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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Tyler Florence

Video: Tyler Florence Advocates for “Choose-Your-Own-Adventure” Cooking through Tech

Last year at the Smart Kitchen Summit, chef Tyler Florence made waves when he proclaimed that “the recipe is dead.”

This year he returned to the SKS stage for a fireside chat with Michael Wolf to discuss the evolving role of recipes — and the home cook — in the tech-enabled kitchen.

His new take is that recipes aren’t dead, they’re just like vinyl records or paper maps — nostalgic and practical, but antiquated. Down the road cooking will be all about personalization and “choose-your-own-adventure” food experiences, which will give us, according to Florence, “a higher creativity rate than we’ve ever had.”

Watch the video below to hear this celebrity chef’s vision for the future of cooking.

The Connected Chef

To Video, and Beyond: The Future Recipe For Media, Food & Cooking

Question: What do you get when you take a celebrity chef, a video content creator, a food magazine legend, and a futurist, give them microphones, and put them on a stage?

Answer: This panel on the evolving food media space from the 2018 Smart Kitchen Summit.

Unlike a media room with a sofa and bean bag chair, the kitchen is a space for participatory media: guided cooking videos, voice assistants, or printed recipes. Former Editor in Chief of Food & Wine Dana Cowin sat down with Project Foodie’s Eli Holzman, chef Tyler Florence, and forward-thinking inventor/futurist Dhairya Dand to explore how new (and old) media can combine storytelling and utility to help people cook better, and have more fun doing it. Watch the video below to hear how these tastemakers, with very diverse entry points into the food world, see the role of media in the smart kitchen space.

Fusion Cooking: The Future Recipe For Media, Food & Cooking

Look out for more videos of the panels, solo talks, and fireside chats from SKS 2018! We’ll be bringing them to you hot and fresh out the (smart) kitchen over the next few weeks.

SKS Re-Heat: Tyler Florence has Written His Last Cookbook

With our Smart Kitchen Summit in Seattle just a few weeks away (Ed. note: Ack! So much to do to get ready), we thought it would be a good idea to revisit a moment that lit up the stage last year.

During his fireside chat last year, celebrity chef Tyler Florence made news when he said he had written his last cookbook, and that he believed “recipes are dead.” In their place, Florence said, the future of home cooking would be more micro-content that you could mix and match based on what you have. You can watch his whole talk in the video below.

While we appreciate his bold, headline-making statement, we didn’t agree with Florence (neither did Milk Street’s Christopher Kimball), and if you read The Spoon regularly, you’ll know we think the recipe is more alive than ever, transforming into a robust discovery and e-commerce platform.

We’re happy to say that Tyler Florence is returning to the Smart Kitchen Summit stage this October. He’ll be talking with Mike Wolf about The Connected Chef and I’m sure Wolf will throw in a question or two about the role of recipes in the connected kitchen.

To get ready for Florence’s (as well as a ton of other great industry leaders‘) appearance at the Smart Kitchen Summit next month, watch his presentation from last year. Then get your tickets and see him for yourself in Seattle.

Tyler Florence and Amanda Gold at the Smart Kitchen Summit 2017 from The Spoon on Vimeo.

Innit Launches its Connected Cooking App

Innit, the connected food platform, today released its iOS app, which the company hopes will become a GPS in the kitchen by letting users control different smart appliances and customize the meals they prepare.

The Innit app is a Swiss army knife of sorts, with tools to help you through the entire cooking process: automatically create shopping lists, get instructional videos for how to prepare each meal and control smart appliances directly from your phone.

Connects to multiple kitchen platforms
Learn good technique
Customize a recipe
Ingredients you’ll use
Prep times
Works with GE and Bosch right now
From shopping to cooking

A big selling point for the app is that it works with multiple connected kitchen platforms. Innit currently works with GE Appliances and Bosch Home Connect devices, and says it has partnerships with Philips Kitchen Appliances, Perfect Company and Chef’d, though details of those deals won’t be made available until early next year.

