3D Food Printing: Is It Ready for Luxury Dining?

This 4-part series examines how 3D printing will affect the future of fine dining. This part sets up the series by exploring the current state of 3D food printing and whether it’s ready for use in fine dining restaurants. The second part, How 3D Printing Will Change the Future of Fine Dining, explores the ways in which 3D printing affects the fine dining experience. The third part, Will 3D Printing Destroy the Concept of Fine Dining?, explores whether using the technology would make fine dining more or less exclusive. And the last part, How 3D Printing Could Blow Up the Luxury Dining Model, takes a look at 3D printing’s influence on the business of fine dining.

3D printing has been around for more than 30 years, but lately it’s been making more headlines in the food industry. From 3D Systems’ educational partnership with The Culinary Institute of America (CIA), to the launch of the educational Culinary Lab this fall, engineers and advertisers are touting 3D printing’s potential effect on the food industry.

With most demonstrations of 3D food printing focusing on confectionary items and a pizza here and there, how effective is this technology really for more complete, fine dining meals?

For the first time, the 3D Printshow 2015 in London saw Michelin-starred Chef Mateo Blanch from La Boscana, Spain creating the first 3D printed, 5-course meal on May 21 to 23. The lunch and dinner menu included a starter snack of caviar cookies with lemon and strawberries, followed by hummus and a dish of guacamole. The main course consists of a choice between a Framed octopus (a dish of octopus with potatoes as the frame) and a Caprese pasta with basilicum and pesto. As for dessert, there was a Carpaccio Target (a strawberry and jelly carpaccio), and Chocolate calling London (a dish featuring the word "London" printed in chocolate).

While Blanch told IBTimes UK that the technology has made him “capable of a level of precision that would have never been possible before,” not as many fine dining chefs have been as receptive to 3D food printing, according to Frits Hoff, Founder and Managing Director of Fab Lab Maastricht. With the exception of Blanch and Dos Cielos’ Javier and Sergio Torres using the Foodini in 2014, there are few other reports on Michelin-starred chefs adopting this technology.

Why?

It could well be because of the nascent stage of this technology, said Hod Lipson, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Columbia University and Co-author of “Fabricated: The New World of 3D Printing.” 3D printing is essentially stacking materials layers upon layers based on an electronic blueprint on a computer. “What’s remarkable about 3D food printing is that it connects information and software to cooking,” said Lipson, “two things that were only loosely connected before this point.” Naturally, new connection brings new challenges.

To many people, the idea of food printing seems quick, but it took Hoff and the organizers at the 3D Printshow between ten minutes to an hour in printing each course. To create Blanch’s 3D printed meals, the team of By Flow began by developing a paste extruder with food safe syringes that can print silicon and edible materials. A food designer then converts the chef’s idea into a 3D model by drawing the symbol. What follows is the most challenging step when the chef made the food thick enough to remain afloat after printing, yet thin enough to go through a needle of 1.6mm by adding agar agar (a gelatinous material derived from certain marine algae). After a few tests, the organizers adapted the printer speed to process the material, according to Hoff.

The reason 3D food printing is particularly challenging, “is that you often have to mix more than one material to create a conceivably good dish. But to do that with today’s state of 3D printing is relatively difficult,” explained Lipson. For the chefs who are just (if not almost) as capable of creating the perfect forms as 3D food printers, it’s understandable why some are reluctant to take up this technology for now. According to Lipson, there will always be multiple camps. “Some traditional chefs will shy away from it, while others would see it as an opportunity to innovate and experiment with it,” he noted.

Heston Blumenthal, one of the world’s best chefs and owner of three Michelin-star restaurant The Fat Duck in Berkshire, England (currently in Melbourne while the Berkshire branch is closed for refurbishment till latter part of 2015) would certainly be the adventurous ones. Back in 2009, Blumenthal had already embraced 3D printing to create jelly moulds on his popular TV programme Heston’s Victorian Feast. During his quest for new technologies and ways to revolutionize the cooking process and dining experience for guests, the Michelin-star chef strongly believes in continually questioning everything.

Same could be said about Lipson, who recognizes the void in 3D printing right now. He noted, “Engineers largely control digital recipes and 3D printers today.” To make these machines more effective and user friendly, engineers and chefs must work together to bridge the gap. What’s more, 3D food printers are generally expensive. The better models out there, noted Lipson, such as 3D Systems’ Sugar ChefJet, would cost $5,000 to $10,000. All these factors explain the scarcity of 3D food printers in restaurants at this point.

However, Lipson doesn’t expect this to be the case for long. He noted, “In roughly ten years, 3D printing would become a mainstay in restaurants, including fine dining ones.”