3 ms·

I think the future of food is different - it's about restaurant quality meals, for cheap, large selection, with zero effort. maybe via online ordering, maybe Wh

by petra 9y ago

I think the future of food is different - it's about restaurant quality meals, for cheap, large selection, with zero effort. maybe via online ordering, maybe Whole-foods/Walmart. And you may need some fancy oven like combi-oven or solid-state microwave. And even if we're talking cuts of meat, i think technology like MATS(microwave assisted thermal sterilization) may give you high quality meat that doesn't spoil for very long, so that won't be an issue. And as for suggesting recipes based on fridge content or restocking (are those such big problems for consumers?) - there are probably other ways to solve that , like AI + camera, no need to reshuffle the whole supply chain.

semi-extrinsic 9y ago
> restaurant quality meals, for cheap, large selection, with zero effort If this were ever to happen - and what I know of food chemistry makes me strongly skeptical - you would definitely see it in actual restaurants way before you get it at home. Because for a restaurant, if you can effectively replace a human costing >$40k/yr with a change in supply chain and a fancy machine, you can easily afford to pay $40k for the machine alone. A consumer would never afford that. (Same goes for fully autonomous cars.) As for the "reducing food waste" concept - no store actually wants to achieve this. Think about it - actively trying to get people to buy less of what you sell is pretty bad for business.
- petra 9y ago
  Using frozen food, many french restaurants already do that for some stuff to an extent there was law on that matter, and there's a french/european consumer chain, picard, for gourmet frozen food. But it's expensive. but maybe prices will go down ?
- alexanderstears 9y ago
  >As for the "reducing food waste" concept - no store actually wants to achieve this. Think about it - actively trying to get people to buy less of what you sell is pretty bad for business. Which is why it's ripe for disruption. The consumer could be better off, a company that isn't in the space already could be better off, they're the people who need to make it happen.
  - semi-extrinsic 9y ago
    There's the other half of the chain as well - the suppliers. If they know selling to NewFancyStoreWithLessFoodWaste leads to an end-game where there is less demand for their products, why should they bother?
    - alexanderstears 9y ago
      Because the disruptor might succeed with or without them and the disruptor might treat them more favorably (at first) than the status quo. My neighbor grows soybeans, and he hates the guy who buys his soybeans. If someone came in and treated him better and paid him more, I think he'd leap at the chance to sell his crop to them even if it imperiled the future. Besides, suppliers aren't monolithic. Many suppliers are scrapping for new business or ways to differentiate themselves. Better farmers could be more successful in a paradigm where they could earn extra money for healthy plants than say selling to walmart who simply pays a fixed price if the plants meet minimum standards.
- cr0sh 9y ago
  > Because for a restaurant, if you can effectively replace a human costing >$40k/yr with a change in supply chain and a fancy machine, Ever heard of a TurboChef oven? Because that's almost exactly what you're describing. Think of it as a combination oven that uses microwaves, thermal, and convection to cook stuff extremely fast, and generally of a pretty decent quality. If you've eaten at just about any restaurant, you have likely had something prepared in one (if not the whole meal). They are actually pretty nice machines; if I had the counter room at home I'd have one. But they aren't cheap...
- trentmb 9y ago
  Sous-vide?
zemvpferreira 9y ago
This is as good a time as any to plug my company, Mellow: www.cookmellow.com (that's our exact value prop)

by petra 9y ago

semi-extrinsic 9y ago

> restaurant quality meals, for cheap, large selection, with zero effort If this were ever to happen - and what I know of food chemistry makes me strongly skeptical - you would definitely see it in actual restaurants way before you get it at home. Because for a restaurant, if you can effectively replace a human costing >$40k/yr with a change in supply chain and a fancy machine, you can easily afford to pay $40k for the machine alone. A consumer would never afford that. (Same goes for fully autonomous cars.) As for the "reducing food waste" concept - no store actually wants to achieve this. Think about it - actively trying to get people to buy less of what you sell is pretty bad for business.

petra 9y ago
Using frozen food, many french restaurants already do that for some stuff to an extent there was law on that matter, and there's a french/european consumer chain, picard, for gourmet frozen food. But it's expensive. but maybe prices will go down ?
alexanderstears 9y ago
>As for the "reducing food waste" concept - no store actually wants to achieve this. Think about it - actively trying to get people to buy less of what you sell is pretty bad for business. Which is why it's ripe for disruption. The consumer could be better off, a company that isn't in the space already could be better off, they're the people who need to make it happen.
- semi-extrinsic 9y ago
  There's the other half of the chain as well - the suppliers. If they know selling to NewFancyStoreWithLessFoodWaste leads to an end-game where there is less demand for their products, why should they bother?
  - alexanderstears 9y ago
    Because the disruptor might succeed with or without them and the disruptor might treat them more favorably (at first) than the status quo. My neighbor grows soybeans, and he hates the guy who buys his soybeans. If someone came in and treated him better and paid him more, I think he'd leap at the chance to sell his crop to them even if it imperiled the future. Besides, suppliers aren't monolithic. Many suppliers are scrapping for new business or ways to differentiate themselves. Better farmers could be more successful in a paradigm where they could earn extra money for healthy plants than say selling to walmart who simply pays a fixed price if the plants meet minimum standards.
cr0sh 9y ago
> Because for a restaurant, if you can effectively replace a human costing >$40k/yr with a change in supply chain and a fancy machine, Ever heard of a TurboChef oven? Because that's almost exactly what you're describing. Think of it as a combination oven that uses microwaves, thermal, and convection to cook stuff extremely fast, and generally of a pretty decent quality. If you've eaten at just about any restaurant, you have likely had something prepared in one (if not the whole meal). They are actually pretty nice machines; if I had the counter room at home I'd have one. But they aren't cheap...
trentmb 9y ago
Sous-vide?

zemvpferreira 9y ago

This is as good a time as any to plug my company, Mellow: www.cookmellow.com (that's our exact value prop)