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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

smart kitchen

WePlenish Launches Kickstarter For Amazon Dash-Powered Grocery Reordering Container

You know that searing anger and frustration you feel when you think you have one more coffee pod (or energy bar, or teabag) left, but instead you’re greeted with an empty container? Meaning you either have to a) do without, or b) hightail it to the store and hope you’re not late for work?

WePlenish wants to make sure that terrible experience never happens to you again. The Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based startup has developed an IoT-enabled container which uses sensors and WiFi to automatically reorder pantry staples through an integration with Amazon’s Dash Replenishment service platform. Yesterday they launched a Kickstarter to try and raise $50,000 for their minimum viable product (MVP), dubbed ‘the Java Smart Container.’

When you receive a smart container, you’ll download the WePlenish app and enter in your chosen product for the container — anything from K-cups to snack bars is fair game. WePlenish then uses their patent-pending volume measuring technology to keep track of how full the container is at all times.

When the supply drops below 25%, they send you a Push notification to make sure they’re good to go ahead and reorder. At this point, you have a choice to stop the order or add extra items to your delivery.

As you use it, the smart containers also use a Nest-like algorithm to learn your consumption patterns. But WePlenish does have safety nets in place, so they can trigger an order even if you have relatives in town who are depleting your coffee supply at a much faster rate than normal.

So are WePlenish’s smart containers that much more useful or efficient than other grocery reordering methods? Using Amazon Dash buttons and voice assistants is easy, sure — but you still have to do something. “They require the user to take action, to remember to place the order,” WePlenish co-founder Ro Grosman told The Spoon. The Java Smart Container takes you out of the equation entirely.

“We believe that the smart home technology should work for you. The automation should be seamless,” said Grosman. Which means, if their product works well enough, customers won’t have to think about it at all. “We want people to almost forget about it and let it order for them,” he emphasized. 

Of course, seamless automated ordering is what Amazon had in mind with their integrated, in-device replenishment platform.  The question is — for WePlenish and Amazon’s Dash platform — do you need an IoT-powered device to reorder for you, or would it be better to simply create a “subscription” through Amazon or other providers to ship to you on the regular (Amazon being Amazon, they have both bases covered).

Some will remember WePlenish from a 2016 Amazon announcement about a new crop of Dash Replenishment Service partners. The company was one of a handful of companies that Amazon had signed up to integrate Dash, and while Amazon has since put much of its focus in the intervening time period on voice ordering with the runaway success of Alexa, there are companies like WePlenish still pushing forward with Amazon’s integrated re-ordering platform.

WePlenish is Grosman’s second startup. Prior to WePlenish, Grosman founded a company called GoDataFeed in 2007, which is an ecommerce multichannel marketing platform. He still serves as executive chairmen. WePlenish and GoDataFeed are closely tied through a technology backend as well as through some employees; according to Grosman, he started WePlenish with a few GoDataFeed employees and has since grown the newer company to about 20 employees.

WePlenish isn’t the only food tech startup edging in on the grocery replenishment space. British company Pantri (finalist in the Smart Kitchen Europe startup showcase) is developing a maker platform to connect smart appliances with grocery delivery companies, and PantryChic (a SKS 2015 Startup Showcase veteran) has a patented system which stores, dispenses, and reorders dry pantry goods like flour and sugar.

Despite the name of their inaugural product, Grosman says they anticipate that their containers will be used for a lot more than just coffee. “Our goal is to moderate the entire pantry,” he said — and beyond. Grosman told The Spoon that WePlenish plans to eventually offer in-fridge grocery ordering. 

The Java Smart Container, which has already entered into production (a good sign for those leery of Kickstarter hardware fails), will be available on Amazon this fall for $39.99, but early backers can snag one for $20 through Kickstarter. According to Grosman, WePlenish has about twenty total employees and is largely self-funded, but he did say the company has taken an undisclosed amount of private investment.

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!

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!

 

Guided Cooking Is Now A Resort Amenity

Want to learn how to cook on vacation? Now you can, courtesy of Hestan Cue and Vista Collina resort.

The guided cooking company recently hooked up with Vista Collina to offer the Cue as an amenity in all 39 of the Napa Valley resort’s suites. The Cues in-room go beyond off the shelf features with a customized flourish for guests of the resort:

“Inside your suite, the Hestan Cue Smart Cooking System, featuring instructional videos by the resort’s own Chef Vincent Lesage, stands ready to bring your ingredients–and Napa Valley dish–to life.”

