The Spoon Podcast

The episode's guest is Robby Earl, president of Virtual Dining Concepts (the company behind Beastburger). Robby is also president of Linked Eats, a new technology company that makes software for virtual restaurant brand operators. I caught up with Robbie last week to talk about his new company and its technology and to get an update on what is going on in the virtual restaurant space, an industry that has seen some challenges in recent years. We also talk about the reshuffling of the VDC brand portfolio and get an update on the lawsuit between VDC and BeastBurger. Enjoy the conversation! Remember to subscribe to our new show, The Food Tech News Show. Our latest guest is Molly Wood, longtime podcaster and host of Everbody in The Pool. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This interview is with Rajat Bhageria, an investor and technology founder who debuted his food robot after working stealthily for five years. Bhageria, a master’s graduate of Penn’s Robotics and Machine Learning Lab, started his first company in high school, a social network for young writers. During college and grad school, he founded Third Eye, a company using computer vision to assist the visually impaired. I got to know Rajat in 2019 when he spoke at our food robotics conference called ArticulaTE. At the time, he was just getting started exploring the idea of food robotics while also running his venture capital firm Prototype Capital. He took this knowledge and what he learned as an investor and started Chef, a company that makes a food robot that assembles cooked and ready-to-eat food in high-volume environments. This focus, says Bhageria, is much different from the bulk of robots in the market, most of which focus primarily on prep and cooking in restaurants and food service. In this conversation, we talk about: Why it's important to have great data when building vertical-specific robot like Chef Why Rajat felt that restaurants is the wrong part of the value chain to start building food robot How early founders should focus on understanding the pain points of their future clients before building their product Why Rajat believes that home food robots will never be a big market Where he sees this space going over the next decade and much more! If you'd like to explore how AI and automation will change food, you won't want to miss our upcoming Food AI Summit on September 25th. Visit the website and use the coupon code PODCAST to get 15% off tickets. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Spoon is launching a dedicated Food Tech News Show podcast. which you can find here on Overcast, on Pandora (and here on our podcast host) and Apple Podcasts. \And, of course, you can listen to this episode on The Spoon feed. In the future, we will focus on interviews and deep dives here on The Spoon Podcast, so make sure to subscribe to FTNS for your weekly shot of food tech news. On this episode, Michael Wolf and Carlos Rodela welcome Peter Bodenheimer, a longtime food tech investor and operator, to discuss the current state of food and ag tech funding. In this episode, they delve into: The decline in agrifoodtech investments in the first half of 2024, with startups raising $7 billion across 427 deals, a significant drop from H1 2023. Upside Foods’ recent layoffs and industry challenges due to legislative bans and decreased venture capital funding. SharkNinja’s latest innovation, the Ninja SLUSHi™ Professional Frozen Drink Maker, which brings commercial-grade slushies to home kitchens. Chef Robotics emerging from stealth mode to showcase its new robot and announce early customer partnerships. Thimus’ groundbreaking technology, the T-Box, which reads brainwaves to assess consumer reactions to food products. Tune in to The Spoon's new dedicated weekly food tech news show! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For most Americans, the Kraft and Heinz brands have been ever-present in our cupboards and fridges for our entire lives. Products like Oscar Meyer hot dogs, Kraft cheese, Velveeta, and Jello. Household names all. The company resulted from the 2015 merger between Kraft Foods and Heinz. Now the third biggest food brand in North America, we thought it would be interesting to hear how they think about innovation and reinventing their product lineup. To do that, we sit down with Kraft Heinz's President of R&D for North America, Robert Scott. As a part of this conversation, we talk with Robert about: The company's partnership with NotCo and how they are using the Guiseppe AI to develop new plant-based products. How he sees AI becoming interwoven into the company's product development cycles Why they created a Freestyle-like machine for custom condiments called the Heinz ReMix The idea behind the 360Crisp and innovating our food products and how they cook in our kitchens How Robert would advise aspiring food scientist to pursue a career path in food research and development And much more! At the Food AI Summit in September in Berkeley, we will explore how big CPGs can interweave AI into their product development and discuss lessons from the front lines. You can learn more about the Food AI Summit at our website, and make sure to use the coupon code PODCAST for 15% off tickets. