The Spoon Podcast: Recent Episodes

The Spoon

Join host Michael Wolf as he explores the future of food and cooking.

This week Mike and Carlos be joined by Future Market’s Mike Lee to talk over some of the most interesting stories of the week. Mike Lee also tells us about his new book Mise, which paints four different scenarios depicting the potential direction of our future food system.

Here are all the stories we’ll be talking about.

Bored & Hungry Closes – Food & Web3: A check in on where things are

In March 2022, NFT and crypto investor Andy Nguyen purchased Bored Ape #6184 along with three Mutant Apes and soon decided to establish a Bored Ape-themed restaurant named Bored & Hungry. The restaurant opened its doors on April 9, and by the end of its first day, it had served 1,500 burgers and had lines stretching around the block.

Two years later, Bored & Hungry has closed.

Last week, Nguyen announced on Instagram that the restaurant’s original location in Long Beach, California, was closing. He shared that they had sold the concept to a franchising company from Asia known as HUNGRY Dao.

Is AI-Powered Customer Interaction at Fast Food & Retail Giving Up too Much Privacy?

A Fast Company article titled “How fast food is becoming a new surveillance ground” looks at how new customer interaction layers using things like bio-authentication, cameras, profile information, and more are a new risk for gathering information about the public.

And earlier this week, we saw Steak n Shake launch facial recognition nationwide for check-in.

Are we going through an airport or going to buy a surf and turf?

Vow Thinks Imitating Meat We Eat is Bad Approach. Enter the Quail Parfait.

Green Queen: The Syndey-based startup is today launching its cultivated Japanese quail in Singapore’s Mandala Club, after the country’s regulator gave it the go-ahead to sell the product. But unlike other rollouts of cultivated meat, where chefs are supplied with the meat itself (which they then incorporate into dishes), Vow is taking a novel approach. What restaurant kitchens get is a parfait containing its cultivated quail.

Mike’s Book about The Future of Food

The four future visions in Mise (pronounced “meez”), which range from the year 2033 to 2067, are created to help people understand the potential long-term impact of things that are happening today in the world on our food system. The book identifies 5 major happenings in society, technology, the economy, the environment, and politics (abbreviated and referred to as the STEEP factors) that will have a profound impact on the way the world produces and consumes food.

We'll be talking about some of these food futures and how it will shape our lives at the Smart Kitchen Summit on June 4-5th in Seattle. If you'd like to join us, you can use the discount code PODCAST for 15% off tickets at checkout.

This week on the Food Tech News Show we are joined by Scott Heimendinger, one of the inventors of the home sous vide circulator and a long-time kitchen tech inventor.

Here are the stories we talk about:

Apple is working on robots for the home! – From Bloomberg: “The original concept for the robot was a device that could navigate entirely on its own without human intervention — like the car — and serve as a videoconferencing tool. One pie-in-the-sky idea within Apple was having it be able to handle chores, like cleaning dishes in a sink.

Google has used its latest AI to create a new tool that creates a fusion recipe between two culinary cultures. Lifehacker: “According to Google, Food Mood can provide creative inspiration for your next meal. Select two countries and this fusion recipe generator will create one for you. You can choose whether you would like to cook a starter, a soup, a main course or a dessert. For example, why not try a unique blend of flavors from Sri Lanka and Uganda or mixing influences from Oman and Belgium? This experiment was created by artists Emmanuel Durgoni and Gaël Hugo, and uses Gemini 1.0 Pro via Vertex AI.”

Whirlpool has let the entire Yummly team go. Appliance giant Whirlpool has laid off its entire Yummly team. According to industry sources, the company recently laid off all the employees for the recipe and cooking app and website. These sources tell the Spoon that it’s unclear what the company plans to do with the property it acquired in 2017.

Amazon Pulling ‘Just Walk Out’ from Amazon Fresh Grocery Stores – According to a story published in The Information, Amazon is planning to pull its Just Walk Out cashierless technology from its large-format grocery store, Amazon Fresh.

One Robot Pizza Chain Operator Breaks Down the Cost Each Part of the Pizza-Making Process – For small operators (and big ones as well) in the pizza business, Andrew Simmons’s posts on Linkedin have become must-read material.

Scott will be at the Smart Kitchen Summit, talking about some of the lessons he's learned building the kitchen of the future. If you are interested in seeing Scott at SKS, you can use the discount code PODCAST for 15% off tickets.

On this week's Food Tech News Show, Mike and Carlos welcome Rachel Konrad, former head of communications for The Production Board, Impossible Foods and Tesla. The stories we catch up on include:

People are Scared Sh**tless: It gets real on stage from pessimistic VCs

Startup Polopo shows off tech to create egg-derived proteins in potatoes using molecular farming techniques

Is the Keto Cereal Craze over?

Trader Joe’s opens new small-format store

Robot of the week: The Chefee robot

You can find the video version of this Weekly Food Tech News show at The Spoon and you can find the audio-only podcast on Apple Podcasts.

A reminder: It's the last two days to get early bird pricing for the Smart Kitchen Summit. Use discount code PODCAST at checkout for 15% off of tickets.

If you follow the world of kitchen and consumer food tech startups, you know there hasn't been much in the way of venture funded startups targeting food waste in the home.

That changed last year when Mill lifted the veil on the company and its first product, the Mill Bin, a smart food recycler. The company had a unique approach, offering a subscription-based home food waste recycler and an accompanying service that would turn the food grounds into chicken feed.

We decided to catch up with the company's CEO, Matt Rogers, to hear about the journey to making Mill. During our conversation, we also talk about:

The early lessons in building a tech-powered food recycling appliance and service
Why Matt decided to target food waste after building a smart home company in Nest
The challenges in getting consumers to think about wasting less food
How better data could help us change consumer behavior
The future of food waste reduction technology in the consumer kitchen

If you want to learn more about Mill, you can head to their website or join us at the Smart Kitchen Summit where we will be hearing from company cofounder Harry Tannenbaum. Use discount code podcast for 15% off tickets.

This week, the Spoon crew got together to discuss some of the big stories of the week on a new weekly video news show we’re launching called The Food Tech News Show.

The stories Carlos Rodela and I discuss include:

Keurig Unveils Plastic-Free Coffee Pods, Developed With A Little Help From The Maker of CoffeeB
Keurig Takes Another Swing at Cold Beverages With the Launch of QuickChill Cold Coffee Technology
Not Surprisingly, Starbucks Is Shutting Down Its NFT Program
Watch The Figure 01 Robot Feed A Human, Sort The Dishes, And Stammer Like Us Meatbags
Why a Small Startup in the Middle of Valencia May Be Leading the Wireless Energy & Invisible Cooktop Trend
Bellwether Debuts Small-Format, Countertop Electric Coffee Roaster for $15 Thousand

You can watch the full show on YouTube, or listen to it on the Spoon podcast.

And, if you’d like to watch next week’s Food Tech News Show, join us on March 22nd at 1 PM Pacific on Streamyard, Twitter, or on our YouTube channel.

Music from #Uppbeat

License code: HKXBEQJCPWPRMN7H

Over the past decade, Fresco has been building technology that helps appliance and housewares brands to create smart kitchen products.

The journey for Fresco started when the company - then known as Drop - created a connected kitchen scale. After finding success selling its scale in the Apple store and other locations, the company started working with other brands to help provide enabling technology to power their smart kitchen solutions.

Fast-forward to today, and Fresco is now working with some of the world's biggest kitchen brands, including Panasonic and Viking, to help them build out their smart kitchen solutions.

To hear about this journey, we welcome Anthony Sullivan, the Chief Product Officer for Fresco, to the podcast.

On the podcast, host Michael Wolf talks with Anthony about:

The journey from a consumer product company to a platform company
Building software for appliance brands
The evolution of the mindset of appliance companies around creating solutions that enable cross-brand connectivity
The challenges of getting consumers to adopt more tech-forward solutions in the kitchen
And lots more!

You can learn more about Fresco at www.frescocooks.com

If you are interested connecting with Fresco and other kitchen tech companies, you'll want to be at the Smart Kitchen Summit on June 4-5th in Seattle. Use the discount code PODCAST for 15% off tickets at checkout.

Around 2009, Ralph Newhouse's company hunted down excess inventory of small electrics and would re-sell them into the secondary market. However, it wasn't long before Newhouse realized he wanted to make his own appliances, and that's when the Chefman we know today was born.

Newhouse wasn't done. As he and Chefman started to see how new connected products made their way into the market over the past decade, he realized he wanted to create a brand around more tech-forward connected products, and that thinking led to the creation of ChefIQ, a startup within a startup focused on the smart kitchen.

In this conversation, Newhouse talks about this journey, why he decided to create a separate company for his connected products, and where he sees the future of the connected kitchen going.

And...for those interested new products, we have a couple reveals by Ralph in this podcast that are heard for the first time.

Have a listen!

For those interested in checking out where the future kitchen is going, you'll want to be at the Smart Kitchen Summit on June 4-5th in Seattle. Use discount PODCAST at checkout for 15% off tickets.

Ty Thompson and the rest of the Ovie team recently passed a major milestone: They shipped their first piece of hardware.

The product, a consumer food waste management system, was over half a decade in the making. Along the way to market, the founding team faced numerous challenges around funding, finalizing the product concept and design, building prototypes for manufacturing, and finding the right manufacturer to work with.

Ty talks about all of these challenges and the lessons learned, including:

-Battling mission creep around the product's vision

-How to find the right minimum viable product to get it into production

-What you need to do (and what you shouldn't do) when looking to find the right manufacturing partner

-How to balance your life and your day job while hustling to build a startup

And much more.

Ovie will be at Smart Kitchen Summit, so if you like what you hear and want to connect with the team in person, get your ticket at www.smartkitchensummit.com.

Chris Young is one of the most provocative and interesting thinkers in the future of food and cooking, so any time he visits The Spoon podcast we learn a lot.

This time was no exception.

In this episode of The Spoon Podcast, we talk about:

How he has put AI compute into something as small as a thermometer
Where he thinks generative AI and other AI is going in the food and cooking space
How he thinks big companies should approach the AI era
Why he's back creating content for Youtube and other channels again
And much more!

Chris will be back at Smart Kitchen Summit this summer in Seattle, so if you're interested in seeing him there or learning more, head to www.smartkitchensummit.com.

Food delivery through underground tubes?

