I thought what better place to hold our first European event than at Guinness Storehouse? The idea of talking about the future of food and drink in an iconic 20th-century brewery was exciting, but I also like the inherent tension of a place steeped in history while modernizing to create a better experience for the consumer.

In a way, it’s that tension between old and new that’s at the heart of the food tech and what makes it such an exciting space to explore, something we were reminded of last week in Dublin as the day unfolded.

The conversations, discussions and demonstrations made it clear that the future of food and the kitchen is still being established in diverse regions across Europe. Below are some key takeaways from the day – you can also check out some of the pictures from SKS Europe here.  And, if you’d like to connect with many of the same execs, make sure to attend our flagship event in Seattle on October 8-9th.

The Changing Meal Journey

“50 years ago, if you wanted to eat, you had to cook,” said the BBC’s LuLu Grimes on a panel discussing the reinvention of the recipe. “You don’t have to cook anymore.”

This is true. Whether it’s the abundance of food delivery options, more automated cooking technology or dining out, consumers today have many more options at their fingertips and will only have more in the future.

But what about using technology to get more of us into the kitchen? There was a general debate happening both on stage and over coffee on whether it was the job of technology to make cooking easier and more enjoyable or if tech could someday just take over the role of chef entirely. But the one question we kept revisiting was: how could innovation make cooking more approachable?

Chef Angela Malik at Smart Kitchen Summit Europe

According to chef Angela Malik, it’s by thinking more inclusively – we need to be making anything used for cooking or preparing food that can work with diverse ingredients and foods. Particularly in a region as diverse and varied as Europe, with a long list of cultures and traditions around food. Audiences will feel compelled and connected to an appliance or product that feels like it could fit into their lifestyle.

Other speakers felt the development of guided cooking will make preparing food at home less intimidating. Jon Jenkins of Hestan Smart Cooking talked about how the arrival of software and precision heating technologies will make cooking outcomes better, which ultimately will make people want to cook.

Personalization Will Drive The Kitchen Of The Future

Another recurring theme we heard during the day is new ways to create more personalized meal experiences are fast approaching.

Onlookers watch Tailor Made cocktail robot at SKS Europe opening reception

“Unearthing the right recipe for the right person at the right time is where technology is going,” said Kishan Vasani of Dishq.  Convenience is the end game, said Vasani, but with personalization at the center of it. Groups like FoodPairing and FlavorWiki are trying to capitalize on these trends by capturing data points about taste and flavor and creating algorithms that leverage data combined with personal preferences to create meals that have the right nutrition and the right flavors for you.

Food, Kitchen and Cooking Are Platform Opportunities

While big companies like Amazon and Google are creating broad horizontal platforms around AI, conversational interfaces and IoT, a number of companies see the unique and multi-varied nature of our relationship with food as an opportunity to create vertically focused platforms. Drop’s Ben Harris spoke about how the kitchen is the “heart of the home” and how they’ve built a company around focusing on the food making journey.  Innit’s Ankit Brahmbhatt spoke about how the beauty of the kitchen is it’s complicated and definitely not binary, which means there will never be just one solution to figure out the meal journey every day of the week.

Google’s Devvret Rishi, meanwhile, spoke about how Google has identified food as an important space and talked about how the company is working to find ways in which Google Assistant can be plugged into the meal journey.

Innovation Happening In Companies Big and Small

I always enjoy hearing about an entrepreneur’s journey, especially when it’s told with a little humor and lots of authenticity. Christian Lane recalled his roller coaster journey from the heady early days as the Dragon Den’s youngest-ever entrepreneur (19 years-old) to building the first prototype for what would eventually become Smarter with the last 90 pounds in his bank account after the crash of his first company.

Christian Lane talks about his entrepreneur journey into the smart kitchen

We also heard from the eight early-stage companies in our Startup Showcase. From AI-driven meal personalization apps like PlantJammer to hardware/food delivery service offerings like Mealhero, to the Showcase winning effort of Mitte which was focused on healthier & more efficient mineral water usage at home, it was inspiring to hear the stories of these driven innovators trying to bring change to the kitchen.

