I’d firstly like to thank Pieter Hermans and Jakajima for having us at the 3D Food Printing Conference! It was a really fun and inspiring event with people from all over and different backgrounds coming together with the common interest towards 3D food printing. Scientists, professors, lawyers, bankers, teachers, bloggers, and of course 3D printing enthusiasts and professionals were some of the backgrounds from the people I had the pleasure of meeting.
Of course the moment I’ll remember most was finally getting the chance to shake hands and share hugs with Luis Rodriguez of 3DigitalCooks.com! He is constantly pushing me to move forward with the BotBQ and is more help than he probably knows to me in my own development with 3DFP (3D Food Printing). Luis is a big inspiration in my life and I am really excited to see his development and watch him grow.
Not a review of the 3D Food Printing Conference…
My write-up on the 3D Food Printing Conference won’t be a review of it…One of the reasons is that most of the topics discussed at the event I already touched on during my post about All3DP.com, check it out here: Can 3D Food Printing Save the World on All3DP.com? Another reason is that there has already been some great coverage of the event and I’m going to share those links at the bottom of this post. I want to talk about what I was affected by at the event.. the people.
I was not alone in walking away from the event inspired. Most of the people who I talked to were grinning ear to ear during the whole conversation and of course we all were trying to share what we thought was the coolest part of the event in our eyes. Not only that but how and what we would do with all the information and knowledge learned over the day once we got back to wherever we were headed. So.. for this post I will talk about some (FYI: my list is way too long from this event so I’m sorry in advance if I missed anyone.) of the people who I feel will have an impact on 3D food printing and also who inspired me.
Big surprise: Catering by Kaneman (entertastement)
For an average event or conference I would expect some bland fingerfoods and some coffee and doughnuts here and there.. but I was really happy that Jakajima chose to use Kaneman to cater the event; their tagline is: “Entertastement”, which is freaking awesome! They brough their A-Game to the event and I was surprised at the quality of the food but even more by the creativity.. of course my favorite was the ice cream lollies but overall I commend them on finding the right balance of taste and coolness for this event.
Here’s a few pics of some of the ice cream and veggie tree from Kaneman:
People who inspired me:
Luis Fraguada – Robots in Gastronomy
Luis has been involved in 3D food printing for quite a while. Robots in Gastronomy I believe just started as a blog about 3DFP but he now also builds 3D printers specifically for food as well, each one customized to the specific requirements of each Chef that will put it to use. Originally Luis is an Architect and brings many unique views on 3D food printing and has also worked with many a creative Chef; he even shared with us that he caught one Chef putting layer thickness and print speed in a recipe!!! How cool is that!
Prof. Mark Post – Maastricht University
There are a few problems we have to deal with here on earth less urgent than Food. One of the problems is beef production. It takes a LOT of resources to get to get those $5 burgers into your belly. When I get into this topic I get emotional, plus I start to crave burgers.. so I’ll save that for later posts and I also touched on this in the 3DFP saving the world post, but you can find out all you need to know about cultured beef over at the Cultured Beef project website. I really look forward to seeing what comes out of there because if anyone at the conference is in the pole position of saving the world, it’s Prof. Post and his team!
Pieter Hermans – Jakajima
Gathering all these people was no easy task and I need to be honest here… My initial thoughts were that it wasn’t going to be a real event and was probably just another cover for some big promotion from some big company to force their wares down our throats over and over again. Until I got a chance to sit down with Mr. Hermans at dinner the night before the event. He’s serious about #3DFP and I could feel he is genuinely excited about where these types of events can help guide the future of it.
Frits Hoff – FabLab Maastricht / ByFlow
The ByFlow is the new “low-cost” 3D printer built by the FabLab Maastricht. He also mentioned that they are working on some other printers as well, to include a chocolate printer and powder printer if I remember correclty. I asked him specifically about open source and he said that they plan to make releases available as newer models come out the previous model will be released, which is fine by me. As a FabLab I wouldn’t expect any less and commend them.
Sheldon Fernandes – Nestle
Helping large corporations relate, innovate, improve AND inspire is not an easy task. I get the feeling that Sheldon has been doing this for a while and I was immediately sucked in within the first few seconds of our conversation and we could all feel the excitement radiating from him. I believe that he wasn’t just here to scope out some of the future for his company.. He was here to get inspired to bring back change. You see, Sheldon is a Chef. He told me tales about Ferran Adria and how he traversed the southern states in US to learn about the many different food styles in the US. I hope to be able to talk to him more in the near future and look forward to how he may see the impact of 3DFP differently from his perspective.
People who you need to watch out for in the future:
Mateu Blanch – Chef for ByFlow
Passion. It was a theme that I was talking about all day with many of the people who I met and to say that this is what the Chef from the ByFlow exhibit was exhuberating would be an understatement. He had a huge platter that he carried around with him when he wasn’t fabricating his cracker + caviar concoction constantly smiling and sharing his goods every time somebody turned around offering them to sample his work. The smile was wide, eyes bright and you could tell he was working with the passion you’d want in a Chef when you’re going to sit down for a 3D printed meal.