Sounds crazy, but it's already happening today, and Pipedream's Garrett McCurrach thinks it just may be the future of delivery.

We catch up with Garrett just a week after they announced their first pilot in the Atlanta suburbs, where they have built a system that delivers food and other items underground for nearly a mile.

During this podcast we talk about how Garrett came up with the idea, what it was like to showcase the system to Jeff Bezos, how the company is working with fast food restaurants to rethink drive-thru pickup and what he sees for the future of underground delivery.

As always, like or subscribe if you haven't already.

This week SuperGut CEO Marc Washington joins the podcast to talk about why new GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy are keeping CPG brand CEOs up at night.

These new drugs, which got their start as a new class of pharmaceuticals that help contol type 2 diabetes, have become very popular in recent years as weight loss drug. They are hugely effective in suppressing appetites and reducing the overall calorie intake of those taking them, so much so that some speculate that they could have a significant impact on overall demand for food if, as predicted, tens of millions begin to take them in coming years as the price comes down and more accessible formats (i.e. not shots) become available.

Marc thinks a lot about these drugs because his company, SuperGut, creates a natural alternative to GLP-1 drugs in the form of supplements, snacks and bars. His journey to leading the company was born out of both a personal loss as well as a chance meeting with Dave Friedberg, the CEO of The Production Board.

You can learn more about Super Gut on their website.

And a quick plug before we go: The Spoon is heading up the food tech conference at CES, the world's biggest technology expo. If you'd like to become involved as a sponsor, just fill out this form and we'll be in touch!

In this episode of The Spoon Podcast, we welcome Ari Tulla, CEO of Elo Health.

Ari got his start in tech working for mobile giant Nokia, where he helped lead the company's mobile app studio.

However, after his wife experienced a health scare in the late 2000s, Ari decided to turn his attention to the broken health system and built what he describes as a "search engine for doctors."

After he sold that company, he began to think about how the explosion in personal data using wearables and other inputs could help pave a way for food as medicine and personalized nutrition. That journey eventually led to the creation of Elo Health, a company that uses AI to power a personalized nutrition and supplement platform.

Ari will be joining The Spoon and others at the Food AI Summit on October 25th to discuss his journey. If you want to connect with Ari personally (and try an Elo Health personalized supplement!), join us in Alameda. Use the discount code PODCAST for 25% off tickets.

We're back after a couple weeks off to wrap up some of the top stories of the week.

Mike and Allen talk about these stories:

Wonder acquires Blue Apron
Scentian wants to replicate insect smell capability using AI and sensors
Video from Serve Robotics leads to arrest and conviction
Tesla has broken ground on its Drive In Theater and Diner

Our Food AI Summit is in just three and a half weeks. Use discount code PODCAST to get 25% off of tickets!

The Spoon is back for another week of food tech news, and this week Michael Wolf and Allen Weiner talk about what's going on in the smart kitchen, alt protein, CRISPR and more.

Here are the stories we talk about:

Samsung and LG play nice in the kitchen, and Samsung launches food app.
MOTO Pizza, where you wait a month for your pizza order, is crazy about Picnic's pizza robot
Pairwise reups partnership with Bayer for CRISPR-based innovation
GFI says plant-based meat sales were up in 2022
DoorDash is bringing AI to their apps and call centers

As mentioned in the show, the Spoon is once again leading the charge for food tech at CES, the world’s biggest tech show. If you are interested in showcasing your future food or food tech innovation, head over to The Spoon’s CES page for more info.

Also, on October 25th, we’ll be bringing leaders at the intersection of food and AI together for a day of conversation. Please use the discount code PODCAST for 15% off tickets to the Food AI Summit.

We're back after a summer hiatus and are back this week with a food tech news wrap-up. This week Michael Wolf and Allen Weiner talk about:

Trader Joe's says no to self check out

The continuing decline of plant-based meat sales

Academics are worried about implications for AI and automation on family meal

A 20 year success story: Mini Melts selling 30 million ice creams a year through its kiosks

Starship continues to grow, deploying sidewalk robots to 50 universities

The Spoon is once again leading the charge for food tech at CES, the world's biggest tech show. If you are interested in showcasing your future food or food tech innovation, head over to The Spoon's CES page for more info.

Also, on October 25th, we'll be bringing leaders at the intersection of food and AI together for a day of conversation. Please use the discount code PODCAST for 15% off tickets to the Food AI Summit.

Andrew Simmons is an open book.

When the long-time entrepreneur decided to buy a restaurant in 2020, little did he know that in just a few months he would be forced to close his doors due to COVID.

But instead of giving up, he had to get creative and, after surviving the pandemic, he kept on tinkering, trying to figure out how new technology could make his restaurant more efficient.

During this whole experience, Andrew has been documenting his journey via posts on Linkedin and on a blog. As he reinvents his restaurant through technology, he talks about what works and what doesn't, providing a potential blueprint for other operators who are thinking about how technology could change their business.

During this podcast, Andrew and Mike talk about:

How the installation of a pizza robot from Picnic completely changed how he does business
How one piece of game-changing technology, like a pizza robot, forces other changes and adoption of new technology throughout the restaurant's work flow
The impact of new technology on his unit price for pizzas
How analytics software helped him realize his dine-in business was not profitable and how it changed his thinking about how he ran his restaurant
How he was forced to rethink how he used employees through the use of technology and how the employees (and former employees) have reacted
His pizza subscription concept and how he believes it can help him pay for opening new restaurants
Andrew's plans to launch a 100 unit restaurant chain built using off-the-shelf restaurant technology

If you are considering using technology such as robotics for your restaurant, this episode is a must-listen!

In this week's podcast, we talk food and AI with Google's Evan Rapoport. Over the past decade, Evan has led teams for Google Research looking at how AI could impact biodiversity and change. During our conversation, we talk about a project called Tidal, in which he and Google used AI technology like computer vision and applied it to aquaculture. We also discuss the impact of AI more broadly on the food system and how Evan thinks newer technology like generative AI might have an impact sooner than we think on the world of food.

When you think of the kitchen of the future, do you envision a 3D food printer instantly whipping up a dinner or a snack?

While the crazy idea might not happen tomorrow, if life follows the path of science fiction (as it often does), there's a good chance a food printer will be sitting on our kitchen counter in 10 or 20 years.

If we're going to get there, this week's guest Jonathan Blutinger might have something to do with it. Jonathan is a 3D food and software-defined cooking researcher who is trying to envision what this future world of cooking looks like.

In the podcast, we talk about

How Jonathan got started exploring future cooking technologies
What is laser-cooking and how does it pair with 3D food printing
How the current state of the 3D food printing ecosystem compares to other industries like digital music
The difference between printing sweet vs savory products
Will consumers ever accept the idea of 3D printed food?
And lots more!

Enjoy this week's podcast and we'll see you next week!

As a child, Oliver Zahn was a self-described "mathy" kid who had a fascination with how the world worked. This early interest in the mechanics of the universe would lead him to the study astrophysics and embark on a career that would land him at one of the world's top universities teaching cosmology.

But as Zahn went on to become a world-recognized astrophysicist and cosmologist who would also work at places like SpaceX and Google, his interest in another childhood interest - food - continued to grow, especially as he realized the potential of complex mathematical models to effect change in the food system.

That realization led him to found Climax Foods, a company using artificial intelligence models to discover new, more sustainable plant-based ingredients that can replace those derived from animals.

In the episode, Zahn talks about this journey from astrophysicist to future food entrepreneur and the work Climax has done using AI to create cheese with plant-based ingredients.

Podcast Timeline:

How did you get into the field of food? (3:01) Transitioning from Google and tech to Climax (7:28) The cold start problem in artificial intelligence (11:49) Tackling dairy in a holistic way (18:18) Building a consumer brand company vs platform company (22:30) The opportunity for future food companies (25:42) Can generative ai be used to create future foods? (29:15)

This week we catch up with Wired's Joe Ray. Here at The Spoon we're fans of Joe's kitchen reviews, where he cuts to the quick and tells the reader exactly why he or she should (or shouldn't) buy a product.

In this episode, we take a look back at how Joe got started in food, why he picked up one day and went to France to become a writer, his tutelage under the famous restaurant reviewer François Simon, and his approach to kitchen technology journalism.

We also talk about the current state of kitchen tech and the smart kitchen and where we see it all going.

Enjoy!

In this podcast interview, Mike catches up with SideChef's Kevin Yu in the wake of the company's recent funding round to discuss the evolution of SideChef and the smart kitchen market.

A lot has happened since Mike and Kevin first met on the roof deck of a restaurant at SXSW, so they reminisce about old times, talk about the cyclical nature of innovation, and how AI will impact the connected kitchen space. Kevin shares SideChef's AI strategy, his plans for the company, and where he thinks this is all going.

Podcast Outline:

Introduction: (00:00)

-Host: Michael Wolf

-Guest: Kevin Yu, CEO and founder of SideChef

Early days and the birth of SideChef (02:29)

SideChef's recent funding round (03:15)

The evolution of SideChef (05:42)

Plans for the future (07:30)

Expansion of SideChef platform into computer vision and machine vision (10:34)

Collaborating with Bacardi (12:36)

The state of the connected kitchen space (15:59)

Overcoming challenges in the industry (17:00)

The potential of shoppable recipes and future innovations [20:53]

Cyclical nature of innovation and the role of AI [23:02]

Are VCs still hungry for food robotics investments?

We ask S2G's Arthur Chow and Vebu Labs' Buck Jordan what their thoughts are on the food automation landscape.

In this podcast we ask:

The current investment climate for food automation
Why founders should consider monetizing on their vision soon through incremental releases of products
The roll-up opportunity for investors
Alternative forms of financing for food robotics founders
Whether we will see a food robotics unicorn

You can watch the video of this session on The Spoon here.

Do you know what DeSci is?

If you don't, don't feel bad, especially if, like me, food is your primary focus.

A16Z's publication Future describes DeSci as a movement in which "a growing number of scientists and entrepreneurs are leveraging blockchain tools, including smart contracts and tokens, in an attempt to improve modern science. Collectively, their work has become known as the decentralized science movement, or DeSci."

If you're like me and are just learning about DeSci, the reason for that is that while it's a trend that's caught the attention of the biotech and research funding worlds, it hasn't made its way into the future food conversation just yet.