Innit also partnered with celebrity chef Tyler Florence to create content for the platform. Florence declared at our recent Smart Kitchen Summit that he had written his last cookbook and that the recipe is dead. Those old school forms of instruction, Florence said, will be replaced by the types of micro-content that the Innit App provides.

So it’s a little surprising when you open the app and are greeted by a list of recipes. Though tapping on them reveals what Florence was talking about. I selected a chicken wrap recipe and was immediately given the option to customize various elements, presumably based on what items I already had in my kitchen. This chicken wrap could, for example, be made with flank steak or fish.

From there, Innit walks you through the prep with the ingredients you’ll need (which can be turned into a shopping list), as well as phone-friendly, narrator-less, close up videos of how to chop, mix and cook each ingredient.

We’ll be providing a more in-depth look at the app in a future post. For the curious, Innit for iOS is available today, though at the time of this writing, you could only access by visiting innit.com and receiving a texted link.

The Recipe Isn’t Dead. In Fact, It’s Becoming The Center of Action In The Digital Kitchen

At last month’s Smart Kitchen Summit, celebrity chef Tyler Florence said: “the recipe is dead.”

Needless to say, it’s a bold statement. There’s no doubt that Florence is right to suggest that things are changing quickly in the age of Tasty cooking videos and that the time-worn practice of looking up recipes in cookbooks is something people are doing less every day.

But if today’s news about another Amazon integration with a popular online recipe site is any indication, I’d suggest the recipe is far from dead. In fact, it looks more and more like the recipe is becoming the center of action in the digital-powered kitchen.

And it’s not just Amazon that likes the idea of shoppable recipes. Companies like Northfork have integrated with the some of Europe’s biggest grocers to enable recipe-driven shopping, while big players like Google are building guided cooking recipe capabilities into their virtual assistant platforms.

Then there are AI-centric startups looking to take the recipe and add extra intelligence to it to make things more personalized and interactive. Companies like Wellio, Chefling and Pylon.AI are doing interesting work here.

Then there’s the recipe itself becoming fused with connected cooking hardware. Everyone from one of the world’s largest cookware companies in Hestan to the world’s biggest appliance maker in Whirlpool to cookbook disruptor Tasty are creating recipe-guided hardware.

And finally, if technology-driven integrations and one columnist’s opinion aren’t enough to convince you, there’s always old-school chefs like Christopher Kimball (check out our podcast!) who think the recipe has a long life ahead of it.

So no, the recipe is not so much dead as evolving. Instead, as our recipes become digitized and more connected, they’re becoming the center of action in the connected kitchen.

As Jon Jenkins suggested at last month’s Smart Kitchen Summit, software isn’t only eating the world, but we are eating software. That software includes whatever the recipe is becoming which, in short, is probably just better, more evolved version of the recipe.

Tyler Florence has Written His Last Cookbook (Because Smart Kitchen!)

Cookbooks are a thing of the past for Tyler Florence. Though the celebrity chef has penned 16 cookbooks (and 20,000 recipes), Florence proclaimed “I believe recipes are dead” from the stage of our recent Smart Kitchen Summit.

Instead, Florence believes that the connected kitchen, along with machine learning, will usher in a new era of “micro cooking content” that in effect turns the recipe inside out, and he’s joined up with tech company Innit to make that happen.

Traditionally, recipes are top down dictating what you need to get in order to make a standardized meal. Florence and Innit have been stealthily working on an app (due out this December) that instead starts with what you already have and customizes the cooking for you.

In the app, you’ll be able to select the protein you have, the sauce you want, the vegetable you have as well as a carbohydrate. From there, Florence has created thousands of hours of video cooking footage and the app algorithmically searches through all this content and stitches together a guide on demand.

You should listen to his full talk (presented here) from the session, as Florence seems to really get how kitchen tech can fundamentally shift the way everyday people can become better cooks. He’s also forward thinking, musing about the role voice assistants and artificial intelligence will play in crafting meals that are tailored to your tastes without demanding too much of your time.

