
How 3D printing is shaking up high end dining - ximeng
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-35631265
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dpflan
I think here that what would be more interesting uses of 3D printing with food
is not to create nice geometries with semi-solid foods but to create layers of
flavor that are not achievable without machine assistance. The plating of a
dish is nice, but flavor really counts.

Also, a lab at Cornell has done work on 3D printing food:
[http://creativemachines.cornell.edu/node/194](http://creativemachines.cornell.edu/node/194)

And of course NASA is exploring 3D printing food in space:
[http://www.3dprintingprogress.com/articles/9147/3d-printing-...](http://www.3dprintingprogress.com/articles/9147/3d-printing-
food-in-space)

~~~
mc32
It looks to be one of those trends which at fist is dazzling but then gets
overused and people grow tired of it and go back to emphasizing other aspects.

The current climate is such that presentation rules over all else. It needs to
look good in Instagram. Flavor is taking a back seat. There was a restaurant
which was going against this trend, but, unfortunately also in a trendy way.
They'd serve you dinner in near darkness. But of course the food wasn't normal
food, they had to reel people in with unusual foods to make the experience
more "memorable".

~~~
dpflan
I suspect that focusing on flavor and presentation are not mutually exclusive
so I would think it would be easy to maintain novelty of presentation with a
new creative vehicles for flavor which requires 3D printing.

~~~
mc32
To me a focus on presentation can be too gimmicky. And it's not only visual
presentation but the at times silly introduction of the food, as if
introducing me to one of their long time human friends. It's a bit nuts. Just
make good food.

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IvyMike
An early example of 3d sugar printing, from Evil Mad Scientist Labs:
[http://candyfab.org/](http://candyfab.org/)

And a higher-end example, including some really stunning pieces:
[http://www.3dsystems.com/culinary](http://www.3dsystems.com/culinary)

~~~
joezydeco
The 3DSystems stuff is really nice, plus they have Hershey helping them out.

I saw them at the National Restaurant Show, but this video was shot around the
same time, same booth.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWbFYZTrpM4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWbFYZTrpM4)

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runholm
I am pretty disappointed in the printer shown in the clip. All the designs are
really just a single layer. These 2D designs could certainly be made by a
skilled hand without much effort.

The "impossible" designs from future 3D-printers will probably be cool, but
the technology appears to not quite be there yet.

~~~
jofer
There's a limit to how high you can pile a narrow line of a puree. Mashed
potatoes will probably do a bit better, but you're still not going to get any
"true" 3D design out of something that isn't solid.

There's also the time factor. Printing out a single layer of a sauce/puree in
a fancy pattern is a lot faster than making a complex multi-layered shape.

At any rate, there are certainly 3D desserts and showpieces, and there have
been for awhile. The neat part of this is that it's being used for more than
just sugar and chocolate.

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diego_moita
50 years ago marketers and pundits predicted that today everybody would be
eating what was, back then, "astronaut food": pills with nutrients and/or
lyophilized (freeze-dried) food.

Today the strongest marketing trends in food are fresh, organic, local and
seasonal.

No, 3d will not make a food revolution.

~~~
burke
There's an important distinction between these two predictions which this
comparison belies:

* "astronaut food" completely sacrifices the art and enjoyment of food for efficiency.

* 3D printing is a way to explore methods of increasing art and enjoyment of food (certainly not efficiency).

The complete absence of "astronaut food" in daily life, with the exception of
Soylent/Ensure for a small minority, is I think indicative of two things:

1\. We still don't really know what optimal nutrition is, so "try to eat lots
of green things" is generally viewed as optimal. People rightfully don't trust
anyone to decide what's optimal and codify it as a single food.

2\. People don't even _want_ to eat optimally, they want to enjoy eating.
Astronaut food does not deliver on this.

3D printing does not attempt to provide optimal nutrition, but explores
avenues to increase enjoyment of food. "Revolution", maybe not, but these two
prediction are 100% orthogonal IMO.

~~~
jsprogrammer
Mashed potato is still mashed potato, even if it was piped out of a tube. It's
difficult to imagine how piped mash will result in a substantial increase in
the enjoyment of my food. I would think that the food may even need to
compromised in texture, and perhaps flavor, in order to accommodate the piping
mechanism.