But it's only a matter of time, so I figure there's no better time to learn. To help us do that, our guest for this episode of The Spoon Podcast is Dr. Jocelynn Pearl, a biotech scientist, entrepreneur, and podcaster.

In this episode of the podcast, we discuss the following:

What is DeSci?
How DeSci is changing the insular and outdated world of research publishing
The benefits of using Web3 tools like DAOs, blockchain, and NFTs in science research
Why DeSci hasn't yet reached the future food industry just yet and why that may soon change
What the future of science research may look like with these types of tools

If you'd like to hear more from Jocelynn, you can find her podcast, the Lady Scientist Podcast, and read some of her writing on her website.

As mentioned in the episode, we are having an event next week on the state of food robotics, and we'd love for you to join us. So get your free ticket here.

Our special guest is Scott Heimendinger for our weekly food tech news wrapup.

Scott is a long-time kitchen tech inventor and entrepreneur who is currently building his next big thing.

In this episode, we discuss the following stories:

Tovala intro's new oven
Why all the sourdough tech now? Do we need tech to make us better bakers?
Good and bad way to use generative AI with food
CloudChef Wants to Capture a Chef’s Knowledge in Software to Recreate High-Quality Cuisine Anywhere
Facebook wants us to let us know we're out of milk via our AR glasses. This is ok, but how can AR be made actually really useful?

As always, you can find more Spoon Podcasts at our website or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast app.

Up until now, every morsel of food astronauts eat in outer space was created and packaged on earth. However, as we embark on the era of long-term space flight, NASA and other space agencies realize that that will need to change.

As the Senior Project Manager for Space Crop Production and Exploration Food Systems for NASA, this is the problem Ralph Fritsche has been thinking about for the past decade. Ralph, who helped develop the Deep Space Food Challenge, works with his team to try and figure out how exactly they'll feed astronauts when they set up camp on Mars over a decade from now.

If you've ever wondered about how we feed space travelers today and far into the future, this is the podcast for you!

This week's guest for Food Tech Friday is long time food tech entrepreneur and investor Peter Bodenheimer.

Peter talks about his role at cultivated meat startup Steakholder Foods and what he's building at Super Kingdom.

Peter joins Carlos and Mike to talk about the food tech news of the week, including

Are we comfortable with autonomous retail?
Do we want drone delivery?
Space food is happening. Should it?
The growing number of layoffs in food tech
Amazon is adding a thousand robots a day. Could surpass workers by 2030
The acceleration of food tech M&A

And, of course, because how could we not, Chinese spy balloons To get updates about food tech news in your inbox, subscribe to the Spoon newsletter.

In this week's episode we catch up with Rachel Konrad, a former journalist who has spent the last decade-plus working for Tesla, Impossible Foods and now the Production Board.

Rachel joins Michael Wolf and Carlos Rodela to talk about her background, the recent controversy around Bloomberg's article declaring plant-based meat a fad, and how she helped Impossible bring food tech to CES in 2019 with the launch of the Impossible 2.0 burger.

It's a really fun conversation that you won't want to miss!

It's almost the end of 2022 and so we decided to catch up with S2G Managing Director Tonya Bakritzes.

In this podcast we talk about:

-The impact of inflation and global macroenvironmental headwinds on the food tech landscape

-The plant-based meat sales slowdown and what it means for the space longterm.

-Some areas to look forward to in 2023

You can find out more about S2G here.

Ben Leventhal has nothing if not good timing.

In 2004 the New York entrepreneur launched Eater at the dawn of the blogging era, back when food media was still mostly legacy publications and message boards.

After selling Eater to Vox, he went on to launch Resy in 2014 just as restaurants were beginning to bristle at the data practices of legacy online reservations systems such as OpenTable. He'd eventually sell his second company to American Express.

And now Leventhal is looking to create his third founder success story with the launch of Blackbird, a company which he describes as “a new loyalty, membership, and payments technology company.”

In this episode, we discuss Ben's journey from those early days, how evolution of food media, the changes to reservation and other restaurant tech platforms, and how he envisions Web3 and other new technologies could change the game for small and independent restaurants.

You can find out more about Ben's new company at Blackbird.xyz.

Our guest this week on our weekly food tech news wrapup is Clayton Wood, the CEO of pizza robot startup Picnic.

We talk food tech news and then hear Clayton's view on where things are going in the world of food robots.

Here are some of the stories we covered:

The Food tech venture capital market really dropped hard in Q3.: Food tech venture drops 63% quarter over quarter

One sector that seems to be somewhat active in Web3 meets restaurants: Seattle's Forum3 announces funding on heels of launching Starbucks' NFT-centric loyalty program.

Two Fast-Grocery Delivery Giants Have Merged: Turkish fast delivery company Getir has closed its acquisition of German rival Gorillas as fast grocery continues to consolidate.

Wonder Lays off 7% of Workers: Marc Lore's food delivery unicorn has its first layoff as growth goes slower than expected.

Colleges are embracing delivery robots. Grubhub announced a partnership with Kiwi, adding to their partnerships with Starship and Cartken. Is there something about college campuses that make them a logical testing ground for food robotics?

And we put Clayton on the food robot hot seat, asking him:

How would you assess the food robot marketplace in 2022?

Will we see some consolidation in certain areas of food robotics in 2023?

Predictions for the 2023 food robot market.

Enjoy!

We're ramping our Friday food tech casual news wrapups back up again, and this week Mike and Carlos got together to talk about some of the stories that caught their attention this week.

The stories we talked about include:

Will reusable containers take off at colleges? Maybe. What about restaurants? One startup is trying to make it work.

A new smart mixer from GE Appliances stood out as an innovative product in a market that has lacked innovation as of late.

Has Amazon's Alexa strategy failed?

A startup debuts its new driver-optional electronic tractor. Is this the future of farming?

One sidewalk robot company lands a nice deal with Norway's post office, but how are the others doing?

Plus: Cocaine Bear!

Join us next week on The Spoon's Crowdcast channel to see the live recording.

In his previous life, Max Elder worked as a futurist, where he helped food brands develop strategies for the future.

One of his primary motivations in this work was the hope that he could help steer them away from animal agriculture and towards a future centered around more humane and sustainable foods. Over time, however, Elder realized that to have a meaningful impact, he'd have to create his own product.

So in late 2020, Elder left his job as a futurist and created a plant-based meat company. With Nowadays, Elder envisions a future where he can have a bigger impact by scaling meat utilizing production techniques perfected for traditional animal agriculture.

In this episode, we talk about his transition from strategist to entrepreneur and Elder puts his futurist hat back on to look at where things are going in the world of alternative protein.

This week we talked restaurant tech news with Kristen Hawley, friend of The Spoon and editor of Expedite.

We talked about the current state of web3 and restaurants, the evolution of the ghost kitchen, Subway's smart fridges and resilience of the delivery business.

Enjoy!

WTF is going on with alternative protein?

To find out, we decided to catch up with one of our favorite people in future food, Indiebio's Po Bronson. Po went from being one of the early chroniclers of the dotcom boom via his novels and nonfiction titles to leading one of the most active investors and accelerators in the future of food in IndieBio, and in this podcast, we talk about his journey and how he become a VC. We also talk about the current struggles facing certain sectors of alt protein and where he sees things going.

Food tech industry is built on intellectual property. Whether a startup builds alternative proteins, cooking technology, automation/ AI or another food tech product, a large part of its future success relies on its intellectual property.

A big part of a startup's success relies on managing a patent portfolio. But navigating the world of patents is confusing, so why not bring in an expert to answer some of our questions?

That's exactly what we do on this episode of The Spoon podcast with Anas Alfarra. Anas managed IP for one of the world's biggest industrial equipment makers, has secured his own patent for a food cooking system, and advises startups on how to manage their IP.

Topics discussed on this podcast include: -What are the different types of patents? -What is a provisional patent? -How to understand patent strategies of large companies like Amazon and Microsoft -The process of applying for a patent -And much more!

If you are at all interested in intellectual property and have questions about how to manage it for your food tech startup, this is a must-listen! via Knit

As the former head of food chemistry for Eat Just, Jasmin Hume thought there was a lot of white space for innovation and thought a company should exist to build the next generation of ingredients for plant-based food.

So she created it.

At Shiru, Hume and her team make novel ingredients by identifying proteins with function such as taste, texture and more utilizing cutting edge tools like machine learning. So far, the company has raised over $20 million and just recently hired Impossible Foods' former VP of R&D and strategic ingredients.

On the podcast, Mike and Jasmin discuss the following topics:

-how the alternative protein market is evolving from early fully vertically integrated brands to companies like Shiru that build ingredients and solutions for a variety of companies -the new cohort of food companies utilizing AI and ML to build the next generation of food -how what Shiru is doing with precision fermentation is different from that of Perfect Day and others trying to create animal-identical proteins -Where Jasmin sees the ingredient industry going in the future -Plus lots more!

You can find out more about Shiru at www.shiru.com via Knit

In this episode of The Spoon, we are joined by long-time restaurant and restaurant tech journalist Nancy Luna. We thought we would have Nancy on to compare notes about some of the challenges we've seen in the last few months in restaurant tech.

Some stories we discuss on the show include:

-NextBite's layoffs -The shutdown of Chowbotics and pizza robot pioneer Pizzametry looking for a buyer -the state of ghost kitchen players -QR code startup Sunday and their fast-burn through funding and pull out of markets -and Much More!

As always, you can find more Spoon podcasts at www.thespoon.tech via Knit

In this episode of The Spoon podcast, we catch up with the CEO of GRUBBRR Sam Zietz and the CTO of BurgerFi (a 120 location burger chain) to talk about how the two companies worked together to roll out self-ordering technology at BurgerFi locations and how the early results show the technology changing consumer behavior. via Knit

Jordan Thaeler doesn't mince words when it comes to the business of restaurant and retail technology business. Anyone who reads Thaeler's Reforming Retail, which he does in addition to running a retail payments analytics and consulting business, knows that Thaeler likes to break down the cost economics and associated business models of some of the biggest names in restaurant tech.

In this episode of The Spoon Podcast, we talk about:

-The overall restaurant tech market space and why there aren't more publicly traded companies in this market -How point of sale is still the focus and starting point for the digital transition for many restaurants -The ghost kitchen and virtual brand space -Jack Dorsey's fixation with crypto and the potential impact of Web3/crypto on restaurants -Lots more!