Hot Off The Press From #SmartKitchen17

We were lucky to have an incredible cadre of journalists at the Smart Kitchen Summit this year, many of them joining on stage as panelists and moderators. Including the event itself, we saw coverage of several company announcements that happened at SKS from groups like Kenmore and NutriBullet.

Here’s a quick highlight reel and some stories to read more about what happened at this year’s Summit:

SmartBrief highlighted the discussions around the future of food retail & grocery, saying:

“The future of food was the overarching topic of discussion at the Smart Kitchen Summit last week in Amazon’s backyard, Seattle, Wash., and while many sessions honed in on new appliances in the consumer kitchen and new technologies to make cooking easier, one session focused on the future of grocery. Focusing on the consumer and how their behavior, demands and perceptions have changed to influence the industry today, Erik Wallin, co-founder of Northfork, a Sweden-based personal shopper service for retailers; Josh Sigel, COO of Innit; and Mike Lee, founder of The Future Market, a forecasting agency that builds concept products and experiences to imagine what the world of food will look like in the next 10-25 years, spoke about the challenges and opportunities that technology represents for the food retail industry.”

Digital Trends covered several new product announcements at SKS, including GE FirstBuild’s introduction of precision bakeware and NutriBullet’s new smart blender.

From the FirstBuild announcement:

“While it won’t be ready for Thanksgiving at your relatives’ abode, GE Appliances and FirstBuild will soon release a line of smart Precision Bakeware — pans that alert you when the brownies are done via an app. FirstBuild was at the Smart Kitchen Summit in Seattle this week to announce the new products. There are smart pans, ovens, and grills, but this is one of the few pieces of the connected kitchen focused on baking.”

From the NutriBullet story:

NutriBullet, along with Perfect Company, wants to make keeping tabs on nutrition a bi”t more seamless with its new NutriBullet Balance blender. The smart blender — introduced this week at the Smart Kitchen Summit in Seattle — has an accompanying app and integrated scale and can recommend recipes based on what you like and your diet.”

CNET’s Ashlee Clark Thompson was on hand not only to moderate a stellar panel on the role of the display (countertop, on fridges, etc) will play on video content for the kitchen, she was also cranking out stories for CNET on announcements like Kenmore’s lineup of smart kitchen appliances. From the piece:

“Kenmore, the appliance brand owned by Sears, has strengthened its ties to Amazon. Its new line of internet-connected refrigerators will work with the Alexa voice-activated digital assistant, the company announced this week at the Smart Kitchen Summit in Seattle.

The Wi-Fi-enabled refrigerators will send alerts to your phone if you leave a door open, when you need to replace a filter and if there are power outages. You’ll also be able to adjust your freezer and refrigerator temperatures when you’re away.”

Celebrity chef and Food Network star stopped by to chat with the NYT Cooking Executive Director Amanda Rottier on stage at SKS and discussed the role of technology and recipes and how the former is impacting the latter. Food & Wine covered their talk and Florence’s announcement that he is joining Innit as their Chief Content & Innovation Officer:

“‘Recipes served a purpose back in the day,” Florence told the audience “but inflexible recipes don’t work with the modern lifestyle anymore.’ Today’s recipe content is one dimensional because it doesn’t know who I am, my family’s nutrition needs and likes/dislikes, the food I have in my fridge, or the appliances I have in my home.’

Innit, on the other hand, does know all of these things. The smart kitchen maker aims to use technology to create a centralized hub for the kitchen, from software that knows what groceries you just bought and can suggest combinations and preparations based on your taste, to automated stoves and ovens that cook the food while you’re away.”

We were excited to have New York Times National Food Correspondent Kim Severson at the Smart Kitchen Summit this year to scope out how tech might be changing cooking for mainstream consumers. While Severson was skeptical about the role of technology and if the vision from some at SKS was took focused on replacing what people love about cooking, it’s always great to have insight from journalists who have their finger on the pulse of consumer behavior.

