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Food Printer: Digital Gastronomy Cooks Up

  • Nancy DuVergne Smith
  • slice.mit.edu
  • 3

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Dinner will be served.

One more Star Trek Next Generation commonplace, the replicator, is emerging in the 21st century. For Earthlings, it’s a Fluid Interfaces Group project, housed in the Media Lab, called Cornucopia: Digital Gastronomy. Call it a personal food factory or a 3-D printer for food, it works the same way:

Cornucopia's cooking process starts with an array of food canisters, which refrigerate and store a user's favorite ingredients. These are piped into a mixer and extruder head that can accurately deposit elaborate combinations of food…. This fabrication process not only allows for the creation of flavors and textures that would be completely unimaginable through other cooking techniques, but it also allows the user to have ultimate control over the origin, quality, nutritional value and taste of every meal.

Yummy? We can’t tell yet because it’s still in prototype stage, but it’s buzzing in media like Gizmodo and Trendhunter and blogs like Make.

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Comments

Akshay

Wed, 07/13/2011 12:17pm

very intresting n useful appliance, but does this appliance cover all the foodstuffs coz it is mentioned that required food is kept in canisters, which may possibly contain liquid n semi solid foods.

Luther Leake

Tue, 03/02/2010 4:30pm

As a rare MIT PhD in food science (the old course XX, G84) currently working for Givaudan, the world's leading flavor company, I may be able to help with some fine tuning.

Bob F

Mon, 02/22/2010 10:27am

But what if my "favorite foods" don't extrude well? I like to be able imagine what food is like! (I know, I know -- I'm a Luddite!)

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