You can find more Spoon Podcasts at www.thespoon.tech via Knit

Andrew Shakman had a tough job. After two full days of inspiring talks at ReFED's annual food waste symposium, the CEO of Leanpath was asked to give a closing message that would inspire and catalyze action.

He delivered, so we asked Andrew to come on the podcast to discuss how he thinks those delivering food waste reduction solutions can do more to help make a bigger impact.

As always, you can find more Spoon podcasts at www.thespoon.tech via Knit

Mike and Ashley get together to talk about some of the more interesting food tech stories of the week, including:

-The big food brand metaverse trademark landgrab -An NFT restaurant in San Francisco -The faulty rationale for investing big $ in 15-minute grocery -Roku's big play for shoppable food TV -The Spoon's looking for leaders in the food-tech revolution

As always, you can find more podcasts at The Spoon. The Spoon podcast is part of the Spoon Media Network. via Knit

If you are in the alt-protein industry or even just interested in the space, chances are you know about the Good Food Institute.

In this episode, I caught up with GFI CEO and co-founder Bruce Friedrich to talk about the evolution of the space, the politics of alternative meat, the regulatory environment and where he sees the market going.

You'll want to check it out!

You can find out more about GFI at www.gfi.org.

As always, find more podcast at The Spoon. via Knit

Can the design of your kitchen change how and what you eat? Electrolux thinks so.

In this week's episode of the Spoon podcast's food tech news wrapup, we discuss Electrolux's new kitchen concept called GRO, Taco Bell's restaurant of the future, a new mushroom grow chamber called Shrooli and a new countertop cooking appliance with a built-in freezer called Celcy.

As always, you can read about these stores at The Spoon (www.thespoon.tech). via Knit

It's been a while, but we're cranking the podcast machine up for weekly news wrapups.

This week's show we talk about:

-Circle K's Big Bet on Cashierless Checkout -Tesla's Drive-In Restaurant Ambitions -Taking Restaurants Into the Metaverse -The Politicization of Alt-Meat

As always, if you like the show, give us a rating! Check out more stores at www.thespoon.tech via Knit

In this episode, we talk about the state of the food as medicine market and the how Lauren Driscoll built NourishedRX, one of the fastest growing companies in this space. via Knit

So while it may not be surprising that a restaurant concept by alpha-adopter and Internet celebrity Gary Vaynerchuk can raise millions of dollars selling NFTs, what about that mom & pop place on the corner?

In other words, how does a small restauranteur that doesn't have the followers, fame and early adopter advantage of a Vaynerchuk take advantage of web3?

That's what we talk about with this week's guest, Adam Brotman, the CEO of Brightloom and former head of digital for Starbucks. via Knit

Matias Muchnick started NotCo in 2015 with a singular idea: Could AI be used to reinvent how new food products are discovered and made? Seven years later, his company is eating up market share in the plant-based milk and other alt-protein categories and he just inked a joint venture with one of the biggest food companies in the world.

In this episode., Matias talks about those early days, what he saw as broken in the traditional food development process, and goes deep into how Giuseppe, NotCo's AI platform, helps create new food products. via Knit

Wildtype, a cultivated seafood startup, announced it has raised a $100 million Series B funding round, the largest to date for a cultivated seafood startup. I sat down with company CEO Justin Kolbeck to learn more about the company's plans.

Justin and I talk about:

-How he and his cofounder started the company -Expansion of production capacity for cultivated seafood -Where the FDA is in its approval process -Convincing consumers to eat cultivated seafood -And more! via Knit

ADM is one of the world's biggest food companies, so when they share thoughts about where the alt protein market is going, it's worth listening.

In this episode, I catch up with ADM's president of global food and specialty ingredients, Leticia Gonçalves to talk about the company's recent prediction report. We discuss cultivated meat pricing, new novel ingredients, fermentation as a service and much more.

You can find my write up about this conversation and the report at The Spoon, and you can find a link to the ADM report there as well. via Knit

Hyphen announced this week that they'd raised a $24 million Series A funding round. We caught up with Stephen Klein to hear about his food robot platform and his vision for building the Shopify for restaurant robotics. via Knit

One night Mattew Fonte's young daughter suggested they make an instant home ice cream making machine. A few years later, the idea became a reality.

Only the ColdSnap does a whole lot more, including margaritas, cold coffee, frozen yogurt and, of course, ice cream.

In this conversation we walk with Forte about the appliance that stole the show at CES 2021 and how he sees it changing the home ice cream (and beverage) market. via Knit

When Bill Lee and Brett Beller started talking about the idea of using a DAO and an NFT to buy a McDonald's, they were mostly joking around. Before long, they had started a Discord server and friesDAO had raised over $4 million. Now they had to figure out how to make it happen.

In this episode we talk with Bill Lee, an advisor to friesDAO, about their plans to use a DAO to purchase a restaurant (and possibly multiple restaurants) and operate them through a decentralized autonomous organization. The conversation talks about the possibilities of crypto and a Web3 community as a new way to do business in the restaurant industry. via Knit

This week, Cana came out of stealth and announced their "molecular beverage printer", a device the company says will be able to create almost any beverage from the same 80 or so flavor compounds. We talk with Matt about the device, the story behind its creation and where he sees beverage tech going.

To learn more about Cana, check out their website at www.cana.com via Knit

While the fast growth of the ghost kitchen industry is exciting, it has some downsides. The industry's rapid expansion has often meant low-quality food, a lack of transparency, and, even health code violations.

Kristen Barnett wants to change all that with her newest venture, Hungry House. Barnett, who was formerly with Zuul, wants to be transparent about where the food is made and who is making it and to have tight control over the quality. That means growth will be purposeful in the beginning as the company builds its business one kitchen - and chef - at a time. via Knit

When Steve Simoni originally started BBot, the idea was to create restaurant robots, But things don't always go as planned, and for Simoni and BBot, that's a good thing since BBot is a fast-growing restaurant tech software startup.

Mike and Steve catch up on all things restaurant tech, including ghost kitchens, virtual restaurants, the food metaverse and, yes, restaurant robots.

Enjoy! via Knit

Unlike many computational biology startups that have emerged in recent years, Kingdom doesn't use precision fermentation technology or genetic engineering to build its new ingredient building blocks. Instead, the company is applies artificial intelligence to analyze a massive database of existing cultures to discover new and interesting potential microbial combinations that could provide new functionality, flavors and more.

In this interview, we talk with Ravi Sheth and Kendall Dabaghi, the cofounders of Kingdom Supercultures, to discuss how they are using modern compute to create new novel ingredients at a much faster pace than traditional biology. via Knit

Collagen is used everywhere, from cosmetics to food to health and wellness applications, and because animal-derived collagen is a by product of the animal farming industry, it has all the same downsides as the factory farming industry.

While some companies, like Geltor, are using precision fermentation technology to create animal-identical collagens using precision fermentation technology, a relatively new arriver to the alt-collagen space by the name of Jellatech is using cell-based technology to produce collagen, which the company then harvests for use in a variety of different applications. Jellatech's approach is similar to that of Turtletree Labs, which uses cell-based approaches to create human-identical breast milk. For TurtleTree - and Jellatech - the cells are not the products sold to or consumed by the customers - it's the collagen produced by those sells. via Knit

In 1985, Adam Lloyd Cohen was in Paris working on a documentary about ancient robots as a project during his senior year in college. After steeping himself in the history of automation during the day and dining on French cuisine at night, he began to think about how we might use robots to make food.

It took nearly four decades, but Cohen has built his food robot and is ready to bring his vision of distributed dining to the world.

You can listen to the podcast and also read about Adam's journey at The Spoon: https://thespoon.tech/after-almost-40-years-adam-lloyd-cohen-is-bringing-his-vision-for-food-robots-to-life/ via Knit

Scott Heimendinger has been building technology in the kitchen for the past decade.

It started over a decade ago when he wrote a seminal article for Maker magazine about building a $75 consumer sous vide circulator.From there he went to work for Modernist Cuisine and helped Nathan Myhrvold launch a series of new products built around the Modernist brand. He then started his own company called Sansaire building sous vide appliances. He eventually went to work with Anova to help them launch their steam oven.

And now, he wants to build the next great category in the kitchen.

Listen in to hear about what he is doing and what he's excited about in the kitchen.

This is Season 5, Episode 1. via Knit

Innit dropped news this week of a partnership with Google Cloud, so I thought I'd do a quick catch up with him to hear about the news and see what else Innit is up to.

You can find my story on Innit and Google Cloud over at The Spoon (www.thespoon.tech). via Knit

Koby Nahmias got a call in 2015 that would set the trajectory for next six years of his life and the cell-based meat industry.

An investor wanted to know what he thought of Mark Post's 250,000 euro cell-based hamburger.

From that point forward, Nahmias would set about reengineering the production for cell-based meat to reach mass market price points.

You can ready more about this interview with Koby Nahmias at The Spoon (www.thespoon.tech). via Knit

The Spoon gang got together this week after a little summer break to talk about some of the top food tech stories of the week, including:

-JOKR and Too Good To Go Team Up to Help Eliminate Food Waste with Mystery Boxes

-You Can Now (Finally) Preorder The Tetra Countertop Dishwasher

-Helaina is Developing Immune-Boosting Breast Milk Through Precision Fermentation

-Lunchbox Acquires Online Restaurant Marketplace Spread

-A Look at the Restaurant Tech Innovators at Restaurant Tech Summit

As always, read about these stories at The Spoon and listen to more podcasts wherever you get your podcasts. via Knit

Better Meat Company CEO Paul Shapiro is an alt-protein evangelist. And it's not just for his own company, but for pretty much any company or person helping to contribute to the end of factory farming.

In this episode, Mike talks about Better Meat Company's new mycoprotein production facility, the current state of plant-based meat and where Paul thinks the cell-based meat industry is going. via Knit

Dr Robert Graham is on a mission to help the world eat better. As a Harvard trained doctor as well as a chef, his business Fresh Med focuses on helping patients get at the root cause of their diseases and move towards healthier lives through diet.

As always, you can find more podcasts at The Spoon at www.thespoon.tech. via Knit

Daniel Kurzrock first became interested in upcycling when he first started making bread for his friends using the spent grains from his home brewed beer.

This hobby eventually led him to realize that beer brewing industry, as well as many other industries - had many food by products that could be turned into consumable food.