Severson’s piece in the NYT included:

“The conference, now in its third year, brings together people on the front lines of kitchen technology to try to figure out how to move the digital revolution deeper into the kitchen. The kitchen is where Americans spend 60 percent of their time at home when they are not sleeping, said Yoon Lee, a senior vice president at Samsung. That’s why so many tech companies are focused on it.

Almost everyone here this week at Benaroya Hall, the home of the Seattle Symphony — whether an executive from a major appliance manufacturer, a Google engineer or a hopeful young entrepreneur with a popular Kickstarter concept — agreed that it was only a matter of five to 10 years before artificial intelligence had a permanent seat at the dinner table.”

Huge thanks to all our friends in the press who attended the 2017 Smart Kitchen Summit, we look forward to sharing insights into next year and beyond about the future of cooking, food and the kitchen.

A Few Early Observations (And Pics) From The Smart Kitchen Summit

The Smart Kitchen Summit was last week and, just like many of you that attended, I had a blast. As it turns out, talking to the leading thinkers, innovators and executives across the food and cooking ecosystem about the future is not only inspiring, but it’s also really really fun.

When I decided to create SKS back in 2015, I suspected there might be a few others like me enthusiastic to get together and talk about how technology and innovation are helping us to rethink old approaches in the world of food and cooking.

I was right about that. What was I wrong about? I had no idea how many.

Since the first SKS, we’ve more than doubled the size of the event, expanded to two full days, and brought on amazing partners like Campbell Soup Company to highlight the innovation happening in the space. Leaders from global brands like Google, Whirlpool, Amazon, Sears and Vitamix spoke on stage at SKS about their visions for the future of food and cooking, while founders of leading startups like PicoBrew, June and Perfect Company told us about how they are reinventing old categories and creating entirely new ones.

I am really thankful to all who came to Seattle and shared their time with us.  I learned so much and will be writing about the things I’ve learned (and will learn; I will be watching the videos of the session in coming weeks and sharing them with you), but for now I want to share some pics taken by a few of us, including those captured by my friend Scott Payton, a wonderful event photographer who was on hand both days.

We will be share lots more pics in coming days via posts and over on our Facebook page, so you’ll want to check back here and there often.

Enjoy:

The stage. Image: Ashley Daigneault

The day before SKS, Ashley Daigneault, Tiffany McClurg, and a few other SKS team members were down at Benaroya Hall working to set up while I was working off-site on last-minute preparations for talks and for the speaker dinner. We had decided to get one of those fancy stage backdrops since we thought it would not only look cool but also because thought it would create a better backdrop for videos and pictures. Ashley texted me the picture above just after the sign company had set it up on stage.

View from the stage before the event. Image: Michael Wolf

This is the view from the stage at 8 AM, about half an hour before we opened the doors to the room.

SKS morning during Evan Dash presentation. Image: Scott Payton

This is a great shot of the audience during the first session where Evan Dash talked about how to innovate in the kitchen and cooking.

Surj Patel talks with Chris Young of ChefSteps. Image: Scott Payton

One thing I wanted to do this year was capture some of what happens backstage. I love this photo of Surj Patel, who has taught me so much about the events business.  Here he’s talking to Chris Young, the CEO of ChefSteps. That’s Chris Albrecht, our Master of Ceremonies for the day, in the reflection.

The sponsor area on the promenade at Benaroya Hall. Image: Scott Payton

One of the things I love about Benaroya Hall is the view from the grand lobby out onto the city. This shot is a view from up on the promenade level looking towards the sponsor area.

Institute for the Future’s Rebecca Chesney wows the audience at SKS. Image: Scott Payton

Here is Rebecca Chesney giving a talk about creating a kitchen of actions.  I met Rebecca when I was visiting Google earlier this year and knew her perspective would be great for SKS. I was right. Her talk was excellent; deeply researched and unique. (Yes, we’ll have videos of the talks available soon).

