Does that snowflake chocolate dessert look exactly the same as the one being eaten by the person next to you, (if you’re lucky enough to be eating a snowflake chocolate dessert)?
Is everyone in the room eating something that looks absolutely the same?
It could be the fault of 3D printing.
An article on bbc.com tells the story of how technology-in particular, something called the Foodini- is making advancements in fine dining kitchens, beyond things like the electric mixer.
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The Foodini is a 3D printer that prints real food into customized patterns and shapes up to several centimeters high, allowing for creative, aesthetically pleasing food.
How so? The machine comes with empty capsules that can be filled with a chef’s choice of printable ingredients that range from mashed potatoes to chocolate. It can be connected to the Internet to upload recipes and designs from wherever you may find yourself.
Magic. It is an “Internet of Things” appliance that is taking cooking minds and the look of your dinner plate in a whole new direction.
And apart from any relation to things enchanted, Lynette Kucsma, co-founder of Natural Machines which makes the Foodini, says that top chefs are using the fancy device for a couple of very practical reasons: customization and automation.
The Foodini makes it much easier and faster to impress eaters visually by turning renowned kitchens around the world into veritable mini-factories.
www.bbc.com
“Imagine you need to print breadsticks in the shape of tree branches for a hundred people sitting that evening. Rather than food piping it or doing that by hand, you can automate it with a 3D food printer,” says Kucsma.
Will it trickle on down to the everyday customer?
Kuscma hopes so. “…as people see it coming into restaurants and … start becoming familiar with eating 3D printed food and knowing that it’s made with fresh, real ingredients, that’s when the mind change starts to happen,” she is quoted as saying to bbc.com.
A consumer version is said to be on the market for around $1000 USD.
Not a bad price to pay for culinary perfection in the digital age.
