Tech Bites

Taking a page from the Silicon Valley playbook, FOOD-X combines start-ups with culinary ventures in one of the first food business accelerators. Created in 2014, the three-and-a-half month program gives food start-ups access to funding and mentorship with the industry stars like chef Dan Barber and CEO Danielle Gould. In-studio guest Shen Tong, founder and partner of FOOD-X talks about disrupting...

This new tech company ChouxBox comes from a chef and front-of-house guy, who wanted to spend less time on paperwork and more time cooking and the dinning room. They developed a “POP” or point-of-purchase inventory system that works with a snap of an iphone camera. In-studio guests Tony Aiazzi and Xavier “X” Mariezcurrena, talk about the unlikely story of going from restaurant to start-up incubator...

Learning to cook via video is a growing food tech category. From subscription-based models to crowd-sourced amateur videos, to YouTube celebrities, lots of businesses are banking on the idea people want how-to videos in the kitchen. In-studio guest Joseph Epstein, discussed his patent-pending learning system at the foundation of Salivation, and what it’s like a like behind the scenes of a food tec...

It takes more than a traveling chef and great pork buns to conquer the global restaurant and media markets. In this episode of Tech Bites, the studio is jam packed with the social ninjas that run the digital presences for Momofuku Restaurants worldwide and Zero Point Zero Productions (the creative powerhouse behind Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown, PBS’s Mind of A Chef, MeatEater, Apex Predator and...

Music can be an important ingredient to any dining experience and expressing the point-of-view of the house. In some cases, music and million-dollar DJ’s eclipse the food and chef. In this episode, in-studio guests DJ Timka and Chef Laurent Gras, discuss current trends and music tech, and their collaboration on music for the dinning room of three-star Michelin L2O. “The only downside to live strea...

How do you keep up with all the start-ups, meet-ups and hackathons? You plug into to Food + Tech Connect. Over the past six years, Danielle Gould’s personal blog has grown into a leading aggregator of news and event programming in the food and tech space. In this episode of Tech Bites, she talks about the evolution from blog to business and what’s coming next on the food tech horizon. This program...

There’s a new food festival on the block – or more accurately – down in the valley. On June 5th 2015, Silicon Valley will be host to innovators of the culinary type at the first BITE festival. This episode talks with BITE organizer Caryl Chinn of Octagon, and festival speaker Maisie Ganzler, of Bon Appétit Management Company, about the inspiration and hopes for the festival. “I think by bringing c...

Since opening in 1998, Mario Batali’s Babbo restaurant has been one of the toughest reservations to get. Back then, a phone call was the only way to get a table. Today, demand has not slowed down, but now there’s Twitter, and lots of reservation technology. In-studio guest David Gruber, head of digital media and communications for the Batali restaurants talks about Twitter, Opentable, and how to g...

People have pledged more that 1.7-billion dollars to Kickstarter projects since it’s 2009 inception. The fundraising community has re-invented restaurant and food development financing by harnessing the social power of the Internet. In-studio guests Terry Romero from Kickstarter, and project creator Rebecca Dengrove of Brewla Bars, talk about how to run a successful campaign and what life after th...

How many cocktail recipes have been born at the famed New York City bar PDT since it’s opening in 2007? Yea – there’s an app for that. The new app, PDT Cocktails, a database of 400 cocktail recipes, house-made syrups, and infusions with over 1000 photos of all the drinks and ingredients. In-studio guests Jim Meehan of PDT & Martin Doudoroff talk about handcrafted apps and why the bar named “Pl...

How do you teach a computer to cook? Have it read the 9,000 recipes in the Bon Appetit Magazine database and then introduce it to some chefs. This episode of Tech Bites talks with in-studio guests Dr. Steven Abrams of IBM Watson Life, and Stacey Riveria of Bon Appetit, about how the computer program runs on flavor compound algorithms and chicken. Watson – it’s what’s for dinner! See Privacy Policy...

Instagram has been one of the fastest growing social media platforms since the app was release in 2010. Today it is available in 25 languages and has approximately 300 million users (about 20 million more than Twitter). In-studio guests @kkrader, @foodandwine restaurant editor and Steven Hall, founder @HallPR talk about the Instagram effect on the restaurant business – the good, the bad and the se...

Have you seen “BTG” scrolling through your social media feed and wondered WTH “BTG Mags” means? By-the-Glass Magnums of course. Michael Madrigale, head sommelier of New York City’s Bar Boulud an Boulud Sud, created Gotham’s first “Big Bottles” program, giving wine lovers the rare opportunity to drink large format bottles poured by the glass. @mikemadrigale joins Tech Bites in-studio to talk about...

