Robot chefs, holographic kitchen tutorials, a knife that measures the sugar in the food it cuts… There’s more cooking in the Indian kitchen than just the meal of the day as technology gains steam in the cooking zone and dishes out a new wave of “food tech” innovations and gadgets.
From apps that automatically make shopping lists from your recipe books to smart ovens that recognise the food placed inside them to cook it perfectly, the food industry is going more hi-tech than ever before. All over the world, investors are increasingly pouring money into food tech and putting the shine on phrases such as “the new restaurant is no restaurant”. As meals go digital, culinary and tech experts firmly believe the food tech revolution is taking over kitchens in India too.
MORTAR MECHANISED
Masterchef Kunal Kapur feels food technology has crept into our kitchens and lives at a whole new level of late. “After the advent of a food processor bid goodbye to the good old mortar and pestle a few decades ago, giving much respite to chefs and home cooks alike, smart machines now churn, whip, blend, whisk, knead and cook for us like never before. The dependence on technology is far greater today than it has ever been. Where food tech was initially aimed at simplifying the cooking process for us like a helping hand in the kitchen, it is now well on its way to pushing out the cook and taking over most of the kitchen.”
GADGET BOOM
Tech boom in the kitchen is changing the dynamics of the cooking experience, and the market is tapping this new potential and coming up with innovative products. Ashish Tulsian, who co-created India’s first Point of Sale (PoS) software for restaurants, says technology has impacted restaurant kitchens in a big way. “There are interesting developments like ‘Edible QR codes’ in SanDiego wherein using their smartphones, diners can call up detailed information about the provenance and global stocks of the fish they’ve ordered.
Tech company Electrolux has the Design Lab’s holographic chef, which plans to bring top chefs into users’ kitchens for tutorials through holograms. The Smart Knife can check levels of harmful bacteria, pesticides and nutrients such as sugar, vitamins, protein and fat in the food it cuts. Smart cutters tell you how many paneer slices have been cut by the chef to keep a tab on wastage. In terms of apps, the coming together of two giant industries — food and technology — has been futuristic and far-sighted. An app called Whisk automates shopping lists on your phone. The user can find a recipe online, throw it into this app and it will automatically add the items needed to the list.”
Internationally, restaurants and bars are evolving in terms of adapting to food tech. Ashish shares, “Since everything is Wi-Fi enabled and everyone is carrying smartphones, restaurant spaces are booming with tech-related elements. Japan is very much into Interactive cocktail lounges, wherein customers are given an iPad Mini upon entry with the entire menu on it. They can use it to communicate with other drinkers and view, ‘like’, order what they’re drinking.”
QUALITY CONUNDRUM
One of the first questions to crop up when one thinks food tech, is whether the quality of food might suffer if greater culinary processes are relegated to smart gadgets as opposed to careful manual procedure. Chef Manu Mohindra, founder of Under One Roof Hotel Consultants, insists that there is no real threat of compromise in this regard, at the moment. He avers, “Food quality is not going to be impacted because you are decreasing the reliance on manpower, not eliminating it. In fact, with technology around, menus and cooking gets even more standardised for instance with the smart ovens and other such innovations, therefore raising the lower end of the bar. Do understand that even a robot chef is a more intelligent form of smart equipment and the chefs haven’t handed over the baton to him or to greater artificial intelligence in general. In fact, with the lower end of the spectrum being standardised through machines at fast-food, mid-market and chain-based segments, the challenge is thrown open to chefs to innovate and come up with more intricate and experimental dishes, making way for more culinary exploration.”
He points out that fast food and mid-segment food stand to gain the most from food tech innovations, adding, “They will get a push upwards since the room for error and disasters will be minimised. Now if you eat a burger or sandwich belonging to a fast food chain even in a remote corner of the country, the quality will be the same as a Tier 1 city outlet because the process as well as local level intelligent cooking/re-heating is now through standardised technology, leaving no room for human vagaries.”
CHEF'S TOUCH
The gadgets might be super smart, but in some respects, they pale before the human touch. Shagun Somani, owner of Zerzura and Hinglish café, points out, “There are two key elements wherein the machines cannot replace manpower — the first is understanding the change in quality of produce based on weather or uncontrollable scenarios, and the second is the flavour that the chef lends to his kitchen. While technically, a kitchen can survive for days without the executive chef, his style and flavour’s absence is definitely felt.”
Chef Kunal agrees, “The machines are smart, there’s no two questions about that, but food is an art at the end of the day, and every artist is unique. What each one of us creates with our own hands is special. It’s like a machine creating a painting versus an artist creating one — which do you think would be special?”
Chef Mohindra adds that while smart equipment may have become the catchphrase of the modern world, there is still something to be said of what the average fine diner expects from his meal. As much as the digital innovations enhance the cooking experience, the diner does seek a chef’s touch. “Smart equipment is also reliant on sensible usage. Familiar ovens from Rational now have a five-senses cooking system, which is an amalgamation from chefs all over the world on cooking methods, times, the science behind cooking and how food reacts to different processes, integrated into a smart oven. Technology like the oven called June, which recognises ingredients and cooks them accordingly, can create great standardised dishes but when you go to a fine dine cuisine-centric restaurant, you’re looking for a culinary-special evening, and that still requires a human touch. Technology can really ease the load on the kitchen and its manpower, giving more time to the chef to add his finishing flair. Gadgets reduce the time spent on routine, but life beyond technology is what inspires the kitchen and makes Heston, Gaggan or even me, the chefs we are!” he says.
FUTURE FABLES
Tracing the potential future trajectory of the food tech revolution, Ashish says, “One thing that will catch up soon in the coming years is ‘Beacons’, which are basically personal location devices. You can stick them at your table and using technology you can order from your tablet menu. Using beacons, the kitchen automatically knows which table is ordering and what are the specifications of the order. Technologists are also working on the mechanics of cooking. Other innovations like June are already a step towards a kitchen that can cook by itself.” While Chef Mohindra feels that food tech is nowhere near overtaking chefs in the kitchen, Chef Kunal differs, “I see man becoming a slave to food technology in the future. I see a time when men and women will be out of the kitchen and technology will completely take over.”
Inputs by Aditi Pancholi Shroff, Geetha Jayaraman
