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VDC Rolls Out Linked Eats, a ‘Value Layer’ Software That Optimizes Virtual Restaurant Operations
It’s no secret that the virtual restaurant space has struggled over the past few years. Longtime operators like Reef, Kitchen United, and NextBite have laid off employees, shut down locations, and, in some cases, sold to another company well below their current valuations. Those who survived have been rolling...
A Look at the Vayu One Delivery Robot, Which Navigates Bike Lanes to Deliver Your Food
Ever since the founders of Skype launched Starship over eight years ago, we’ve seen an explosion of small-footprint delivery robots that navigate sidewalks to deliver their payloads to consumers. While these small robots sidestep many of the challenges and regulatory oversight needed for on-road travel, they are, in general,...
The Food Tech News Show: Gene-Edited Tomatoes & Rethinking Robots Restaurants
On this week’s episode of the Food Tech News Show, longtime podcaster, former host of NPR Marketplace, and all-around nice person Molly Wood joins Carlos and Mike to discuss the food tech stories of the week. Here are the stories covered in this week’s show:. Tomatoes are thirsty...
The Food Tech News Show: Food Tech Funding Down in 1H 2024
As listeners of the Spoon Podcast know, it’s been both a long-form interview show and a news show. Since those who listen to interviews aren’t always the same as those who want their weekly dose of food tech news, we thought a dedicated news show made sense. Meet...
Food AI Weekly Bulletin: Is AI-Washing a Problem For Food Tech?
Welcome to this week’s edition of the Food AI Weekly Bulletin, our weekly wrapup that highlights important happenings at the intersection of AI and food. If you’d like to sign up to get this bulletin delivered to your inbox, you can do so here. Is AI-Washing a Problem...
Chef Robotics Comes Out of Stealth to Show Off Robot and Reveal Early Customers
This week, Chef Robotics, the San Francisco-based food robotics startup founded by Rajat Bhageria, stepped out of stealth mode and into the spotlight by unveiling its robot and disclosing some of its high-profile partnerships. In an interview with The Spoon, Bhageria, an investor and technology founder, showcased Chef, a food...
The Thimus T-Box Will Measure Brain Waves to Tell You if Someone is Lying About That New Casserole
Let me let you in on a little secret: If you’re basing that impression on what people told you about that new casserole recipe or side dish you brought to the potluck, there’s a good chance folks are just being polite. Sure, not always. Many Spoon readers can...
ConverseNow Acquires Drive-Thru Voice AI Specialist Valyant AI
Today, ConverseNow announced that it has acquired drive-thru conversational AI specialist Valyant AI. According to the announcement about the deal – the terms of which were not disclosed – the entire Valyant AI team will be retained post-acquisition. Until now, ConverseNow has largely succeeded in winning restaurant chain...
Podcast: How is Kraft-Heinz Preparing for the Future of Food?
For most Americans, Kraft and Heinz products – Oscar Meyer hot dogs, Kraft cheese, Velveeta, and Jello – have been in our cupboards and fridges for as long as we can remember. But being a big company today doesn’t always ensure success in perpetuity. The world around us...
Samsung’s 2024 Family Hub Gets Enhanced Food Recognition Features With Latest Update
This past week, Samsung announced they were updating software for those with a Family Hub fridge. The update has a bunch of new features, many of which were announced at CES in January, but the most interesting one is what looks to be its much-improved food recognition capability. The new computer vision-powered features were are specific to the latest edition to the Family Hub line, the official name of which is the incredibly long Samsung Bespoke 4-Door Flex Refrigerators with AI Family Hub+ and AI Vision Inside.
Scoop: Kalanick’s Latest Idea for Disrupting Food May Be No-Fee Bulk Food Delivery & Automated Pick-Up Kiosks
When Travis Kalanick showed up at the Food on Demand conference this past May, technology and restaurant industry insiders could hardly believe it. After all, the Uber cofounder had gained an almost Howard Hughes-like reputation for secrecy over the past decade, saying nary a word publicly over the years while journalists and Internet sleuths searched for digital breadcrumbs about what exactly he was up to with CloudKitchens, a business under which he had quietly built the biggest network of dark kitchen/ghost kitchen facilities in the country.