Listen as Daniel and I talk about the journey for ReGrained and the growth of the upcycled food industry. via Knit

It's been a couple weeks, but the Spoon got together to discuss some of the most interesting stories of the week.

Stories discussed on the podcast this week:

Restaurant traffic is up 50%. Are we past the COVID slump? Innerplant's technology that turns plants into 'sensors' Motif's almost quarter billion funding round Whole cut plant-based food *Upcycling gains momentum

As always, find more podcasts and stories at the Spoon. www.thespoon.tech via Knit

Eric Schulze left a long-time position as a FDA regulator to go to Upside Foods (Memphis Meats at the time) to help develop the cutting edge technology.

Eric's background would eventually come in handy as the company looks navigate the regulatory environment as it moves towards introducing its first product to market. via Knit

The gang got together to talk about some of their favorite stories of the week. Our special guest this week as Silvia Baldini, former Chopped cooking champ on the Food Network and food tech investor.

The stories discussed this week include:

Eat Just's GOOD Meat Raises $170M, Oatly IPOs, Has $13B Valuation Kellogg's has a cereal robots?! Beer Brewing Appliance Strikes out on Shark Tank A Virtual Restaurant Brand to Support Bitcoin, 'Take On' Big Pizza.

As always, you can find more of the Food Tech Show at The Spoon at www.thespoon.tech via Knit

Max Elder had a good thing going.

And then he decided he wanted to make a difference in the world.

So the last year he worked in stealth on his new plant-based meat company, Nowadays, which debuted this week. via Knit

There's really no one more responsible for the creation of today's plant-based cheese and butter market than Miyoko Schinner.

After turning vegan in the 80s, Schinner began a long journey that involved writing a number of best-selling cookbooks, getting on the wrong side of a Japanese mobster and eventually starting Miyoko's Creamery, a huge success story.

As always, you can listen to The Food Tech Show at The Spoon (www.thespoon.tech) or wherever you get your podcasts. via Knit

It's another weekly news round up with the Spoon team and this week's special guest, Ron Shigeta.

The stories/topics we discuss this week include:

*Beyond Meat to Launch Newest Version of its Burgers in U.S. Stores Next Week

*Singapore is Becoming the Global Future Food Hub

*Food Waste Innovation is Having a Moment

*Space Food

As always, find more Food Tech Shows at The Spoon (www,.thespoon.tech). via Knit

Let's talk space food!

As NASA prepares to send astronauts into space for years to reach far-flung places like Mars, one of the biggest challenges will be feeding them. Prepackaged meals-ready-to-eat won't cut it for years in space as astronauts will need to find ways to create fresh food that provides the balance nutrition required for long-term health and productivity in the most challenging of work environments.

To talk about the current state of space food and where it's going in the future, our guests for this show include:

-Anjan Contractor, CEO of BeeHex - BeeHex created a 3D pizza printer for NASA

-Dane Gobel - the operations administrator for the Deep Space Food Challenge, a NASA Centennial challenge to find innovative new ways to feed space travelers.

As always, you can find more Food Tech Show podcasts at www.thespoon.tech via Knit

The usual gang of Jenn Marston, Chris Albrecht & Michael Wolf got together this week to talk food tech with special guest Riana Lynn, longtime food tech entrepreneur and CEO of Journey Foods.

The stories discuss this week include:

-Robot servers are now bringing drinks and overpriced food to Houston Rockets fans at Toyota Center

-Amazon is bringing Palm Pay to WholeFoods

-Eat Just has notched another first with cultured meat in that they are going to be the first to deliver it to a consumer's home

-Clara Foods is partnering up with ABInBev's innovation arm to scale up production of their animal-free egg products using microbial fermentation

Find more Spoon podcasts at www.thespoon.tech via Knit

The Spoon team got together for another Food Tech Wrap-up live Clubhouse edition.

This week we discussed:

-Yes, Mealworms Are Gross. Here's Why They Matter -Territory Foods Chef-Created Prepared Meal Subscription Service -Atlast Food Co.'s Whole Cut Plant-Based Meat Analogues -The Self-Driving Delivery Explosion

As always, you can join these podcast recordings live on Friday in Clubhouse. Just follow the Food Tech Live room and be there at 1 Pacific on Fridays. via Knit

For most, founding one of the original better-for-you brands in Honest Tea would be enough of a life achievement. For Seth Goldman, it meant he was just getting started.

Nowadays as the Chairman of Beyond Meat and founder of plant-based snack brand Eat the Change and plant-based fast food chain PLNT Burger, Seth Goldman thinks a lot about the future of food.

We talk about how alt-protein and the future food space has evolved in recent years, the crazy valuations for startups, and where he thinks the market for these new alternatives to animal agriculture are going. via Knit

Eat Just founder and CEO Josh Tetrick is inarguably one of the leading pioneers in the future of food. In this interview, The Spoon's Jenn Marston talks with Josh about the company's recent milestones and where he sees alt-protein going in the future. via Knit

Another Clubhouse recorded edition of the Spoon editor podcast where we highlight the stories of the week.

This week's guest is Veronica Fil, the CEO of Grounded Foods.

Stories discussed this week:

-Ghost Kitchens Newest Location? Master Planned Communities

-Upcycled Food Startups Doing More Partnerships with Food Brands

-Takeoff Technologies Expands is Automated Fulfillment Network

-MeliBio Gets Funding for Bee Without the Honey

Join our Clubhouse rooms for the live recorded edition by following our club: https://www.joinclubhouse.com/club/foodtechlive via Knit

The Spoon team welcomed food tech investor Brian Frank to our live Clubhouse room where we talked about some stories from the last week.

The stories we talked about include:

-Cell-Cultured Fish Startup Bluu Biosciences Raises €7 million

-The Rise of 'Premium' Cultured Meat Startups

-Sony Invests in Analytical Flavor Systems and our Robot Chef Future

-NASA Harvest Partners with CropX to Combine Soil Monitoring and Satellite Data

-Ex-WeWorkers Launching Santa, A Hybrid 'Retail Experience' Startup Focused on 'Small US Cities'

As always, you can find more Food Tech Shows at The Spoon. via Knit

The Spoon team got together on Clubhouse for another live recording of the weekly food tech news, including:

-Online Grocery Weee! Raises $315M Series D Round -Cloud Software for Cloud Kitchens: Grubtech Raises $3.4M -GFI: $3.1 Billion Invested in Alternative Proteins in 2020, Tripling the Money Raised in 2019 -The Creators Behind Rare Pizzas Want to Use Pizza Art NFTs to Fund a Global Real-World Pizza Party -Are We Ready to Eat in Restaurants Again?

Thanks to our special guest, Tom Mastrobuoni of Big Idea Ventures.

As always, you can read the stories at The Spoon (www.thespoon.tech). via Knit

Naveen Jain has been on the forefront of technology for the last quarter century, starting one of the early seminal Internet companies in InfoSpace and eventually starting a space company in Moon Express. His current passion is Viome, a company focused on building high-precision nutrition information services and supplements derived from an understanding of a person's DNA, RNA and microbiome. via Knit

Live from Clubhouse! via Knit

Jim Mellon's new book, Moo's Law, looks at the future food industry through the lens of a long-time investor. Mellon is an investor and entrepreneur who also has written numerous books on industries such as biotech and investing. For his latest book, he interviewed the who's who of the future food industry and we discuss his findings on the podcast. via Knit

If you're interested in the future of the home kitchen, restaurants or food in general, you won't want to miss this conversation with Chef Chris Young.

Young announced his new company Combustion Inc this week, so we invited him to get on stage with us on Clubhouse to talk about lessons learned from his days at ChefSteps and Modernist Cuisine, what he's building at Combustion Inc and where he sees the world of restaurants going. It was a great conversation! via Knit

Clara Foods is making eggs without the animal.

The company has been working on its technology to make chickenless eggs since 2014 and finally released its first product last year. We talk to Clara Foods CEO Arturo Elizondo about a chicken-less egg future and how we get there. via Knit

Long-time food tech executive Lou Cooperhouse became fascinated with the idea of creating biotechnology to create animal cells for food as he watched pioneers like Mark Post product mammal cells in a lab, but realized there wasn't nearly as much innovation happening the world of cell-based fish.

And so BlueNalu was born.

We talk about the future of cell-based fish market, how creating cell-based fish differs from other types of cultivated meat and much more. via Knit

This week the Spoon editorial crew got together to talk about the latest food tech news.

On this week's podcast, the crew talked about:

-Dragontail Systems and Pizza Hut Deploy Pizza Delivery Drones in Israel -Controlled Ag Company AppHarvest's First-Ever Crop Arrives at Grocery Stores This Week -Smart Shopping Carts at Kroger (and elsewhere) -Big $ Continue for Cultured Meat Startups

As always, you can subscribe to the podcast in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get podcasts.

via Knit

While alt-meat and plant-based milks have seen an explosion in great products the past few years, plant-based cheese space hasn't seen the same level of new and exciting products.

That might change soon as Ground Foods brings its cauliflower and hemp based cheese products to the masses.

We talk with Veronica Fil, the CEO of Grounded Foods, on the story behind their product that has many in the plant-based food world excited about cheese. via Knit

In this episode of The Food Tech Show, the Spoon crew talks about what they saw at CES 2021 and Food Tech Live.

Both shows were virtual, but that didn't stop us from seeing and talking to some interesting food tech innovators.

As always, you can read about what we saw at The Spoon (www.thespoon.tech). via Knit

In the world of computing, the ability to build new products and scale quickly is something that has come to be expected. Long-established toolsets enable innovators to invent, iterate and scale and get to market much more quickly than in the past.

While the world of biomanufacturing has seen rapid advancements in recent years, Will Patrick believed that many of the things he had learned in the world of mechanical engineering could help make things move even faster. The result was Culture Biosciences, a company which makes offers cloud-connected bioreactors as a service to makers building the next generation of food and other bioengineered innovation. via Knit

Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that the bee is being threatened by a number of factors such as global warming, pesticides and yes, murder hornets.

While that presents a challenge to the $7 billion honey industry, the focus on honey production is problematic for the bee ecosystem itself as farmed bees compete with wild bees for food and ultimately can hurt biodiversity.

Because of this, Darko Mandich wants to create honey without the honeybee using cutting edge bioengineering techniques through the process of fermentation. His company, MeliBio, has already received commitments from over a dozen companies around the world to use his honey. via Knit

The Spoon team talks about the latest news from the world of food tech.

