A robot chef has landed in Denver cooking up plant-based, 3D-printed burgers.
SavorEat celebrated its U.S. debut on Wednesday at the University of Denver’s Community Commons.
The Israel-based company uses digital and additive manufacturing, including 3D printing, to create custom-ordered, plant-based burgers.
Here’s how SavorEat’s robot works. At a touch screen kiosk, consumers type in their name and place their order, selecting either the chef's plant-based burger or the sporty one, which has more protein, and how they’d like it cooked. This information is transferred to the cloud and then to the SavorEat machine. Here, the machine 3D prints the patty and cooks it to order.
“The product [is made] on the spot, in front of your eyes,” Racheli Vizman, SavorEat CEO and co-founder, told Colorado Inno. “Within a few minutes, you have a delicious meat alternative product served based on your preferences, which is the uniqueness of SavorEat. There is no more one size fits all but rather it adjusts and [creates] products that fit your needs.”
Printing and cooking the plant-based patty takes just three to five minutes, according to SavorEat.
Once the patty is done, the consumer can add an array of toppings with the help of a human.
>Click through the gallery above to see the robot chef.
There are two machines at DU, each with three cartridges holding non-GMO plant-based ingredients used to make the patty. These cartridges are replaced by a human after four or six patties are made, according to SavorEat.
The company’s next iteration of the machine, which is expected to roll out next year, will make 90 patties each hour, Vizman said.
SavorEat’s machines also use artificial intelligence to remember each person’s order. AI is also used to track how much carbon dioxide is saved by eating a plant-based patty made by SavorEat. The CO2 savings are recorded on each consumer’s receipt and tracked by the machine.
“As an entrepreneur, for me what is important is not just to make new innovation, [but] also to impact people’s lives and try to improve the way that we consume food,” Vizman said. “... We decided to go with meat alternative and bring a solution, a tastier solution that we can impact people’s lives and also help to save the environment.”
SavorEat is starting with plant-based patties today, but Vizman said the technology and robot chef are versatile.
“We can also use sculptural meat together with plant-based and different variations of different kinds of products,” she said.
For now, SavorEat is focused on placing its machines in food service locations, such as university campuses and restaurants.
To determine the best location to launch SavorEat in the U.S., the Israeli company partnered with Sodexo, a global food services and facilities management company. After conducting research, SavorEat selected to expand to Denver because people here are open to innovation and new technology and are health conscious, Vizman said.
DU was selected for SavorEat’s first U.S. location due in large part to the university’s engineering school.
“[The engineering students] are exposed to cutting-edge technology, like 3D printers, so this is a great expansion through food tech innovation for us,” Vizman said.
Vizman added that she is open to working with university students to continue innovating the food tech scene and SavorEat’s technology and products.
The company plans to open a second Denver location at the University of Colorado at Denver’s Eat Food Market next year.
Although the newly opened SavorEat location is only available to DU students and faculty, Vizman said the company plans to launch a consumer product for home use in 2025 or 2026.
