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