Whether its in a certain category or trying to create an entire ecosystem for the kitchen, innovation is not just small companies.  We heard from those responsible for driving change at Electrolux, BSH Appliances and V-Zug and how these companies are changing decades-old practices as they transition their business towards the digital kitchen. Mario Pieper who leads digital strategy at BSH Appliances (Bosch, Siemens, Gaggenau brands) talked about the importance of external *and* internal changes that must be addressed while legacy enterprise organizations work to keep up with the pace of disruption and the new players looking for partners and often times competition.

Similar to our first SKS in the U.S., kitchen appliance brands in Europe are eager to lead the conversation in the space, understanding the key role they play in the consumer kitchen but also recognizing the increasing role of digital content, connected platforms and grocery and home commerce brands. One startup founder during a networking break questioned why the larger grocery and retail chains were not on stage looking at how they plan to keep up with the future of food and the kitchen. “They aren’t sure what it means for them yet,” he remarked.

My guess is in the future they will be. Much like in Seattle and SKS Japan, I expect SKS Europe will continue to grow and incorporate more perspectives as we explore how the interlocking pieces across the entire food system recreate the meal journey. I hope to continue the conversation in Seattle and Japan and I hope you will join me.

June 12, 2018

SideChef Announces New Partnership with Appliance Company V-ZUG

Today, SideChef announced at Smart Kitchen Summit Europe that they will be launching a partnership with Swiss appliance company V-ZUG. They will provide smart software behind V-ZUG’s connected appliance lineup, providing cooking tools integrated into the brand’s products.

“We chose to work with V-ZUG because they have so much advanced, cutting-edge technology on the market, as well as unique products (like their connected oven),” said SideChef Founder and CEO Kevin Yu.

Director of Business Development for V-ZUG Manuel Faeh told us that they were excited for the SideChef partnership, which will add a smart digital layer to their products. “Devices are constantly adapting and changing,” he said. They hope that the partnership with SideChef will help them to do that.

“One unique part of this integration is the fact that we’re launching in China,” Yu said. Though the majority of SideChef’s staff is based in Shanghai, this will be their first product partnership to launch in Asia. And it’s just the beginning. “5000 of our 10k+ recipes are fully orderable through Amazon Fresh in the U.S.,” said Yu. “And we eventually want to build that out in China as well.”

SideChef is also integrated with smart devices from appliance companies LG and Sharp. In fact, they announced their partnership with appliance company Sharp at last year’s Smart Kitchen Summit Japan.

Want to be in the front row for more food technology and innovation announcements? Join us at the Smart Kitchen Summit in Seattle, October 9-10th. 

June 7, 2018

Are You a Food Tech Startup? Pitch at our Startup Showcase!

One of the best parts of attending the Smart Kitchen Summit is getting a front row seat to brand new technology and innovative products that are coming down the pipeline. The event’s startup showcase is now in its fourth year and invites all startups in the food tech and smart kitchen space to apply for a spot.

Details

The Startup Showcase is the perfect way to demonstrate the most innovative new ideas, products and companies reinventing food, cooking and the kitchen. If that sounds like you, apply today! Anyone with a working product that is either a late-stage working demo or actually shipping, and who will be able to attend the Summit this October in Seattle, is welcome to apply free of charge.

SKS organizers will select 15 startups as finalists who will be invited to the event to demo their product. In addition to an eager audience, finalists will also have a demo space in the heart of the main Summit event and a chance to pitch a panel of judges.

One of the final 15 will crowned the winner of the Startup Showcase on October 9th and will receive a $10,000 cash prize.

To apply, fill out the application and make your case for why you deserve to be a finalist – the more articles, photos, videos and compelling info you can provide on your product and company, the better your chances are of grabbing one of the coveted tables at the 2018 Smart Kitchen Summit.

Past Startup Showcases

The Startup Showcase in 2017 proved to one of the absolute highlights of the Smart Kitchen Summit; attendees poured in to see live demonstrations of a chai tea brewer, a smart kitchen assistant, a crepe-making robot, a connected pantry system, customizable ice pops, and more. Hydroponic gardening system Verdical ended up taking home the trophy — as well as a $10,000 prize.

The deadline for applications is August 17th.