The concept of offering cooking guidance customized for in-resort guests is interesting one. With the hospitality market facing increased competition from home-share platforms like Airbnb, resorts and hotels are looking for new ways to attract guests. By offering in-room cooking and cooking education with the Cue, resorts can entice guests who see cooking as a relaxation activity.

While I don’t think the Cue would be a good fit for the local Holiday or Hampton Inn, a Napa Valley resort seems like a logical place to road test the concept of guided-cooking-as-amenity since guests are likely to have ample leisure time and on the lookout for things to do.

The deal is also interesting in that it shows Hestan expanding into the leisure channel. Consumer markets often take time to develop due to the need for market education and long replacement cycles, so newer channels such as leisure or education (think cooking classes) could be a good place for forward-concept products in an early stage of the market. And by offering customization capabilities that feature a destination’s personality (such a resort’s in-house chef), Hestan Cue has shown itself as a platform for differentiated amenities for hotels and resorts looking to go beyond in-room Wi-Fi.

Food Tech News Roundup: Grocery E-Commerce, Food Fraud & Cooking Robot Goes Beta

Food tech news time! We had quite a few updates on the Spoon this week, too. Chris Albrecht launched a brand new podcast about food-related robots and AI called The Spoon: Automat — give it a listen! We also announced the details of our next food tech meetup: The Future of Meat. Tickets are free, so if you’re in the Seattle area we hope to see you there. And finally, we’re just a little over a month out from heading to the legendary Guinness Storehouse for SKS Europe, so if you want to network with the top leaders defining the future of food, make sure to get tickets before they’re gone.

Now, grab a second cup of coffee and take a look at these noteworthy food tech news stories from around the web.

Photo: Flickr.

Alibaba hops on the blockchain train
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is rolling out a pilot program to combat food fraud in China using everyone’s favorite buzzword these days: blockchain. They’ll initially target food products from Australia and New Zealand that are sold in their Tmall online marketplace, China’s largest open B2C platform.

According to the Australian Financial Review, just two items are part of the pilot program: something in the dairy family and a fish oil supplement. If successful, Alibaba will expand the initiative and try to crack down on food fraud worldwide.

Blockchain is not a perfect cure-all for food fraud. It may be incorruptible, but it doesn’t guarantee that those inputting the provenance and quality of each food item are telling the truth. Other companies, such as Ripe.io and Inscatech, have nonetheless been working on establishing blockchain for food. But this move by Alibaba is on a different level; it’s giving some transparency — and responsibility — to one of the largest e-commerce suppliers in the world.

 

Photo: Klue.

Tech company introduces responsive wearables for nutrition tracking
This week Klue, a technology company developing an OS focused on behavior change, announced partnerships with Stanford University and Crossover Health (a healthcare company) to further their program on shifting consumer eating and drinking patterns.

They also promised to reveal their first wearable technology by May 7. We’ve written about Klue before on the Spoon, but that was when their tech synced up to compatible wearables; now, they’re about to unveil their own. Their press release said that the wearables will harness AI to track wrist movements and determine how much — and how fast — consumers are eating and drinking. According to their press release, they’ll then provide “personalized, real-time micro-nudges on dietary behavior modification,” encouraging wearers to make healthier consumption choices like eating more slowly, staying hydrated or avoiding late-night snacking.

While we’re not exactly sure what a “micro-nudge” is, it seems like this could lead to some literally hand-slapping when you reach for that second cookie. But Klue’s products are also very much in line with two big consumer food trends that have been on the up-and-up: personalization and dynamic nutrition services.

 

Photo: Instacart.

Instacart announces plans for $40M support center
This week Instacart said that it had plans to build a Customer Support Center in Atlanta — with a $40 million price tag. The new center will have a staff of 400, and will complete the construction and hiring process over the next two years, according to FoodDive.

With their latest expansions — including new deals with Costco, Albertson’s, and Sam’s club — plus a recent $150 million funding round, Instacart will no doubt need some serious customer support to help with new client onboarding and delivery organization. We made the claim that if they wanted to beat Amazon the grocery delivery company would have to both expand and innovate — maybe this new service center will help them achieve both of these goals while keeping their customers and suppliers happy.