Jelle Groot – Rabobank
Of course you’d think that there would be bankers involved at this event right? Well Jelle didn’t seem like your average banker to me. He had a vast knowledge of many 3d food printing projects out there and his presentation was more infomative that I expected. I had the chance of spending a lot of time with him at dinner the night before and he gave me a little history lesson on Rabobank. It’s a bank with some meaning; created by farmers for farmers with sefl-reliance at their roots their main subject areas food and agriculture. He is interested in 3D food printing projects and just by spending some time with him I think he’ll be able to do more than just present at these conferences in the future and we may see him backing some before too long. Disclaimer to all aspiring 3D food entrepeneurs: Please do your reseach before geting involved with financing.. as we’ve all seen recently it’s NOT easy and it can be painfull but it could also be the most rewarding thing you’ll ever do once you have success.
Pieter Debrauwer – TNO
Everyone reading this should already know that I’m a big fan of TNO and their research. One of their latest collaborations is with many other groups, including FoodJet, along with the EU aspiring to use 3D food printing in long-term care. The Performace Project is developing fully 3D printed meals that will be served in long-term care homes and will look for a better way to serve food, not slop, to people in need in these homes. Pieter is the project manager for TNO on this project. Out of this project we will definetly have an idea of how real 3D printed food may look and taste NOW, but I feel that we will have some sort of clearer picture on how 3D food printing could have a major impact on things in the future. They will start the testing in the long-term care soon and we I’m sure we will hear many reviews of how it feels to chew 3D printed chicken shortly after.
Warni van Mierlo – The Wacktory
Have you heard about the Chocolate LP? She’s the one responsible for bringing you the sound of chocolate to life. I hope soon we’ll find time to do a Video Interview with her on 3DigitalCooks.com and you should keep your eyes open for her art. She is a product designer and maker that truley has creativity in mind at every turn of her projects. Chocolate always sounds good to me but actually hearing the sounds it makes is even more delictable.
Linyee Yuan – thisismold.com
Unfortunately I didn’t get to actually meet Linyee as I was constantly in conversations; I just didn’t catch her. I did notice her live tweeting at the event though and after checking out thisismold.com I see that the work she’s doing is very unique and is fun to read. Next time I see she’s headed back over to this side of the pond I will make a point to meet up with her and catch her views on 3D Food Printing.
Julian Sing – 3DChef
If you haven’t got a clear picture yet about why Julian and his team will be a major factor in the 3DFP game in the very near future then your not paying attention. The detail he’s putting in his craft will have an impact and for my interests it’s going to be a good one.
Marie – Teacher from France
Yes, Teacher. I’m sorry Marie I missed your last name, so please reach out to me so we can stay in touch as I love the fact that she was there to take back knowledge to the kids she’s teaching and this is where I hope the real magic happens, with our youth!
Lam Le – LABO3A
Lam showed me how he plans on using 3D food printing merged with his childhood and culture with these little edible dolls on a stick called Tò He from Vietnam. They were very interesting and I also hear rumors he’s working on research about 3D food printing + food trucks! I’d definitely be willing to eat some 3d printed Pho noodle soup at my next food truck run.
Cosimo Orban – 3dprintingtech.cc
We met Cosimo at one of the breaks when the ByFlow Chef was proudly sharing his 3D printed jelly caviar and crackers. I introduced myself and told him I was developing the BotBQ and he asked if he could interview me on camera. I agreed and you can see me give a brief interview on the BotBQ’s current development and meaning here: BotBQ: 3D Printer for your Grill. What I didn’t know until after I got home and did some research on his site was that he used crowdfunding to support his trip to the 3D Food Printing Conference. What a great idea I thought and commended him on his achievement and creativity. His site is dedicated to the future of 3D printing and he also did some other interviews that I’ll share as soon as I see them come up on his site. Thanks for helping promote the BotBQ Cosmio, I look forward to following your coverage of the future of 3D printing.
3D Food Printing 4 Life!
In summary of my summary on the summary of some of the people who I was really happy to meet and talk with I want to thank Pieter and Jakajima once more and thank everyone who came to the event, shared the event, covered the event and especially anybody out there who may be reading this about to get involved with 3D food printing. I hope that the BotBQ can help you in that effort!
Check out these other posts on #3DFoodPrintConf:
If you enjoyed reading my post on the 3D Food Printing Conference, I’ve tracked down some other peoples perspective in the links below. Go check them out and let them know I sent you!
3D Food Printing Conference PART 1 / PART 2 by Luis Rodriguez of 3DigitalCooks.com
When will we 3D print our food? by Linyee Yuan of thisismold.com
3D Food Printing Conference: Innovation you can Eat by Cosimo Orban of 3DPrintingTech.cc
Move over microwave, here comes the 3D food printer on EuroNews
And of course check out the pics over at the 3DFoodPrintingConference.com photos page
Thanks for reading and see you next time!
Jason