Backstage at SKS. I’m talking to Brett Dibkey of Whirlpool and Brian Witlin of Yummly. Image: Scott Payton

Another backstage shot. I usually spend time talking to my panelists before we go out on stage, going over topics, formats, etc. Here I am talking to Brett Dibkey, head of brands at Whirlpool and Brian Witlin, CEO of Yummly. Ashley Daigneault is talking to Surj Patel in the background. I think Brian Witlin might be my long-lost brother.

Amanda Gold interviews Tyler Florence. Image: Scott Payton

The room is packed for Tyler Florence and Amanda Gold. They didn’t disappoint.

Andrew Deitz of Verdical pitches his company. Image: Scott Payton

Each year we try to make the Startup Showcase better. Last year we mixed the showcase part with happy hour, which was a hit. This year we decided to add a pitch session, which allowed the founders to articulate their company’s vision. This is Andrew Deitz, CEO of Verdical, giving a three-minute pitch for his company.

The judges listen to startup pitches. Image: Scott Payton

We had a rock star lineup of judges this year. This is a great shot of them sitting in the front row listening to the pitches. From closest to farthest: Evan Dash (StoreBound), Lisa McManus (America’s Test Kitchen), Brian Frank (FTW Ventures), Maura Judkis (Washington Post), Shakeel Farooque (Campbell Soup Company).

Richard Gunther and I enjoying a beer served up by HOPii. Image: Scott Payton

After the startups pitched from the main stage, we all went to happy hour where the startups then showcased their products.  After a long day, I made a beeline for HOPii’s table, where I knew I could get a beer from their beer brewing appliance. Richard Gunther of the Home: On podcast also partook.

Those are just a few shots from the first day. I and others from the team at the Spoon and SKS will be sharing more in coming days and weeks.

Again, I can’t thank those who came and spent time with us enough. We are so excited to be building this community with you. Keep in touch, send us your ideas for how to improve, and we look forward to bringing SKS back next year (including to Europe).

Meal Kit Startups Target Families with Young Eaters

The home meal kit market is soaring in value, now valued at an estimated $2 billion-plus. With big players like Amazon entering at the top of the opportunity, others are selecting different, large and possibly profitable niches to attack. The hope for companies such as Kidstir, Scrumpt and Kidfresh, targeting parents of young people, is to find a large enough target audience to not only drive revenue but also to make them attractive for possible buyouts.

The kid’s meal market has two parts—kits designed for children to enjoy a cooking experience with their parents and prepared meals for young people to take to school. Of the trio of kid meal companies, Kidfresh is the lone non-subscription company with its frozen, healthy snacks and mains available at such outlets as Walmart and Kroger.  Kidstir’s cook-along-with-adults’ packages and Scumpt’s take-it-to-school full lunches require a subscription which includes home delivery.

Helmed by Ayesha Curry, Homemade is more of a traditional meal kit company with its recipes aimed at families with kids. Ayesha, wife of Golden State Warriors superstar Steph Curry, is a cookbook author and host of a show on Food Network, “Ayesha’s Home Kitchen,” as well as a spokesperson for many organizations aiming to combat childhood hunger.

Ayesha Curry's Homemade Story

Homemade offers subscription and non-subscription plans as well as products such as olive oil and gift cards. Even with all the meal kit companies in the market, Curry told Fortune that she saw a need to target families with children looking for nutritious, easy-to-prepare dinners.

“However, as a busy mom with two young kids, I was having a very difficult time finding a meal kit that my whole family could enjoy,” Curry said. “I needed meals that were beyond the basic humdrum weeknight meal, but were still accessible enough for my daughters. And because I couldn’t find it, I created it.”

Curry and newcomers such as Kidfresh are just a handful of companies eyeing this family-oriented opportunity. Others include:

One Potato--Founded by cookbook author Catherine McCord, the company delivers organics ingredients that can be assembled into a meal in 30 minutes or less.