 

Photo: Whole Foods

Amazon ups Whole Foods perks
Speaking of groceries, this week Amazon amped up Whole Foods perks for Prime members in an attempt to get them to shop more often at the grocery store. Most prominently, Prime members will get an additional 10% discount off of already discounted products.

According to CNBC, roughly 75% of Whole Foods shoppers are Amazon Prime members, but only 20% of Prime members shop at Whole Foods. These perks could help the grocery store move away from its reputation as “Whole Paycheck” and capture Amazon’s Prime members, who value convenience and a good deal.

 


Plant-based protein drink company raises $1.1M
This week protein drink startup Après raised $1.1 million seed round led by Rocana Venture Partners. According to BevNet, the company targets women as the core consumers for their plant-based protein shakes — each of which contains 180 -190 calories and 13 grams of protein.

While plant-based protein drinks made of almond or soy have been around for a while, this is one of the first drinks to market itself purely as a protein beverage — and to emphasize that it’s made of plants. Après’recent funding round indicates that plant-based protein’s popularity has expanded way beyond “chicken” nuggets and burgers. And if consumer trends hold true, the market for plant-based protein will continue to grow over the coming years. So we’ll probably be seeing it pop up more often — and a lot more prominently — in a lot of different food categories.

A user prepares food for the Oliver cooking chambers

Else Labs opens up beta testing for cooking robot Oliver

We’ve followed cooking robot startup Else Labs ever since they appeared as part of our Startup Showcase at the Smart Kitchen Summit, so we were intrigued to hear they’ve opened up beta testing for their cooking robot Oliver.  The company, which is raised $1.8 million through the Qatar Development Bank last summer, announced they were looking for beta testers via email.

Live in North America and want to beta test an Oliver? Apply here. If you live outside of North America, you may have to wait a while longer, as the company states via its beta tester survey this round of beta testing will be in “selected cities in North America.”

Always Wanted to Try a Blowtorch? With Cheffer, You Can Rent One

If you love gadgets as much as we do at the Spoon, your kitchen counter space is at a premium. Sure, you may want to try that blowtorch or sous vide circulator, but a cooking gadget addiction can end up costing you a lot in terms of space and money.

Boston-based startup Cheffer is here to solve that problem. Started in December 2017, they let you rent kitchen gadgets for a small fee, much like Rent the Runway lets you rent high-end clothing for a fraction of the price.

Interested folk can peruse Cheffer’s online catalog of kitchen appliances, which runs the gamut from versatile equipment staples, like KitchenAids or Vitamixes, to more niche gadgets, like pizza stones or home beer brewing kits. Each tool on the list has been vetted by their in-house chef, so users know they’re getting the best possible brand and version. Once they make their selection, Cheffer will deliver the appliance — as long as they’re within 20 miles of the Boston area. For a small fee, users can request a chef to come into their home to help set up the gadget and give a lesson on how it works.

Cheffer’s online catalog.

After their rental period is finished, someone from Cheffer will come pick up the appliance and take it back to their warehouse for a thorough cleaning before it can be rented again. If customers fall in love and decide that they want to keep their gadget, they can purchase it from Cheffer for a prorated fee, depending on how much they paid to rent it. 

Most rental periods are three days and users pay a rental fee which varies depending on the gadget. For example, a KitchenAid would cost $15 per day, while a pizza stone would only be $7 per day. 

Cheffer has ambitions to be a lot more than just a simple kitchen appliance rental service, however. “We try to focus on the experience of cooking rather than just renting,” said founder Lina Mamut.

A big part of that is Cheffer’s recipe component. The startup has a professional chef on staff to develop recipes that go along with each appliance. Immediately after customers book a gadget rental through the Cheffer catalog, they’ll get an email in their inbox with recipe suggestions based on their cooking skill level and dietary registrations — two fields they fill out during registration. So, for example, if you’re a novice cook that just became a vegan and you’re renting a sous vide circulator, Cheffer would send you relatively simple vegan recipes to make with that tool. As of now, they have a database of over 500 recipes. 

Strawberry Dacquoise made with a Cheffer-rented KitchenAid.