June 5, 2018

Meet Angela Malik: Chef, Disruptor, and Food Tech Influencer

Angela Malik is the wearer of many hats. A self-described “food innovator and design thinker,” Malik has, throughout her career, worked in Michelin starred restaurants, launched her own cooking school focused on Asian cuisine, and consulted for corporate catering companies. She’s also currently part of the London Food Board, where she advises Mayor Sadiq Kahn on food strategy for the city.

Really, though, Malik is someone with a welcome (and underrepresented) voice in conversations around food innovation: she’s a professionally trained chef who fully embraces tech, and wants to use it to make what we eat more sustainable, more equitable, and more collaborative.

Malik will be presenting a 15-minute TED-style talk at Smart Kitchen Summit Europe in Dublin next week, but we spoke with Malik over on the SKS Europe blog so you can get to know this culinary engima.

P.S. Early Bird tickets are on sale now through June 30th for Smart Kitchen Seattle! Come join us on October 8-9th to join the conversation about the future of food and cooking. 

May 30, 2018

Q&A with Thomas Buerki, CEO of DigiMeals

It’s hard to believe, but Smart Kitchen Summit Europe is less than 2 weeks away! So it’s time to get to know another finalist who will be presenting at our Startup Showcase: DigiMeals.

Based in Zurich, Switzerland, DigiMeals creates custom digital interfaces to help users take advantage of smart kitchen tools — and help brands bridge the gap to connect with consumers. Their platform lets people surf and select recipes, order ingredients for through grocery delivery, and monitor their connected appliances.

Head to the SKS Europe blog to learn more about how DigiMeals is aiming to bring on the smart kitchen revolution, and the particularly tricky parts of getting a food tech startup off the ground.

And if you want to meet the DigiMeals team in person and see their tech in action, register for Smart Kitchen Summit Europe in Dublin on June 11-12th!

May 23, 2018

Q&A with Thomas Cooper, Founder of Grocery Replenishment Startup Pantri

We’ve got a brand new Q&A in our series to introduce this year’s talented crop of startup showcase finalists for Smart Kitchen Summit Europe. Next up is Thomas Cooper, founder of Pantri. They’ve developed a platform that connects your smart kitchen appliances to online retailers to optimize grocery replenishment. (So you’ll never run out of olive oil or paper towels ever again.)

Head to the SKS Europe blog to learn more about how Pantri is working to solve the trickiest problems in the grocery replenishment space, their DIY Amazon Dash-like button, and their plan to avoid startup death traps.

And if you want to meet the Pantri team in person and see their tech in action, register for Smart Kitchen Summit Europe in Dublin on June 11-12th!

May 18, 2018

Q&A with Michael Setton, CEO of Smart Grow System TipCrop

We’ve got a brand new Q&A in our series to introduce this year’s talented crop of startup showcase finalists for Smart Kitchen Summit Europe. Next up is Michael Setton, CEO of connected indoor grow system TipCrop. They’ve developed a smart lighting tool which lets growers — like chefs, urban farmers, and anyone with a spare bit of indoor space — to fine-tune environmental conditions so they can grow microgreens, herbs, and other produce with high levels of control.

Head to the SKS Europe blog to learn more about how TipCrop is using machine learning to facilitate indoor farming, educate kids about plants, and even control how fragrant your basil is.

And if you want to meet the TipCrop team in person and see their tech in action, register for Smart Kitchen Summit Europe in Dublin on June 11-12th!

 

May 16, 2018

COO of Lecker Labs, Makers of Yomee, Talks Crowdfunding Success

Since we announced the 8 finalists in our SKS Europe Startup Showcase last week, we’ve launched a series of Q&A’s to introduce this year’s talented crop of food innovators. Next up is Anindya Roy, COO of Lecker Labs, producer of Yomee.

Lecker Labs got their start at the food tech accelerator program FoodX and before launching a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign for Yomee, a countertop appliance which combines milk (and milk alternatives) with branded probiotic pods to create chilled yogurt in 6 hours.

Head to the SKS Europe blog to read our Q&A with Roy and learn more about the inspiration behind Yomee, the startup’s biggest challenges, and the secret to their crowdfunding success.

If you want to meet Anindya and more of the Yomee team in person and see them demo their countertop yogurt maker, register for SKS Europe in Dublin on June 11-12th!

 

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