Italy is an interesting place to have a discussion about the future of food. In a country steeped in gastronomic tradition, a food printer might seem gauche, if not downright offensive. But at Maker Faire Rome, attendees will be confronted with 3D printed food — and may even get a taste.
Dovetailed, a 3D fruit printer, will be on hand, pumping out little spheres of “bespoke fruits”. Health-food Dippin Dots, or the future of food? Either way, it’s not grandma’s lasagna. Foodini (pictured, with video below), a printer that emphasizes fresh ingredients and recently received a grant from NASA to pursue off-world food printing, will be there as well.
But of course, these are just two of the more than 600 displays at Rome’s second Maker Faire, scheduled for October 3-5 at the Auditorium Parco della Musica. The faire is part of a larger “Innovation Week” in that city, with other events — like a hackathon and an open hardware summit — helping to promote research, experimentation, and sharing. Not in Rome? Watch for more coverage here.
0 thoughts on “When in Rome, Eat 3D-Printed Food at Maker Faire”
ADVERTISEMENT
Join Make: Community Today
I’m afraid that most of the 3d food printers in development are focused on the wrong end of the pipeline. Paste and liquid extrusion, while not necessarily mature, is more or less a solved problem. The current wave of designs still insist that the operator perform significant manual effort to prepare and combine foodstuffs that these machines simply deposit.
The revolutionary path lies in taking humans out of that prep work. Devising systems that take shelf-stable or environmentally controlled base ingredients, and automatically measure, combine, heat/cool, clean and reset. Our current goal should be to make an empty hopper or cartridge the only thing standing between you and your preferred meal.