Mamut told us that they’re also planning on developing an app that will focus more on cooking than appliance rental. It will most likely include tutorials instructing users how to best cook with their rented gadgets. Eventually, they hope to build in a recipe progression which will build in difficulty, teaching people basic cooking skills.

Mamut, who used to work at a tech startup in NYC that focused on AI and automation, is even playing around with the idea of a holographic chef that would walk users through recipes. (If you were at the Smart Kitchen Summit last year, this concept might sound familiar.)

She’s working on an algorithm to help streamline Cheffer’s operations. She’s currently gathering information on what times of day people rent gadgets, in which neighborhoods, and what kinds of dishes they’re cooking with them. Once they have enough, they’ll be able to better predict what type of recipes to develop, as well as which appliances to purchase for which markets.

It’s too soon to say for sure if Cheffer can achieve these lofty ambitions, but they’ve certainly come about at the right time. More millennials are cooking at home than any other generation. At the same time, as we discussed at our Future of Recipes food tech meetup, convenience is key. Cheffer’s concept is an easy, low-risk way for people to get a little more adventurous in the kitchen, without having to do anything more difficult than peruse an online catalog.

While some gadgets aren’t that pricey to straight-up buy (a small blowtorch will run you about $20 on Amazon), Cheffer is a good way to test out if you actually want to add it to your cooking arsenal before you commit. It’s also a helpful service for those with low kitchen confidence; by providing customized recipe suggestions and the option of having a chef demo each product, Cheffer doesn’t just drop off a gadget and leave you to it. Which also means it might not be the most helpful service for experienced home cooks who know which kitchen tools they want and how to use them.

Cheffer is bootstrapped and currently has 6 people on staff, including delivery drivers. They’re in the process of launching a prototype in Boston, but they’re planning to expand to NYC and other cities on the Eastern Seaboard by the end of 2018. I for one can’t wait until they make it to Seattle so I can finally indulge my inner kitchen gadget dilettante without breaking the bank.

Talking Sustainable Kitchen Innovation with Electrolux’s David Cronström

Over the past few years, appliance brands large and small have begun to stake their claim on the smart kitchen market. One that’s been especially active is Electrolux; in 2015 the company launched a smart steam oven with a connected camera, and they acquired sous vide company Anova in February of 2017.

In preparation for SKS Europe this June in Dublin, we spoke with David Cronström, their Head of Strategy and Ecosystems, about the future of smart kitchens, what connectivity means to him, and his favorite pasta dish (hint: it has truffles).

Read the full Q&A on our Smart Kitchen Summit blog. If you want to hear Cronström speak in person about creating sustainable innovation, get tickets to see him at SKS Europe in Dublin on June 11-12th!

Video: CNET’s Ashlee Clark Thompson on Her Best Cooking Gadgets

We at The Spoon have long been fans of Ashlee Clark Thompson, Associate Editor at CNet and hilarious twitter poster. (You may have seen her on stage at last year’s Smart Kitchen Summit talking about the future of food.)

Like us, Thompson is fascinated by the smart kitchen market. “The kitchen has become the center of the home,” she said. “We’re seeing all these screens pop up everywhere. For me, as a person that loves to cook, that’s exciting. But it’s also a little scary, because I want products that will last.”

Chris Albrecht caught up with Thompson at this year’s Housewares Show Smart Home Pavillion to debrief about said products. Check out the video to see Albrecht and Clark Thompson discuss the best cooking gadgets to invest in, their hesitations about connected products, and how tech can make us better cooks.

CNET at the IHA Smart Talks Theater

Interested in hearing more about the Smart Kitchen Summit? Our first European event is coming up June 11-12th in Dublin, and we’ll be returning to Seattle for our fourth year in October.  

Smarter CEO Christian Lane Coming To SKS Europe

At the age of 19, Christian Lane became the youngest person to ever pitch for investment on British TV’s Dragons’ Den, on which he won an investment from Dragon Theo Paphitis.

Back then, Lane was pitching a foldable stationary product called Foldio, but nowadays he’s the CEO of a company building products to make the kitchen smarter and more connected.

Lane’s company, Smarter, launched their first product — a WiFi-enabled kettle — back in 2013, and their latest product is a retrofit fridge cam that lets you remotely check what’s in your fridge via mobile phone.

