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the printer was doing. Chairs emptied. I paused, a bit confused and concerned
as people started to migrate to the front of the room.
My audience dispersed and a crowd formed around the food printer. Dignity
and senior rank forgotten for a few moments, executives clustered around the
printer's plastic case, watching a nozzle zip back and forth extruding cookie
dough into whimsical shapes. Upstaged by an automated cookie maker, I hastily
wrapped up the presentation and turned to the question and answer session.
People returned to their seats and started brainstorming. A marketing
executive suggested that their loyalty program should design custom food
and offer fresh, 3D printed goodies to guests at the check-in desk. Another
executive suggested that her hotel could offer themed 3D printed snacks on
their room service menus, or could fabricate custom snacks to appeal to each
guests' unique pallet or dietary needs.
My experience has been that everyone—no matter their profession or
rank—is interested in food preparation. 3D printing food is still in its infancy,
the domain of a few bold gastronomical adventurers and academic research-
ers. Yet, like microwaves and automated coffee makers, food printers have
tremendous social appeal.
Digital gastronomy
You won't see a commercial 3D food printer at your local electronics store yet.
But if we fast forward a few years, perhaps we'll see food printers in home appli-
ance stores that look something like The Cornucopia, or the “automated horn
of plenty,”
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a design concept for a family of four food printer prototypes: the
Digital Chocolatier, the Digital Fabricator, the Robotic Chef and the Virtuoso
Mixer.
The design team that created the Cornucopia concept, led by Marcelo
Coelho and Jamie Zigelbaum, launched the design concept on their website
by posting a series of stunning images of each futuristic prototype. After the
design images of the Cornucopia family of food printers went live, they looked
so realistic the pictures created an immediate storm of interest on the Internet.
People weren't sure whether the design concepts pictured were real food print-
ers or just skillfully rendered design concepts. Eventually, the confusion was
sorted out and (much to the disappointment of 3D printing enthusiasts and
technology-inclined foodies) food fans learned that the Cornucopia prototypes
were not yet commercially available products.