In this episode, we also talk about what we learned at our ghost kitchen event last week.

As always, you can find more Spoon podcasts at www.thespoon.tech via Knit

The editor crew gets together to talk about some of this week's biggest food tech stories.

-Pink Dot Using Postmates' Serve Robot to Delivery Food in West Hollywood -Eat Just Gets the World's First Regulatory Approval to Sell Cultured Meat -Are Humans the Next Lab-Grown Meat? -The Spoon gift guide recommendations.

As always, make sure to check out more podcasts at The Spoon. via Knit

This week the Spoon team discusses the confusion over McDonald's plant-based burger debut, the fast food restaurant's new drive through only restaurant format, the intro of Spyce Kitchen robotic restaurant 2.0 and discuss what a Biden presidency might look like when it comes to food tech policy. via Knit

Will lab grown meat scale like the Internet?

We discuss this and other stories on this week's podcast. Other stories include Ordermark's ghost kitchen play, the acquisition of coffee robot startup Briggo, whether we can use the term veggie burger.

As always, read more about these stories at The Spoon. via Knit

Before there was Modernist Cuisine and the entire molecular gastronomy movement, there was Harold McGee.

McGee changed the culinary landscape and, in particular, science-forward food writing with his book, "On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen", when it was published in 1984.

Since the publication of his seminal book, McGee has influenced a generation of chefs and food writers, as well as creating the original big bang for what would become the molecular gastronomy movement.

And now McGee is expanding his examination of how we examine and take in the world around us with his new book, " NOSE DIVE: A Field Guide to the World's Smells."

In this episode Mike talks with Harold about his new book, how he views the current state of culinary innovation and asks him about what gets him excited nowadays when it comes to food. via Knit

Amazon has unveiled yet another innovative yet slightly creep new technology in their palm-pay concept at Amazon Go.

The Spoon editors discuss this and other stories in this week's editor roundtable, including

-Bear intro Servi the restaurant robot -Shiok gets more funding for its lab-grown shellfish -Light-killing water vessel?

We also preview some of the finalists for the Startup Showcase for Smart Kitchen Summit. via Knit

The editor gang gets together to discuss some of the most interesting stories of the week, including:

-What reducing food waste means rethinking the fridge -A new technology that lets you control your cooking appliance with your gaze -How companies like Brightseed are using AI to create entirely new food products -We ask if the next-gen automat is here (or if gen 1 ever left)?

As always, you can read about these stories and more at The Spoon (www.thespoon.tech). via Knit

In this episode, The Spoon team talks about Walmart's new membership program and the launch of Grabango's technology at Giant Eagle. The team also discusses a new ghost kitchen robot, food halls at H-E-B and a new startup that is using AI to create cheese. Mike also complains about the lack of bathrooms on road trips.

Food Tech Show listeners: Smart Kitchen Summit is in six weeks! Just go to www.smartkitchensummit.com to learn more. via Knit

This week the editor team got together to discuss the following stories:

-Anova's new combi oven and whether steam will be the next big thing on the consumer kitchen -The broader trend towards more sustainable packaging -The creep factor of paying with your face -GE's new chef platform

As always, find more podcasts at www.thespoon.tech via Knit

The Spoon team have a heavily caffeinated conversation about the layoffs at Cafe-X, Mike's first week with the Spinn and Atomo molecular coffee. We also talk about a new ghost kitchen funding and augmented reality powered restaurant menus.

Also, Mike suggests new names for both Chris and Jenn. via Knit

The Spoon editor team got together this week to talk about some of the most interesting stories of the week. Included in this week's wrap up is a discussion about the white hot ghost kitchen market, a big milestone by cultured meat startup Mosa Meat, the acquisition of StoreBound (the company behind the Dash housewares brand) and Mike's disbelief about the $1 Keto cookies.

As always, you can find more Food Tech Shows at The Spoon at www.thespoon.tech via Knit

It's an editor roundtable podcast!

On this week's episode, we talk about:

-The Food Tech 25 -Restaurant reopenings and closings during the COVID spike -A new gadget for "growing bugs" to eat at home -Our food plans for the 4th, including Jenn's plans to bake cricket flour cupcakes

Enjoy and stay safe this weekend! via Knit

Investing in startups that make products to-consumers can be tough, but it's also exciting.

Mike talks with long-time investor Elizabeth Edwards about why she invests exclusively on consumer brands and why food is one of her favorite categories. via Knit

This week Michael Wolf sits down with Riana Lynn to talk about her journey as a black female food tech entrepreneur.

From working in the Obama White House to Don Thompson's Cleveland Avenue to starting her latest venture that uses AI to help CPG companies make healthier and more sustainable food products, Riana's had a fascinating journey. Mike talks to her about this journey, how she thinks food tech could help address some of the systemic racial inequities within the broader food system, how food tech could be more welcoming to people of color, and whether she's hopeful about the possibility of positive change resulting from today's current conversation around race in the United States. via Knit

The Spoon editor team got together to talk about the great reopening of restaurants and what it looks like. We also talk about a new interoperability standard for food traceability and a cool new unitasker food prep device that's perfect for those living living in small spaces. via Knit

It's a sad day at the Spoon: Catherine Lamb is leaving us to go to graduate school!

We give Catherine a bad time and wish her well and also catch up on the latest food tech news of the week.

Check out this and other podcasts at www.thespoon.tech via Knit

We talk a lot about product launches here on The Food Tech Show, but this week we talk a little about our own product launch with Spoon Plus.

In addition to the backstory of our new membership community, we also talk about:

-PastaDrop, a pasta-as-a-service offering from the founder of Woot! -the end of buffets -the use of geofencing by Walmart and others

Enjoy the podcast. You can find more at www.thespoon.tech via Knit

This week the Spoon editors got together to talk about some of the biggest stories of the week, including:

-CookMagic, a textbot based recipe assistant -Can Pico-roasting help coffee shops survive the pandemic? -The all-but-certain end of PicoBrew -The Yo-Kai meal kit: Robot maker goes meal kit provider via Knit

The Spoon editor team got together for the weekly podcast to discuss some of the top stories of the week. Here's what they discussed:

-California is going to pay restaurants to make food for seniors

-Food Network Kitchen on Amazon devices

-Cheetah gets funding round - all of these supplier platforms going from B2B tot D2C

-What's with all the chickpea protein investment? via Knit

It's a very specific cultural moment when a twitter thread about growing yeast goes viral.

That's exactly what happened recently and so the Spoon editors talk about that and a few other stories on this week's edition of the Food Tech Show.

Other stories discussed include how quarantine life may (or may not) have many of us putting our smart kitchen gadgets to work more and how we all felt inspired after hearing kitchen tech makers Scott Heimendinger and Larry Jordan took us into their workshops this past week to talk about their DIY tools and processes for making the next big kitchen gadget. via Knit

How has the coronavirus changed how you eat?

For some of the Spoon team, it's meant more processed food. For others (i.e. Catherine), that means more cooking with fresh food.

The Spoon team got together this week to talk about this and other things on our minds as we start to lose track of what day it as our stay at home orders enter their second month.

As always, you can find more podcasts at www.thespoon.tech. via Knit

With most places still in lockdown, many restaurants are trying to survive by going off-premise through a combination of delivery and takeout. The Spoon's Chris Albrecht caught up with Chowly's Sterling Douglass to talk about what he's seeing out there in what is a rapidly changed restaurant landscape and to discuss strategies for going off-premise.

This conversation took place as part of The Spoon's COVID-19 Virtual Strategy Summit. If you missed the summit and would like to see some of what you missed, all the sessions are now available to watch here: https://thespoon.tech/covid-19-strategy-summit-for-food-session-videos/ via Knit

The Spoon editors got together to talk about some of the stories of people and companies stepping up to the plate during a dark time or well positioned to take advantage of rapidly changing consumer behavior.

As always, you can find more Spoon podcasts and our stories at www.thespoon.tech via Knit

The Spoon editor gang got together to discuss:

-Chris uses Instacart to get his parents to stop going to the grocery store during the pandemic -The hiring surge among grocery stores and services like Instacart -The ever rotating product shortages at the store as people shift their behavior -The surge in baking on Instagram as people look for things to do and comfort themselves while sheltering in place

As always, thanks for listening! via Knit

From his time as director of culinary research for three Michelin star restaurant Alinea to creating video game themed dinner nights at his own Seattle based restaurant "incubator" Addo, Chef Eric Rivera has a reputation for being innovative.

But during the COVID-19 pandemic, those innovation skills have become survival skills as Rivera helps his restaurant group traverse our rapidly changing new shared reality.

Michael Wolf caught up with Rivera to discuss the ways in which his business is adapting with the mandatory shut down of restaurants in Washington state during COVID-19, including launching his own delivery service, his Addo Pantry and remote cooking classes.

You can find Eric on Instagram at www.instagram.com/ericriveracooks via Knit

We're all sheltering in place, locked down and trying to keep on top of the impact of this global contagion on the world of food tech.

We talk about mandatory restaurant shut downs, restaurants and food businesses trying to pivot during COVID and the challenges of writing about food tech during a global pandemic.

We want to hear your stories. If you have any unique stories from your place in the world that intersects with food tech, food innovation or just something you think should be heard, reach out via tips@thespoon.tech.

Stay safe everyone! via Knit

It's a confusing and worrying time, so join some of your friends from the Spoon as we talk food tech for a half an hour.

On today's podcast, we talk cover the following stories: -Is coronavirus accelerating adoption of certain food tech sectors? -Amazon is selling its next-gen grocery tech to other companies -Sweetgreen looks to make its to-go bowls fully compostable -There is another pizza vending machine and they've raised an eye-popping $10 million

As always, you can find more podcasts at www.thespoon.tech via Knit

We're back for an editor podcast.

This week Mike, Chris and Catherine discuss the following stories:

-How the coronavirus is impacting the world of tech, including the Housewares show -Starbucks and McDonalds push waste free cups in San Francisco -A cup that lets you create fizzy water on the go -Another plant based burger, this time from industrial food giant Cargill

For more podcasts, visit www.thespoon.tech via Knit

The Spoon editor pod!