How did Lane build a startup in the connected kitchen? That’s what he’ll tell us at Smart Kitchen Summit Europe on June 12th at the Guinness Storehouse. You can buy your tickets here.

See you in Dublin. 

Guided Cooking Trend Continues Momentum In 2018

Two years ago at the Housewares Show in Chicago, I saw the emergence of a new trend called guided cooking. At the show, companies like Cuciniale, Oliso and Hestan Cue showed off early efforts to combine sensors, software, precision heating and content in an orchestrated experience that guides home cooks through the creation of a meal.

As I said of my effort to make salmon with the Hestan Cue, using a guided cooking system for the first time was something of a revelation:

“…this combination of the pan, burner and app and the guidance system they had built that really led me to see the possibilities around this new category. I am not a great cook by any stretch of the imagination, but I cooked one of the tastiest pieces of salmon I’ve ever had in about 20 minutes. The experience was enabled through technology, but the technology didn’t take me out of the experience of cooking. Further, I can see as I gain more confidence using a system like this, I can choose to “dial down” the guidance needed from the system to the point I am largely doing most of the cooking by myself (though I don’t know if I’d ever get rid of the automated temperature control, mostly because I’m lazy and it gives me instant “chef intuition).”

Fast forward a couple of years and the guided cooking trend continues to gain momentum. A number of companies talked up new guided cooking platforms at CES in January, from big appliance makers like Whirlpool and LG to big tech platform providers like Google and Amazon.

And at the Housewares show in Chicago this week, guided cooking was everywhere. Hestan Cue, now shipping, was on display this week in the Smart Home pavilion. iCuisine, a startup that utilizes a modular sensor to connect to everyday kitchen tools to a guided cooking app, had its own take on step-by-step cooking instruction. Vorwerk’s Thermomix showed off their all-in-one multicooker with built-in guidance and talked about the company’s online recipe platform, the Cookidoo.

Over at the Gourmia booth, the prolific maker of low-cost connected cooking devices showed off a variety of connected devices, including a Thermomix-like multicooker with built-in cooking guidance. The company’s head of product told me the Gourmia multicooker will eventually act as a smart kitchen hub that enables cross-device cooking orchestration with other Gourmia appliances. As I left the booth, celebrity chef Cat Cora was performing a cooking demo in the booth and talking about the concept of smart recipes.

Gourmia’s Thermomix clone (currently only available in Europe)

Chefman, another maker of low-cost connected cooking appliances, showed off its sous vide cooking app with newly integrated guided cooking capabilities at the show, and a company spokesperson told me the company plans to add guided cooking to all of their connected cooking appliances this year.

Meanwhile at SXSW (which annoyingly was at the same time as the Housewares Show this year), Innit announced the release of Google Assistant functionality within the Innit app they first demoed at CES. With Google Assistant, a home cook can navigate the Innit app’s guided cooking features via voice. According to company COO Josh Sigel, the release marks the first third party app which is completely controllable via Google Assistant.

Of course, like any new trend, there will be hits and misses as products roll out. Early reviews of the Tasty One Top have been somewhat subpar, while my experiences with some of the early Amazon video cooking skills have been hobbled by lack of YouTube integration and the early stage of cooking capabilities in their Alexa skill API.

All that said, I think we can expect lots more in the guided cooking space as 2018 unfolds. I saw a slew of products in Chicago under embargo that are slated for later this year that offer new approaches to guided cooking, and there will no doubt more guided cooking products being developed in stealth that should see the light of day at IFA and Smart Kitchen Summit.

Bottom line: what started as a trend a couple years ago is fast becoming a central theme for appliance makers big and small, making 2018 a big big year for guided cooking.

Hearst Unveils Visual Guided Recipe Skill for Amazon Echo

Alexa, let’s have Pancetta Chicken for dinner.

Last month, publisher Hearst expanded its Amazon Echo- and Spot-enabled Good Housekeeping skill to include connected recipes. Dubbed Good Housekeeping Test Kitchen, the skill provides simple “meal ideas” that can be thrown together in 30 minutes or less. The recipes will be curated by Susan Westmoreland, food director of Good Housekeeping, and, in addition to being speedy, are said to be easy to execute.

Previously, the Good Housekeeping skill only included step-by-step advice to remove stains. (Don’t worry—it can still help you get out that wine spill from your carpet.)

