Joe Ray

Friday, October 12, 2018

Quick Takes From The 2018 Smart Kitchen Summit

Sunday afternoon, I got off a long-haul flight from Korea to Seattle, and immediately crossed town to where the Smart Kitchen Summit had just kicked into gear. The Summit the nerd prom for the connected kitchen set, full of some of the best minds in cooking along with manufacturers trying to find the right balance between food and tech. Talks and panels have names like “reinventing the recipe,” “food robot evolution,” and, um, “augmented food experiences,” whatever those are.

Not to be outdone, I moderated one panel about the future of restaurants and sat on another about reviewing called, “Is this thing on?”

While wandering the conference, I tried wheat-based ‘chicken’ nuggets—they weren’t bad!—tasted a dragon fruit ‘berry’ that came out of a printer (NRFPT) and was badgered by a robot waiter hawking a tray full of beef jerky. I also learned that many of those who were pioneers of creating food tech word salads have changed surprisingly little in the four years since the conference started.

That said, I could feel things falling a little further into place, and perhaps becoming a little bit better. Here, I thought I’d share a few quick thoughts I had—in italics—and quotes I heard while at the Summit.

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Countertop smart ovens—like June and Brava—are becoming a thing. The June, for example, can recognize which food you put inside of it and suggest its preferred method to cook it, and the Brava has heat zones so you can cook steak in one, mushroom in another, and onions in a third.

Three things strike me when I see these ovens.
-One: they seem to be reinventing sheet-pan meals, and you already own the oven to make those.
-Two: they’re small, so they can’t really replace your home oven if you want to have more than one friend over for dinner.
-Three: they take up a ton of counter space and aren’t really the kind of thing you’re going to store in a cupboard when you’re done.

...

THE RECIPE
- “People don’t have to bake to survive” — Stephanie Naegeli, Nestlé
- “You can’t cook without a recipe” — Cliff Sharples, Fexy Media
- “Bacon is a challenge” — Matt Van Horne, June, whose oven now offers 36 ways to make bacon
- I’d argue that it might just be a challenge for their oven and one good method is just fine.

...

VOICE CONTROL
- “It’s more complicated to do a recipe with voice than not. It has to be a marriage of voice and screen” — Stacey Higginbotham, Stacey on IoT
- “Voice is great, but not when my daughter’s yelling” — Jason Clarke, Crank Software
- “‘[I love being able to ask Alexa] what’s the ETA on my chicken?’ when I’m in the living room.” — Matt Van Horne, June

Stuff like this last quote constantly leaves me wondering ‘Didn’t your recipe already tell you that? Didn’t you set a timer?’

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THE CONNECTED KITCHEN
Manufacturers and tech companies are starting to understand that if there’s going to be anything like a “Kitchen OS” they need to communicate with each other’s machines (and not just to other products in their own brand.)

- “All the devices will have to connect…but I don’t personally like the idea of robots in the kitchen” — Shelby Bonnie, Pylon AI
- “Is [the applicance] a hub or an end device? If it’s an end device…don’t fool yourself that you want to be a hub…Nobody wants to watch Netflix on their thermostat.” — Jason Clarke, Crank Software
- “We’re past the novelty stage of turning the lights on with the phone” — Christofer von Nagel, BSH Home Appliances
- “Most [new] Whirlpool products will be connected within the next year” — Brett Dibkey, Whirlpool
- “We’re sick of going to the grocery store. We just want to push a button and have food dropped on our doorstep” — Pablos Holman, Intellectual Ventures
- “We were metal benders and now we’re an experience company…The digital experience is defining who we are” — Brett Dibkey, Whirlpool
- “Today you ran a lot. Today we recommend this recipe.” — Stephanie Naegeli, Nestlé
- I’m fine without my Fitbit telling a giant global food corporation that I went for a jog.
- “Connecting a radio and a shaver doesn’t help anyone” — Ben Harris, Drop Kitchen

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ONE LAST ONE, JUST FOR FUN
“We’re German! We engineer the shit out of everything!” — Christofer von Nagel, BSH Home Appliances

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Thursday, May 26, 2011

FORGOTTEN FRIES

“Look at those fries,” a friend said walking past Seattle’s Capitol Hill sandwich shop, Homegrown. Stuffed to the gills, we still considered a plate.