The Food AI Weekly Bulletin: Will AI Fakery Make Restaurant Reviews a Thing of the Past?
Welcome to the Food AI Weekly Bulletin, our new weekly wrapup that highlights important happenings at the intersection of AI and food. Nowadays, there’s a lot of noise around how AI is changing food, so we decided to create a weekly brief to bring you what’s important, decipher through all the noise, and deliver actionable insights. If you’d like to sign up for our weekly Food AI Weekly, you can do so here.
‘All The Rules Are Changing’: Why AI is Accelerating Change to Every Part of the Food Business (and Beyond)
This week, I attended the Fancy Food Show in New York City. It’s long been one of my favorite food conferences, mostly because I just love walking around and sampling all the great food. I mean, who wouldn’t?. While the fantastic food samples on the show floor are...
Is Food Waste Reduction About to Have Its ‘Nest Moment’?
When the Nest came out in 2011, it quickly became popular for its innovative design and its ability to allow users to track their energy usage more accurately. While the Ecobee thermostat is largely recognized as the first true smart thermostat, most would agree it was Nest—especially after Google acquired the company in 2014—that exposed a much broader swath of the population to the concept of using smart home technology to manage energy and reduce energy bills.
‘It’s Algorithmic’: Surreal Brewing’s Founder Says Process for Non-Alchohol Beer Based on Science, Not Gimmicks
Nearly a decade ago, Tammer Zein-El-Abedein and his wife, Donna Hockey, had reason to celebrate. Donna had just successfully overcome a breast cancer diagnosis, and so the couple hoped to commemorate the good news in a healthy way. “We wanted a nonalcoholic beer,” said Zein-El-Abedei in an interview at Smart...
MOTO Pizza’s Lee Kindell Talks Drone Delivery and Humanoid Robots
Last week at SKS, we had a chance to sit down for an interview with MOTO founder Lee Kindell. Anyone who’s spent time with Lee knows he’s an enthusiastic proponent of technology, both in his restaurants and in our lives. That’s why it no surprise that he’s embracing drone delivery and hopes to see Zipline drones dropping his craft pizzas on front doors in the Seattle market by the end of this year.
Podcast: The Smart Kitchen Summit Recap
Last week, The Spoon and almost three hundred of our closest friends spent an eventful couple of days in Seattle, talking about how technology is transforming the consumer meal journey. After the dust had settled, Carlos Rodela and I got together to talk about some of the highlights of SKS...
Don’t Call It a Comeback: Take-Aways and Thank Yous For Smart Kitchen Summit 2024
Last week, we produced the first in-person Smart Kitchen Summit (SKS) since 2019. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long. In some ways, we’ve lost all sense of time given what has happened over the past five years, including a pandemic, but still, five years is a long time.
Scenes from Smart Kitchen Summit 2024
The Smart Kitchen Summit wrapped up this week, and boy, did we have a great time discussing how new technologies will drive the next wave of cooking and kitchen innovation!. I’ll be sharing some of my thoughts next week, but I thought I’d share some of my favorite shots from the show. Thanks, as always, to Heather Moore for great work.
Your Future Induction Oven May Be the Foundation for That Home Power Wall
If you’re like me, you’ve considered installing a giant home battery to help transition away from traditional grid-connected power. And if you’re also like me, you haven’t done it because it’s expensive, and there’s a lot of housework you need to do to make it happen.
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The Spoon provides daily reporting and insight into the food tech revolution. We talk to the innovators, disruptors and creators helping to reinvent food, cooking and the kitchen and bring those conversations to you in the form of interviews, deep dive analysis, newsletters, podcasts and videos
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