With the Good Housekeeping skill, users can select a recipe based on a photo and short description (or tell Alexa to do it for them). The smart display then provides a step-by-step guide through the recipe. Users can swipe around to see more recipes, skip ahead in the steps, and reference the ingredients. They can also use voice commands like “Alexa, tell Good Housekeeping to continue” if they want to move forward in the recipe but don’t want to touch the screen with, say, raw chicken hands.

Hearst’s expansion into recipes isn’t exactly surprising. At the end of 2016, the media company took a big leap into the realms of AI and AR by establishing the Native and Emerging Technologies (NET) group, which focuses heavily on voice-activated experiences for virtual assistants and smartphones.

This new skill speaks (literally) towards the growing role of voice assistants in the connected household, and the kitchen in particular. “We’re raising the stakes from what a user can expect [in terms of] information and utility from these devices,” Chris Papaleo, executive director of emerging technology at Hearst, told AdWeek. Which is something we’ve predicted but haven’t seen developed in as big a way as we’d thought—yet.

Photo: AdWeek

It also brings us one step closer to the integration of recipes (and other food media) and AI-enabled voice technology.

We’ve seen a voice-enabled smart kitchen assistant before with Freshub, which lets users add items to their shopping carts using voice commands. Then, at last year’s Smart Kitchen Summit, Emma Persky, who runs point on the Google Assistant’s guided cooking team, talked about Google’s work combining recipe content with their voice-enabled AI platform by offering video aids for recipe steps (say, sautéeing an onion). And Amazon’s 2016 partnership with AllRecipes allowed users to access voice-guided cooking instructions of their 60,000-strong recipe database.

But by combining recipes on a visual display with voice-enabled controls—albeit simplistic ones like telling it to move to the next step—this new skill from Good Housekeeping is the first time that virtual assistants have really entered the hands-free recipes zone in a synched-up visual and auditory way. While the Google Assistant can show you a video of how to sauté an onion if you’re stuck, it doesn’t have a connected visual element that takes you through each step of the recipe, since it relies almost entirely on voice guidance. This is nice since you don’t have to add another piece of equipment to your virtual assistant lineup, but not as helpful when you’re wondering how small the recipe wants you to dice your pancetta.

With this new skill, Hearst is betting on more voice assistants expanding into smart displays and a corresponding need for more visual content in the sphere. As the number and popularity of voice assistants grow and become a more commonplace part of consumers’ homes, I imagine we’ll see a lot more skills aimed at facilitating the home cooking process, from expanded shoppable recipe applications to visual cooking aids.

As of now, the Test Kitchen skill doesn’t have a sponsor. But with so many large companies trying to carve out a space in the trending foodtech world, it seems only a matter of time before a big-name recipe site or even CPG brand (who have been trying to get into foodtech in any way they can) snags the title.

The success (or lack thereof) of this skill could indicate where we are in that process.

 

Video: Will Software Change the Way We Cook? (Hint: Yes)

What do you think software tastes like?

According to Jon Jenkins, Director of Technology at Hestan Smart Labs (the company behind the Hestan Cue), it tastes like consistency. In this video from the Smart Kitchen Summit, Jenkins explains how software can revolutionize the way that home cooks use recipes, eliminating human error to help them achieve the same high-quality results every time—just like a restaurant.

Jenkins has a seasoned background in both hardware and software. He cut his teeth at Amazon and Pinterest building software around personalization before he “caught the hardware bug” in 2014. Shortly afterward, he joined the team at Hestan Smart Cooking, the company behind guided cooking system Hestan Cue.

During his talk, Jenkins posed some interesting questions:

  • Why don’t recipes look exactly the same every time, no matter who cooks them?
  • How do we reduce variability and eliminate human error in the kitchen?
  • Why can’t home cooks have the same level of output consistency that you’d find at a Thomas Keller restaurant?

The answer to all of these queries, as you might have guessed, is software. Watch the video to see Jenkins make some bold assertions about the future of recipes, crack a few jokes, and explain how software will change the way the way we cook in the future.

Want to rub shoulders with innovators in the future of food and cooking? We – and Hestan Cue’s Jon Jenkins – will be in Dublin on June 11th-12th for our first Smart Kitchen Summit Europe. We hope to see you there!