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is the audio from the very first session at SKS 2024, Lessons From the First Wave (And How to Prepare for The Next One). The session included Chris Young (Combustion, ChefSteps, Modernist Cuisine), Scott Heimendinger (Sansaire, Modernist Cuisine and Cuisonic), and Kai Schaffner (Thermomix). The session was moderated by The Spoon's Michael Wolf. It was a lively conversation about how we are seeing patterns of behavior reminiscent of the last wave, as well as what each of the speakers is excited about for the future. We'll be talking about some of these same topics at our next event, the Food AI Summit. Use discount code PODCAST for 15% off tickets. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SKS 2024 is in the books, so Carlos Rodela and Mike sit down and talk about the craziness of the past week, some of the products they checked out at the show, and some of the talks by our great lineup of speakers. If you'd like to see a video version of this conversation with interspered photos from SKS, check it out on the Spoon later this week. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What would happen if you put a big battery in your induction stove? For one thing, you could cook at a much higher temperature because the power the battery brings to each cooking session is much higher than a traditional outlet. You also have the start of a fractionalized power wall, creating a foundation for what could be your electrified home. We talk about these and other implications of electrification in this conversation with Sam D'Amico, the CEO of Impulse Labs. Sam will be at Smart Kitchen Summit this week talking about kitchen electrification and the Impulse Labs story. If you'd like to see Sam in person, get your ticket for the Smart Kitchen Summit at www.smartkitchensummit.com. Use code PODCAST for 15% off tickets. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you follow food Instagram or TikTok, chances are over the past couple of years you've seen a touchscreen toaster from Revolution Cooking. Revolution's toaster went viral during the pandemic, in part because it has a touchscreen, but also because of a price tag north of $250. But Revolution CEO Tom Klaff said the toaster was just the beginning, and the fuller vision for the company started to come into focus this past CES when they introduced the Macrowave, a device that combines microwave cooking, infrared heating, air frying and more. In this podcast, we talk to Tom about why he decided to enter the kitchen technology space, how he and his partner came up with the idea to create a touchscreen toaster, launching during a pandemic, becoming Oprah's favorite toaster, and much more. If you want to meet Tom in person and hear about his heating technology, he'll be at the Smart Kitchen Summit on June 4-5th. Just head to www.smartkitchensummit.com and use the coupon code PODCAST for 15% off tickets. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode's guest is Assaf Pashut, the founder of Chefee, a company that makes home cooking robots. If there's a category in kitchen technology where there have been lots of startups over the past few years, it's food robotics. Zume, Flippy, Remy Robotics, BurgetBot, and Picnic to name a few. Even Travis Kalanick is getting into the act. However, most food robots are made for commercial kitchens and that's for good reason. As consumers tend to like appliances we're familiar with, so the idea of having a robot to make our food seems like something out of a science fiction future. But Assaf Pashut had a vision for using robotics to help us make better food and so he built Chefee, a home food robotic system that is different than anything out there. It's not a countertop appliance that has automated things within a box, or a system that has big robotic arms attached to the wall. With Chefee, the robotics recede into the background. In this conversation, we discuss how Assaf came up with the idea for Chefee, how he got to where he is today, and his vision of the future. He also tells the story of pitching Chefee on Shark Tank. If you'd like to see Assaf in person you can do so at the Smart Kitchen Summit. Just use coupon code PODCAST at smartkitchensummit.com for 15% off. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nick Holzherr is well-known in the smart kitchen space. With the rapid growth of his startup Whisk and the acquisition of the company by Samsung, it's one of the true success stories in this market. Whisk was the first recipe startup to explore early on how to use AI and apply it to recipes. As we find out in this interview, Nick and his team were building everything from the ground up, including buying computer chips to run his AI models a decade ago. Nick also tells the story of going on the British version of The Apprentice and appearing before Lord Sugar (the British version of Donald Trump) to pitch the company. Over the years, Nick's company started working with grocers in Europe and eventually appliance brands, and it wasn't long before he started getting calls about acquiring the company. Nick talks about those heady days in which he got three companies all making bids to buy the company. Nick also discusses what he is excited about and where he sees the use of AI in the kitchen going. If you'd like to see Nick and hear his story in person, I'd encourage you to head to Smart Kitchen Summit. You can use the discount code PODCAST to get 15% off tickets at smartkitchensummit.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this week's podcast, we talk food and AI with Evan Rapoport. Over the past decade, Evan has led teams in Google Research and other organizations 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices