As many of you may already know, I love gadgets and occasionally
I share tech news I've learned with hope that it'll make your life
a little easier and more fun. With that in mind, this latest "innovation" -- a
tech-obsessed chef who has developed edible food off a color inkjet
printer -- is something I thought many of you would enjoy, especially
since it relates to foods. .
A Chicago-based chef, Homaru Cantu, appears to be a major tech
geek. He has modified an inkjet printer to "create" dishes
made of edible paper that can taste like anything from birthday
cake to sushi. Here's how it works:
- Ink cartridges are loaded with fruit and vegetable concoctions
instead of black/colored ink
- The paper tray contains edible sheets made of soybean and potato
starch
- The otherwise normal inkjet printer generates tasty versions
of foods, based on images downloaded from the web
Additionally, the menu at Cantu's restaurant (Moto) is edible,
as customers can tear it up to turn a bowl of gazpacho into a new
version of alphabet soup. Cantu will even season menus to taste
like the main courses. He'll also prepare edible photographs flavored
to fit a given theme. For example, an image of a cow might taste
like filet mignon.
However, until the paperwork is filed on patents, the chef isn't
revealing how he modified the print heads to write in vegetable
juice. Nor is he giving away any recipes for his colorful inks,
other than to say carrots, tomatoes and purple potatoes are involved
in "the formula."
Cantu's Culinary Inventions on the
Horizon
Inkjet food is merely one of the more "conventional products"
Cantu has in development. He's also currently experimenting with
liquid nitrogen, helium and superconductors to make foods levitate
and has tested a hand-held ion-particle gun to do just that.
He also aspires to cook steak with a hand-held laser to sear the
center of the meat until it is well done on the inside and medium
rare, or even raw, on the outside. Cantu imagines using the laser
to bake bread as well -- with the crust on the inside of the loaf.
And that's still not all: Cantu remarks, "I want to make
food float, I want to make it disappear, I want to make it reappear,
I want to make the utensils edible, I want to make the plates, the
table, the chairs edible."
While all of Mr. Cantu's inventions and aspirations sound
exciting, not to mention incredibly interesting, I'm going
to have to pass. So thanks, but no thanks -- I'd rather eat real food,
and on a plate, not above my head.
New
Scientist February 10, 2005.
Spartanburg Herald-Journal February 3, 2005
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