Smart Kitchen Show

In this week's episode, Mike is joined by Eric Dawson of the Yellow Farmhouse and Rich Shih, author of "Koji Alchemy". They discuss their online event, Kojicon, and the rich history and global use of koji and fermentation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is an episode of The Reimagining Restaurants Podcast, a podcast focused on the future of restaurants by The Spoon Podcast's Michael Wolf. You can find out where to subscribe here. Episode Summary: In this episode of Reimagining Restaurants, host Michael Wolf sits down with Kevin Jeung, Chef of Research and Production at the legendary restaurant Noma. Kevin shares his journey from washing dishes in Toronto to helping innovate at what many consider the world’s greatest restaurant. They discuss his early culinary experiences, his time in San Sebastian, his role in Noma’s evolution, and the restaurant’s transition towards product development and global pop-ups. What You’ll Learn in This Episode: Kevin’s unconventional path from university dropout to fine dining innovator. His experiences working in renowned kitchens around the world, including Noma, Mugaritz, and Gramercy Tavern. Why Noma is shifting from a full-time restaurant to a product and research-driven food lab. The philosophy behind Noma’s pop-

In this episode, Mike welcomes Adam Yee to discuss his journey in food tech, his extensive experience as a podcaster, and his evolving role in the industry. The conversation covers Adam’s first-time experience at CES, the origins of his My Food Job Rocks podcast, and how podcasting has shaped his career—from networking opportunities to job offers. Adam shares insights from his time as a food scientist, his role in various startups, and the founding of Sobo Foods, a company focused on innovative dumplings. Show Outline: IntroductionMike and Ada catch up on CES experience Adam's Podcasting Journey How My Food Job Rocks started 10 years ago The podcast’s mission: Making food jobs as exciting as tech jobs Growth through interviews with food scientists, entrepreneurs, and industry leaders Memorable moments, including an interview with Harold McGee Career Journey in Food Science Early days at a granola bar factory in Phoenix Transition to Isagenix to develop protein bars Founding Sobo Foods and launching du

In this episode, Mike Wolf (The Spoon) sits down with Tim Bucher, CEO of Agtonomy, to discuss the intersection of agriculture, AI, and automation. Bucher shares his unique journey from growing up on a dairy farm to working at Silicon Valley giants like Apple, Next, WebTV, and Dell, before merging his two passions—farming and technology—to start Agtonomy. The conversation explores: How Bucher’s farming roots influenced his path into tech His work with Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, and other Silicon Valley pioneers The challenges facing modern farmers and how automation can help What physical AI means for the future of agriculture How Agtonomy partners with farm equipment manufacturers to accelerate autonomous solutions We also just launched The Spoon Podcast Network! You can read about the reason behind our new network and see links to the shows here. (https://thespoon.tech/meet-the-spoon-podcast-network/) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Mike sits down with Raj Singh, a seasoned entrepreneur and product developer, to discuss the latest trends in artificial intelligence and emerging technologies showcased at CES. Raj shares his firsthand observations from the event, offering insights into how AI, robotics, and smart devices are shaping the future. The Podcast Breakdown: AI Innovations in Consumer Apps: Raj discusses his development of GPT Food Cam, an app that simplifies food calorie tracking with AI, emphasizing usability and consumer behavior. The Role of Smart Glasses and AR: Raj highlights the evolving role of augmented reality glasses and how AR technology is positioned to revolutionize professional and consumer applications. Physical AI and Robotics: Autonomous devices, from garbage bins to plant-watering systems, caught Raj’s attention as examples of how AI is entering everyday life. The Next Wave of AI: Raj explains concepts like language action models (LAMs), multimodal outputs, and the path toward artificial