Since it’s launch in 2009, Food52 has grown from crowdsourcing recipes to cooking apps and commerce, becoming a fixture of culinary life online. Today on Tech Bites, we’ll talk with Food 52 co-founder Amanda Hesser about creating a content + commerce brand online, and her advice to food tech start-ups. This program was brought to you by Visit Napa Valley . “We’re really a platform for great curiou...

Got bacon? Take a virtual trip to Pig Island with this episode’s guests Rachael Wharton and Jimmy Carbone, authors of the 2015 IACP e-cookbook finalist I Like Pig: Recipes and Inspiration from New York City’s Pig Island. This program was sponsored by Visit Napa Valley. “I wanted to create something that would give back to the chefs…do an ebook.” [9:00] — Jimmy Carbone on Tech Bites “I know we sell...

Food delivery is one of the big trends right now in food and technology. Savory uses app technology as ecommerce platform and a 9,000-square foot kitchen to produce your order. It’s almost like having room service in your New York City apartment. In-studio guests Dhruv Singh, Jose Fuentes, Andrew Kloch talk about how Savory got started and how they get you what you want, when you want it, even if...

Is cash still king? With restaurant payment apps like COVER, you don’t even need your wallet, let alone cash to pay for dinner. Today’s guests Mark Egerman, Co-Founder of Cover and Chris Lauber, General Manager of Aldea Restaurant, talk about hospitality and covering the check with your smart phone. This program was sponsored by The International Culinary Center . “We were doing this on difficult...

Condé Nast launched Epicurious 20 years ago, as the online recipe box for all their publications. It has gone through many evolutions, keeping pace with changes in technology and magazine titles. The new 2015 version re-imagines the site as a web food utility. In-studio guests Eric Gillin, Executive Director and Matt Duckor, Restaurant Editor, will discuss the new responsive design, the food forec...

The current trend of food delivery fueled by tech isn’t just for restaurants, it’s reaching farm-to-table too. CSA (community supported agriculture) has gone digital with Farmigo. In studio guests Ludovica Ferme of Farmigo, and restaurant forager Meghan Boledovich of PRINT, discuss how online technology is making farm fresh vegetables as easy to get as a pizza. This program was sponsored by Brookl...

Michelin first published in 1900, a book of restaurants worth a trip to encourage people to dive more on their Michelin tires. The new car technology was the catalyst. Today Michelin Guide is one of the world’s most important restaurant reviews. How does today’s tech, like Instagram, Yelp and the internet, drive restaurant reviews? All questions Jennifer Leuizzi asks the Tech Bites in-studio guest...

Imagine the grocery store of the future. In 2065, what does the cart look like? Is there a produce section? Thinking about what food looks like in the future, can influence what we do with our food today. At Studio Industries in Brooklyn, the team uses design thinking and technology to create new products, solve old problems and imagine the future of food. Guest: Mike Lee, Studio Industries Founde...

Want to be a wine expert? There’s an app for that. The 4.4 release of the Delectable wine app is here. It’s a powerful little app that let’s you scan, save, review, share, research and pay for wine with the touch of a fingertip. Guest Julia Weinberg, Delectable’s resident “wine nerd,” talks about making wine, making apps and what wine she’ll pair with pizza after the show. This program was brought...

Do you have a dinner reservation tonight? Today, booking a table can be harder to get than tickets to a Broadway show. You love to go out to eat, but don’t want plan 30-days in advance or pay for a reservation. What do you do? Follow @LastMinuteEatin on Twitter for real-time last-minute reservations. The OpenTable + Twitter hack was created by New York entrepreneur and software engineer Jason Davi...

Collecting cookbooks and menus is so important to our culinary life, whether it’s for our personal memories or sharing public knowledge. This episode of Tech Bites looks at two of the country’s top culinary collections, curation and preservation in the digital age. Guests: Marvin Taylor is the Director of the Fales Library and Special Collections at New York University. Rebecca Federman is the Ele...

The Forbes annual “30 Under 30” list identifies and applauds young innovators and entrepreneurs who are impacting our world. The 2015 list, released on January 5th, represents 600 game changers across 20 industries. This inaugural episode of Tech Bites ! looks at this year’s Food & Drink “30 Under 30”, specifically the young prodigies using technology to change the way America eats and drinks....