~~~
photoJ
Never had potato foam then I assume?

ie:

[http://theforkchicago.typepad.com/blog/2012/02/in-the-
time-i...](http://theforkchicago.typepad.com/blog/2012/02/in-the-time-i-have-
been-away-from-the-blog-i-have-been-devoting-all-of-my-time-to-studying-my-
craft-i-have-been-working-full.html)

~~~
vacri
How does piping it out of a tube turn mashed potato into potato foam?

~~~
photoJ
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSVrFphqmqk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSVrFphqmqk)

~~~
vacri
Sorry, I wasn't very clear: it's not 'mashed potato' anymore, it's 'potato
foam'.

~~~
photoJ
I know. That's the point, someone has "pip(ed) it out of a tube" under
pressure. Hence making mashed potato no long mashed potato after coming out of
a tube. QED.

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anotheryou
haha, trying to make something look organic by using a machine, which in the
end makes it look like it's made with a cookie cutter.

I'm sure you could do much more interesting things with a food printer, like:

\- actual structures with chocolate or sugar

\- designs that would be to tedious to do by hand (I'd recommend using paths,
not shapes to be filled as input data)

\- semi-mixed flavors or flavor gradients

\- print on to soup

\- print from higher above, letting things fall organically

\- dithered gradients on the plate

\- play with speed to thin things out organically

~~~
clarkmoody
> \- actual structures with chocolate or sugar

Sugar Eiffel Tower dessert would be awesome! But then again, there are plenty
of mass-produced items that are identical, intricate, and perfect. Part of the
lure of gourmet is the hand-crafted dish unique to me.

I'm glad to see experimentation in gastronomy. Ultimately, the consumer will
decide what techniques take hold for the long run.

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xlayn
It's always interesting to see the reasons behind food and the relation to the
status classes.

I remember reading how in the Renaissance Madonnas had a high BMI (sorry for
the use of BMI, I'm not sure if "little fat" it's an adequate way of
describing them) because food were scarce and then being fat was a way of
portraying wealth, see for reference the Mona Lisa or other Da Vinci
paintings.

In modern times, healthy food is the new "wealth food" because it's more
expensive due to several factors including but not limited to body preference
for fats and sugars for historical and evolutionary reasons and how this has
been exploited by the industry (e.g. fast food).

With that said when I hear "High End Dining" I think about a breast of chicken
complemented with food intended to have a delicious tasting AND healthy....
not "this looks nice on photos" food.

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chiph
Not even high-end dining -- imagine the possibilities for wedding halls, where
they could produce chocolates printed in the bride & grooms names for
everyone. Or bread rolls in the shape of wedding bells. Line up 4 or 5
printers and have a junior pastry chef running them.

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Davetron
The future work of getting it to cook the ingredients sounds interesting.
"Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.

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Htsthbjig
I don't believe this is shaking up anything. What this person is doing(I know
personally the guy, I was born in Spain) 2D presentations(plotters) has been
done by cookers manually for decades.

IMHO 3d printers are going to be very important in the future,but not in their
current form.

I volunteer teaching kids 3d printing and engineering not because the present
but because of the evolution of it in 10 or 15 years.

Like it was essential to me to have an assembler or compiler when I was young
in order to own a computer company or control machines as an adult, being
raised with 3d printing is going to be essential for owning the robotics and
technology space of the future(DNA manipulation).

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thecodemonkey
This is super awesome! I'm a little bit disappointed with the examples from
the company behind the product though[1]

Many of these could probably just have been made with a cookie cutter or a
pastry bag. I could imagine the the big issue with supporting all types of
materials is the wild inconsistencies in viscosity for the different types of
food.

[1] [https://www.naturalmachines.com/](https://www.naturalmachines.com/)

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vlunkr
I didn't need any more reason to think that high end dining is silly, but now
I have it.

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ape4
Coming soon to low end dining.

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majewsky
How long until the McDécor? :)

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bpicolo
"shaking up" is a pretty generous term here

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jordache
can it print a couple drops of some broth in the middle of the plate and
called it a dish? Maybe print a fake leaf as garnish on the side? Michelin
rating for sure