In this episode of The Spoon Podcast, we sit down with Sam Calisch, founder and CEO of Copper, to explore how his company is trying to upend and catalyze the induction stove market by building an appliance with built-in batteries. Sam shares his journey from climate tech lobbyist and ecosystem builder to launching Copper, the challenges of breaking into the appliance industry, and how Copper’s products could eliminate the need for costly rewiring while also delivering a better cooking experience. We also dive into the future of energy-efficient homes, smart appliances, and the role of batteries in transforming our kitchens—and our power grids. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we are joined by Akshita Iyer, CEO and co-founder of Ome, a smart kitchen startup that’s revolutionizing home safety with its second-generation smart stove knob. Originally launched under the name Inirv, the company’s journey began with a simple idea born from a personal experience—retrofitting stoves to prevent kitchen fires and help those aging in place. From a 3D-printed prototype in 2016 to delivering their first product through Kickstarter, Iyer shares the highs and challenges of bringing a hardware product to life, including turning down a Shark Tank deal and navigating complex safety standards. Here's what we discuss in this week's podcast: Iyer shares how her mother’s experience with Parkinson’s and a kitchen fire inspired her to start the company. The challenges of developing the product, from idea to fully functional smart knob. Iyer's Shark Tank experience, including an offer from Robert Herjavec that they chose to decline. How Ome Smart Knob prevents fires by automatically shutting

Ali Bouzari, a culinary scientist and co-founder of Pilot R&D, joins the podcast to discuss the intersection of food and technology. Bouzari shares his insights on the potential and limitations of AI and robotics in the culinary world, emphasizing the importance of approaching these tools with a critical eye. He also highlights the significant impact of climate change on the food industry, specifically citing the challenges facing chocolate production. Bouzari discusses his work at Pilot R&D, where his team assists food entrepreneurs in developing and scaling up new products. He describes their process, which includes ingredient sourcing, extensive trials, and sensory evaluations like the "smellathon." The episode concludes with Bouzari's reflections on the evolving food landscape, emphasizing the need for adaptability and a sense of culinary adventure in the face of global challenges Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's conversation is with Sam Rose, who has spent her entire career unraveling the complexities of bringing consumer products—often kitchen-related—to life. I first met Sam about eight years ago, introduced through our mutual friend, Scott Heimendinger, who was collaborating with Sam on developing a next-generation coffee grinder. But this wasn’t just any coffee grinder. It was a cutting-edge, tech-forward device that could sense the freshness of the beans, use burr grinders to achieve perfect consistency, and more. In other words, it was exactly the kind of innovative kitchen gadget that intrigued me, especially as someone who organized the Smart Kitchen Summit. However, Sam’s journey didn’t begin with coffee grinders. Her first product was much simpler—at least from a technology standpoint—and was inspired by a personal frustration. Disgusted with a cheap silicone spatula, Sam thought, "Why don’t I just make my own?" And that’s exactly what she did. Throughout her entrepreneurial journey, Sam has not onl

Lab-grown or cultivated meat companies have struggled lately as they try to figure out how to do something that's never been done before: grow meat in large quantities in big metal vats known as bioreactors. Part of the challenge is figuring out how to get the meat cells to grow. The technology to do this has been borrowed from the world of pharma, an industry where you can charge thousands of dollars for drugs. Deniz Kent thinks he has the answer. His company, Prolific Machines, is replacing these expensive growth medium with the cheapest source of energy in the world: light. Link: Prolific Machines Website Make sure to subscribe to our weekly Food Tech News Show podcast where we talk about some of the top stories of the week in the world of food tech. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week's episode features a conversation with Paul Shapiro, who went from being a lobbyist who advocated for better animal treatment to building a future food company that leverages technology to reduce our reliance on animal agriculture. Links: Paul's website: https://www.paul-shapiro.com/ Paul's company: The Better Meat Co. Paul's book: Clean Meat, on Amazon. Also, make sure to subscribe to our weekly Food Tech News Show podcast where we talk about some of the top stories of the week in the world of food tech.

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.

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 ta

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

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 s

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. 

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.  

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. 

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.  

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 C