Sun Basket--Led by celebrity chef/TV host Tyler Florence, Sun Basket is more of a traditional meal kit company, but has a clear focus on families.

Raddish—A subscription service that provides boxes of goodies that children and their parents can cut, chop, bake, broil or grill into homecooked meals.

As the market for meal kits matures with Amazon, Blue Apron and others battling it out for market share, we likely will see even more startups focus on large, lucrative niches. Some of those opportunities could include kits aimed at busy seniors, those on special diets such as diabetics, and even kosher/halal packages.

Amanda Gold Wants Smart Kitchen Companies To Think About The Consumer First

Amanda Gold spends a lot of time thinking about ways companies are succeeding – and failing – when it comes to delivering new technology in the kitchen. Gold Culinary, her Bay Area based consulting firm, works with food tech and food manufacturing companies, restaurants and other culinary businesses to more effectively bridge the gap between corporate, tech-minded companies and a consumer base that is passionate about food.

Amanda’s first experience with the divide between food technology and consumer understanding began in an interview about a seemingly crazy new device for the kitchen. “During the interview, the co-founder started telling me all about the product and spent about 15 minutes talking about the cool technology inside it – there were cameras built into the top and sides, weight sensors across it – but I didn’t understand where the value add was,” says Amanda on the conversation. “Yes, this is all great, but how does that make a better piece of salmon?”

This question sparked the realization for Amanda that she was in a unique position to help technology companies better communicate their products and solutions, and their value to consumers in the kitchen. As a 12-year veteran of the food section for the San Francisco Chronicle (with her last two years focused on food tech) Amanda knows the food and restaurant industry. A trained chef, Amanda’s practical experience in the kitchen lends a hand in her ability to see emerging food technology from both the business and consumer perspective. “We’re helping companies in the industry tailor their product or content so that it makes sense from an everyday standpoint, not just as a once-in-a-while cool machine,” says Amanda. At Gold Culinary, Amanda offers strategy, recipe and content development, product testing, and training for food industry giants like Hidden Valley and Soy Vay.

Through her work, Amanda has seen a common thread in addressing the reality of connected living from the food industry’s perspective. “There’s still a disconnect between what’s cool versus expensive and what’s helpful versus realistic,” she says. “Though there are certainly plenty of companies that are doing it right, it’s important to recognize that most people might ultimately choose just one or two smart devices, so it’s essential that what they do choose makes life easier and more streamlined. Ideally, it will also get them back in the kitchen on a more regular basis, especially if the process, once they get there, is simplified.”

Outside of Gold Culinary, Amanda’s pursuits include working as the executive producer for Food Network chef and host Tyler Florence’s Wolf it Down podcast. Although Wolf it Down is not strictly a food tech podcast, it does focus on every aspect of the kitchen and what’s current – including discussion around the smart kitchen. A recent episode, for example, featured an interview with food tech innovators Hestan Cue and Chefsteps on the future of technology in the kitchen.

Amanda and Gold Culinary’s mission is an important one to the smart kitchen space. As technology grows and more consumers seek out new gadgets to simplify life in the kitchen, so does the need for companies to better align their messaging with consumer product knowledge and understanding. Amanda sees herself as the mediator between the two parties, simplifying and streamlining consumer understanding.

“I love the communities that are being built around specific devices and their content. I think in many ways that’s a bonus that nobody would have predicted. I am at the core simply a content creator who is interested in helping companies tell their story, both through the recipes and food-related content they provide and in the way they market themselves,” explains Amanda on her work with Gold Culinary. “There are many ways to tell a story and that story needs to be constantly changing in the smart kitchen space. Now, more than ever, that’s incredibly important to understand.”

Don’t miss Amanda Gold of Gold Culinary at the 2017 Smart Kitchen Summit. Check out the full list of speakers and to register for the Summit, use code GOLD to get 25% off ticket prices.

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.