I wound up there for lunch a few days later, convinced we’d head to the neighboring Sitka & Spruce, but for reasons I didn’t understand, nothing on Sitka’s menu looked as interesting as Homegrown’s catfish po boy with slaw.

Homegrown calls itself a ‘sustainable sandwich shop’ which is about as interesting as sustainable wine - it’s only worth it if it’s good.

It’s worth it. We try a fun spin on grilled cheese made with cured ham and mozzarella, along with solid homemade chips and a beet salad, but the po boy, made crispy with the slaw, is the show stealer - a sandwich with momentum. So much momentum, we forget to order the fries.

After lunch, visit Homegrown’s top-notch neighbors: The Calf & Kid for cheese and sausage from Rain Shadow Meats. I’ll go back to try Sitka & Spruce, though I might smuggle in some Homegrown fries.

Homegrown

1531 Melrose Avenue
Seattle, WA
+1 (206) 682-0935

eathomegrown.com

Count on $10-15 for lunch.

Follow me on Twitter: @joe_diner and on Facebook.

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Tuesday, April 19, 2011

THE SCENT OF FRYING GARLIC

SEATTLE - “I love how this neighborhood smells like garlic,” said a friend as we walked from Stumptown coffee down into the International District.

Coffee and frying garlic - what a nice way to lead into dim sum.

We’d tried to get into Harbor City last time I was in town only to be discouraged by the line at the door on a Sunday morning. Today, our group of eight got there early and waited it out.

Moments after tea is poured and my nephew Eli is installed in his booster chair, the first cart arrives - hum bow (pork bun), salty long beans, broccoli rabe, shu mai, fried calamari just need to have their little bamboo steamer opened and showed to our crowd   to start a “Yes” chorus.

There’s something about dim sum that makes you forget that more will come if you wait. Whoever thought of the dim sum cart was a business genius: seat the hungry customer then immediately wave hot, fresh food under their nose. You may have a little mountain of dumplings in front of you, but would you like an order of sticky rice with meltingly good meat?

Hell, yes!

Count on $10-20

Harbor City Restaurant – MAP
707 S King St.
Seattle
(206) 621-2228

Follow me on Twitter: @joe_diner and on Facebook.

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Friday, January 07, 2011

TASTE OF THE FUTURE

I’ve seen the future on a little island in the Pacific Northwest. A few weeks ago, I got a taste of Blaine Wetzel’s cuisine in his new role as executive chef at the Willows Inn.

Who’s Wetzel? You’ll likely be hearing quite a bit about him, particularly if you’re from that neck of the woods. Wetzel, 24, is fresh off a stint at Copenhagen’s noma restaurant, working as the chef de partie for Rene Redzepi. He was there when noma officially went through the roof, knocking El Bulli out of the top slot in San Pellegrino’s Best Restaurant in The World hooplah.

Did they win because he was there? No. Was he taking good notes? You bet.

I was at the Willows to interview Wetzel for a set of upcoming articles and a sneak preview of what to expect when the Willows reopens next month.

A seven-course tasting menu was about six courses more than I needed to know that it was worth the trip. He might be a two-hour drive and five minute ferry ride from both Seattle and Vancouver, but you might want to reserve now.

What’d he serve? Barely poached end gently pickled Hammersley Inlet oysters were one of many surprise ‘snacks,’ but my favorite dish might have been the wild mushrooms, fresh cheese and woodruff. For the latter, he forages some of the mushrooms and woodruff and makes the cheese - rennet’s in a little bottle on a shelf in the fridge. He devotes a whole course to the potatoes inn owner Riley Starks grows at the adjacent Nettles Farm that supplies much of the kitchen’s produce.

Need any more reason to go? A four-course tasting menu will start at $40 and a seven course for $65.

The inn and restaurant are closed for a January remodel. Taste of the future begins in February. Go early.

The Willows Inn - MAP
2579 West Shore Drive

Lummi Island, WA 98262

(360)758-2620
www.willows-inn.com

For a bit of background on Wetzel’s arrival, click here.
...and for my Boston Globe story on Willows Inn owner Riley Starks, click here.

Follow me on Twitter: @joe_diner and on Facebook.

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