Mike, Jenn, Chris and Catherine got together to discuss some of the stories of the week, including:

-PicoBrew is up for sale. What happened? -In a related story, PicoBrew also has technology that can "age" spirits overnight. Is this a game changer for the distilling industry? -Coranavirus is impacting nearly every aspect of the economy. How is it going to impact the world food and food delivery? -The owner of Tim Horton's and Burger King is investing heavily in personalization. How will that change the consumer experience in the restaurant?

As always, listen to more podcasts at The Spoon: www.thespoon.tech via Knit

The Spoon team got together talk about the most interesting food and kitchen tech stories of the week, including:

-Should food robots take humanoid form? -Miele's next-generation cooking appliance is shipping - what does it mean? -Is hot food the next big thing to be delivered from your grocery shopping list? -Some people think we'll never eat bugs here in the US. Are they right?

For more Food Tech Show podcasts, head over to The Spoon at www.thespoon.tech or subscribe in your favorite podcast player via Knit

We spent a week in Vegas scouting out everything food and kitchen at the Consumer Electronics Show!

In this episode, Mike, Catherine, Chris and Jenn talk about what we saw, tasted and who we talked to in the world of food tech for the big show.

In this episode we cover:

-Impossible Pork -Food robots at CES (drinkbots, cooking robots and pizzabots) -All the drink tech -Adaptable, personalized kitchen spaces -The growing interest in home grow systems by big appliance brands -Poop hands (or technology to fight this epidemic in restaurants).

That's it. Make sure to check out our wrap up posts on CES over at The Spoon and to subscribe to the podcast! via Knit

The Spoon editors got together to discuss the news of the week, including the recent story we broke on The Spoon about Nomiku closing its doors. We discuss whether Nomiku's ends says anything about the broader consumer sous vide landscape and what categories could replace it as the next-big-thing in cooking.

Other stories we cover this week:

Blue Bottle wants to become waste free in one year. Is that too aggressive?

What is this about breast milk grown in a lab?

Winners and losers in kitchen Kickstarter in 2019

Enjoy and have a great holiday season! via Knit

The Spoon editor team got together this week to talk about some of the most interesting stories, including Jenn Marston's ghost kitchen market map.

In addition to talking about the fast changing landscape for virtual kitchens, we also talked about:

-Miele's acquisition of a vertical farming startup -How CRISPR could save our french fries -Baby food delivery -A few last minute food tech holiday gift suggestions

Enjoy the pod! via Knit

Like many Americans, the Spoon crew is preparing for Thanksgiving, but before we head off our separate ways to overdose on tryptophan, we decided to get together to catch up on some of the news of the week.

Here is what we discussed:

-Olo and BMW Partner for In-car Restaurant Food Ordering -The BrüMachen car coffee maker -Middleby's acquisition of smart oven maker Brava -Some Black Friday food tech deals

That's it. Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!

For more Food Tech Shows, visit The Spoon at www.thespoon.tech via Knit

We're back after a mini-vacation following Smart Kitchen Summit.

This week the Spoon editors got back on the mic to discuss:

-The BRÜ tea maker (and Mike's inability to say the word umlaut) -The new Uber Eats delivery drone -The YourLocal app that allows restaurants to sell excess food at a discount -The new California law that mandates food waste bins in quick service restaurants -Sweetgreen 3.0!

Enjoy your podcast and, as always, please leave a review if you enjoy what you hear. via Knit

It's another editor podcast where the Spoon gang gets together to discuss some of our favorite stories of the week.

Here's what Mike, Jenn and Chris discuss on this week's podcast:

-Fatburger's ghost kitchen play -Food tech and stadiums -Joe Ray's Wired article about the smart kitchen being dumb -Amazon's Alexa announcements

We'll be discussing many of these topics at SKS (including Mike talking to Joe on stage about what isn't working with the connected kitchen). Make sure to get your tickets at www.smartkitchensummit.com and use the discount code PODCAST for 25% off! via Knit

The Spoon team (Mike, Catherine, Jenn & Chris) got together this week to talk food tech!

Here are some of the stories we discussed:

-The Caper smart grocery cart -The new bill in California that would require gig economy workers to be treated as employees -Impossible's first retail product, which looks like it will be a pound of "ground beef" -A look at this year's class of Startup Showcase finalists for the Smart Kitchen Summit

If you want to see the startups we talk about or hang out with the Spoon crew, make sure to go to the Smart Kitchen Summit! Use discount code PODCAST for 25% off of tickets at www.smartkitchensummit.com - via Knit

This week the Spoon gang got together to talk about some of the most interesting food tech stories of the week.

Chris Albrecht, Jenn Marston, Catherine Lamb and Michael Wolf discuss the following stories:

-Starship's new funding round and their expansion to more college campuses -The new cow/plant-based milk blends -The curious crowdfunding campaign of Mealthy, a recipe app and pressure cooker air fryer converter lid -The NYC proposed cap on third party delivery fees of 10% -Our reviews of the Impossible Whopper

Enjoy the podcast! via Knit

The Spoon team went to Tokyo this month for the third annual Smart Kitchen Summit Japan. It was Chris and Catherine's first time in Japan, so we discuss the magical wonders of this amazing country like Japan's version of 7-11, food robots and the amazing food to be had everywhere.

And, of course, we also discuss the hugely successful third edition of SKS Japan, so listen in to hear about what we learned and some of the friends we made during this great two day event.

If you want to be meet many of those who participated in SKS Japan, make sure to come to SKS North America (use discount code PODCAST for 25% off of tickets). Find out more at www.smartkitchensummit.com via Knit

Beth Altringer first became fascinated in flavor when she joined a competitive wine tasting organization when she was going to graduate school at The University of Cambridge.

While it had nothing to do with her field of study (product design and innovation), the very idea one could break down the characteristics of wine and its flavor into highly descriptive and well understood categories was a revelation to Altringer, so much so she eventually began to think about whether it was possible to apply this systematic and analytical approach to flavor to almost any type of food.

It was from there that the Flavor Genome Project was born, an initiative that "explores how components of flavor combine to create delightful multi-sensory, chemical, emotional, and cultural experiences." The goal of the project is to eventually create an "automated understanding of what people are intuitively searching for in a food or drink experience, regardless of the language they use to search for it, intelligently understanding flavor goals in context, and, ultimately, making it easier for people to discover experiences they are likely to enjoy."

The Flavor Genome Project is intended to be a platform that could be a foundation for other products, and the first of those product is a mobile game called Chef's League. The iOS game allows players to compete to master the usage of different flavor characteristics such as "salt, sweetness, acidity, fat, spice, and more."

You can find out more about the Flavor Genome Project and the Chef's League at www.flavorgenomeproject.com. via Knit

The Spoon editorial gang got together to discuss the latest news in foodtech, including:

-Starbucks deal with Brightloom (formerly Eatsa) and what it means for the restaurant tech market -A New York Times piece about a day in the life of food delivery drivers -Uber's all-in-one app for food, bikes and rideshares -The Spinn coffee maker being close to shipping and Mike's wishes he bought a Terra Kaffe instead

As always, you can find more Food Tech Shows at The Spoon at www.thespoon.tech via Knit

With all the technology today around our own usage patterns, personal preferences and overall health and wellness, why is it that the restaurant menu still offers a one-sized fits all offering for guests?

Host Michael Wolf is joined by The Fit's Scott Sanchez to talk about the evolution of the restaurant menu and when we can expect to see truly personalized menus. via Knit

The Spoon's editorial gang got together to record a podcast just before the Fourth of July. We talk about using tech in the backyard, whether the IKEA approach to DIY/self-assembly is the future of the smart kitchen and introduce Mike's new radio game show, Name The Chef.

As always, find more Food Tech Shows on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and at The Spoon. via Knit

Imagine you could "delete" the portion in a food DNA sequence that is bad for you. That's exactly what CRISPR and gene editing promises to do, and in this podcast Mike catches up with Deepbranch Biotech's Pete Rowe to learn more about this technology that promises to be one of the food industry's biggest game-changers over the next couple of decades.

You can learn more about Deepbranch Biotechnology at https://deepbranchbio.com/

Make sure to check out the Smart Kitchen Summit at www.smartkitchensummit.com and use discount code PODCAST for 25% off of tickets. via Knit

The kitchen has lagged behind other rooms in the home in the move towards digital service platforms, but that is starting to change. One of the companies at the forefront in building a digital food and cooking platform is Innit.

In this conversation, Mike catches up with Kevin Brown, the CEO of Innit, on the great digital kitchen transformation and what Innit is doing to build a digital platform for food and cooking. via Knit

This is a podcast where Mike professes his love...for cereal.

After breaking himself free of the morning cereal habit years ago, Mike decides to try Magic Spoon, a new high-protein low carb cereal that sells only through a direct-to-consumer model. This cereal, which tastes like the sugar cereal of our (and maybe your) childhoods, has been on backorder and out of stock despite an eye-popping price point of $10 per 7 ounce box.

As always, check out The Spoon at www.thespoon.tech for more news and analysis (and the occasional cereal review). via Knit

Welcome to The Food Tech Show with Michael Wolf (formerly the Smart Kitchen Show).

The Spoon team is back together for another editorial roundtable (this time with sound effects!).

This week we discuss: -Who would use a tiny little countertop dishwasher -The problem with Beyond Meat burgers -The growing robot backlash -Are we ok with Walmart walking into our homes?

On the podcast are Michael Wolf, Catherine Lamb, Chris Albrecht and Jenn Marston. via Knit

As you might expect, working a robot into the busy back of house of a fast food restaurant isn't as easy as just setting it in front of the grill and plugging it in.

Nope, restaurants are a complicated mix of workflows, equipment and yes, people, so automating a part of the process with robotics requires planning.

For this podcast we talk with some of the folks working on the leading edge of restaurant robotics, including Shawn Lange of Lab2Fab (a division of Middleby) and David Zito of Miso Robotics (the company behind Flippy, the burger flipping robot).

Important Note - We are going to change the name of this podcast to The Food Tech Show from The Spoon. Why? Because we talk about lots of things in addition to the connected kitchen (though we still talk about that a whole bunch) and thought the name should reflect the wide set of topics. You won't have to change a thing - just stay subscribed and keep an eye out for our new podcast logo with the new name next week! via Knit

Our daily work here at The Spoon includes a lot of chats with food innovators bringing their new tech and ideas to market and in the process changing the way we eat. In fact, we get so much good intel from these conversations we decided it's time to open the dialogue and invite our readers to participate in what we are calling our FoodTech Firesides.

Our first fireside was all about foodtech accelerators, and we had a great conversation with leaders of two of the most interesting accelerators out there: Food-X and WeWork Food Labs.

This is a recording from our first live fireside. The guests for this first fireside were Tessa Price, the Manager of WeWork Food Labs, and Peter Bodenheimer, the Program Director of Food-X.

We want to thank our sponsor for this FoodTech Fireside, Cloutier Arnold Ortega. You can find out more about them at www.CAOTeam.com

Enjoy the podcast! via Knit

The Spoon crew gets together to talk about the latest edition of the Food Tech 25. The Food Tech 25 are the twenty five companies the Spoon editorial team believe are doing most interesting work in the world of food tech right now.

Mike also gets excited about a new craft chocolate appliance for the home.

On this podcast:

Michael Wolf Catherine Lamb Jenn Marston Chris Albrecht

As always, check out www.thespoon.tech for stories and to subscribe to our newsletter. via Knit

If you're a reader of the Spoon or a hardcore foodtech nerd (or, more than likely, both), you have read about a nascent but fast-growing group of startups working on technology to make food "out of thin air". These new companies are exciting because they are able to entirely disconnect from using agriculture-based resources - yes, both animal AND plant-based inputs) to create protein with a negligible impact on our the environment. The technique they are using is called "gas fermentation".

I am so fascinated by this technology and these companies that I decided to invite the CEO of Solar Foods, Pasi Vainikka, on the show to tell us a little more about when we can expect protein created with this new process to hit our plates.

I hope you enjoy it. You can find out more about Solar Foods at https://solarfoods.fi

As always, find more podcasts about foodtech at The Spoon at www.thespoon.tech via Knit

Gotta give credit where credit is due: Amazon sure has lots of ideas about how to get more stuff to your house.

While everyone is focused on delivery drones, cute little delivery bots and pickup lockers, Amazon's also been brainstorming about putting a robot in your garage that could go and retrieve your latest package for you.

That's just one of the topics we tackle in this week's podcast with the Spoon editor gang. Other topics include:

-Motif's massive $90 million funding round for its plant to democratize plant-based ingredients -How Gen Z is shaking up the food business with its eating habits -Do we need refrigeration in our countertop appliances?

As always, you can find more podcasts at www.thespoon.tech via Knit

This week on the editor roundtable edition of the Smart Kitchen Show, Mike, Catherine, Jenn and Chris discuss:

-The explosion in food AI (including news by McCormicks new partnership with IBM) -The crackdown on CBD by different local governments as everyone struggles to figure out what is and isn't legal -The recent launch of BSH Appliances smart kitchen accelerator (and all the other foodtech accelerators) -Finding love on a smart fridge

Make sure to find more podcasts at www.thespoon.tech via Knit

A new year, a couple new plant-based burgers. And as Impossible and Beyond battle it out for plant-based burger supremacy, the world of food delivery continues to see shakeups, new delivery technology and accelerated consumer adoption.

We talk about all this in this week's edition of the editorial roundtable. Join Catherine Lamb, Jenn Marston, Chris Albrecht and Michael Wolf as they discuss the latest in foodtech news. via Knit

No matter what publication you write for, if you are writing about kitchen products you increasingly have to consider how digital and connected technology impact how people cook.

At SKS 2018, Michael Wolf sat down with four of the leading kitchen product reviewers to ask them how they do their job - and how their job is changing - in an increasingly connected world.

On the podcast panel were:

Lisa McManus - America's Test Kitchen Joe Ray - Wired Ashley Clarke Thompson - CNET Wilson Rothman - Wall Street Journal

You can find more podcasts and articles about the future of cooking at https://thespoon.tech via Knit

We're just a couple days out from CES and the Spoon team is heading out to Vegas.

On this podcast, the Spoon team talks about their predictions for 2019 and what they're excited about to see at CES.

On the podcast: Jenn Marston, Catherine Lamb, Chris Albrecht and Michael Wolf. via Knit

Like most people, when I think food robots I think about efficiency. More burgers flipped, dishes cleaned and customers served. But what if the precision of robots can actually make food that tastes better?

I talk about this, the uncanny valley of meat and more with this week's guest, Ali Bouzari, the chief science officer of Pilot R&D and Render Foods and author of INGREDIENT: Unveiling the Essential Elements of Food.

You can find out more about Ali at https://www.alibouzari.com/ via Knit

Like many people, I've long been fascinated with space and one of the most interesting aspects of interstellar travel is what exactly people will eat on space and once they get up there among the stars.

This is something that Angelo Vermeulen has been thinking about for a long time. After spending years focused on systems and design for interstellar travel and colonization, Vermeulen was made the commander of the first HI-SEAS mission, a NASA funded space simulation focused on researching how to keep crews happy during long missions in space.

In this episode, we talk about his experience on the HI-SEAS, some of his key takeaways, and the current state of space food research.

You can find out more about Angelo at http://www.angelovermeulen.net/ via Knit

The Spoon editors get together for a weekly conference call. Since we always have a fun time talking foodtech, we thought why don't we double-dip and also record the conversation!

So here is the first Spoon editor roundtable podcast! The topics we discuss include:

-Will fake meat (aka 'motherless meat' (thanks Chris) will be a big trend in 2019 -The spontaneous combustion of the Kiwi delivery bot -Whether food halls are the new mall food court

The editors on the call include Chris Albrecht, Catherine Lamb, Jenn Marston and Michael Wolf.

Enjoy! via Knit

"The [cannabis edibles] consumer is probably not who you think it is," said Linda Gilbert, formerly Managing Editor, Consumer Insights cannabis data company BDS Analytics. "The average age of a cannabis consumer is 42. This is not an 18 year old living in his parent's basement."

In this talk from the Smart Kitchen Summit 2018, The Spoon's Catherine Lamb talks with Linda and two other experts about the burgeoning cannabis edibles market - and where we can expect it to grow from here. via Knit

If you were to look at all the products rolled out in the connected home over the past decade, you probably couldn't find two more vastly different outcomes than that of the Amazon Echo and Juicero.

But what most people don't know, it was the same person running point on hardware development for both products.

In this podcast, the Wall Street Journal's Wilson Rothman talks to Malachy about the lessons he's learned from being instrumental in rolling out products with such wildly different outcomes. via Knit

What does the future kitchen look like? Will we have kitchens as we know them today, or will food delivery at the touch of a button mean these spaces simply become gathering locations with vending machines and spots to recycle our packaging from Amazon delivery boxes?

In this session, Mike talks with Dana Cowin (Speaking Broadly, Food & Wine) and Jon Jenkins (Hestan Smart Cooking, Pinterest) about whether the future kitchen looks like. via Knit

In this special episode of the Smart Kitchen Show, Mike and Chris catch up with their friend Stacey Higginbotham of the IoT Podcast about what she saw today at the Amazon Alexa devices unveil in Seattle. Stacey was on hand as Amazon unveiled a bunch of new devices, including an Alexa powered microwave and the second generation Echo Show, so listen in as Stacey, Chris and Mike discuss what it all means for the connected kitchen and the smart home market.

Find more of Stacey at www.iotpodcast.com

As always, find more Smart Kitchen Shows at www.thespoon.tech via Knit

Ever wonder what time of day most people drink coffee? According Ember CEO Clay Alexander, peak coffee-drinking time across the country is 10:51 AM.

I sat down with Alexander, the inventor of the Ember mug, at the Housewares show in Chicago in March. I asked him about the idea of adding precision heating to drinkware, what other markets and applications he sees for the technology, and where sees Ember fitting in as part of the broader smart home. via Knit

While most of us only started to think about food robots in the last couple of years, Rishi Israni and his cofounder (and wife) Pranoti Nagarkar Israni have been thinking about them every day for a decade. That's because ten years ago Pranoti decided to build a robot to create the Indian flat bread called roti so she wouldn't have to make it every day by hand. Fast forward to 2018 and the Rotimatic flatbread robot is arguably the most successful home kitchen robot worldwide.

In this podcast I talk to Rishi about the journey behind the Rotimatic, what the difference is between and appliance and a robot and where exactly these things called food robots are going in the future.

You can find out more about the Rotimatic at https://rotimatic.com/.

Find more Smart Kitchen Shows at www.thespoon.tech. If you would like to meet Rishi and Pranoti in person, make sure to get your ticket to the Smart Kitchen Summit at www.smartkitchensummit.com. Use the discount code PODCAST for 25% off of tickets. via Knit

At last year's Smart Kitchen Summit, celebrity chef Tyler Florence declared "the recipe is dead!"

There's no doubt the recipe is changing with the arrival of new technologies, cooking methods and content formats, so we decided to have a conversation about this at Smart Kitchen Summit Europe. This episode of the Smart Kitchen Show features a panel conversation featuring the BBC's LuLu Grimes, Hestan Cue's Jon Jenkins and Dishq's Kishan Vasani. The panel was moderated by YouTube star Katie Quinn.

You can see hear more about the future of the recipe at Smart Kitchen Summit in Seattle at www.smartkitchensummit.com. Use discount code PODCAST for 25% off tickets. via Knit

A decade ago, Amy Gross was drinking wine with her husband and started to think about how people tasted the same wine very differently. She began to think about how technology could be used to make personal wine recommendations and before long she had companies like IBM and others asking about her tech-powered wine recommendation platform, VineSleuth.

Mike and Amy talk about mapping wine flavor using technology, how AI could start to provide really contextual and personalized recommendations and much more in this podcast.

You can find out more about VineSleuth at www.vinesleuth.com.

Find more Smart Kitchen Shows at www.thespoon.tech via Knit

Food delivery is a rapidly changing, highly competitive business. For this episode, we chat with Michael Wystrach, the CEO of Freshly, about how the food delivery business is changing, how Freshly differentiates itself from its competitors and where he sees this market going.

Find more podcasts at https://thespoon.tech/category/podcasts/ via Knit

To kick off the new season of Smart Kitchen Show, we talk to with Matt Rolandson, a partner of design firm Ammunition Group.

Ammunition is one of the leading design and strategy firms in Silicon Valley, and has worked with a bunch of the future-food product companies in the space such as Cafe-X, June and Ember.

Mike talks to Matt about designing technology-forward products that don't create a barrier for consumers and the act of cooking.

You can find out more about Ammunition at https://ammunitiongroup.com

Find more podcasts at www.thespoon.tech via Knit