14 DAY TRIAL // It's finally happened, someone has actually created a 3D printer that can make you a pizza on command, so if you have £835 / $1,369 / €995 just lying around, feel free to save it for when the Foodini becomes available.
Sadly, the Foodini will only reach stores around the middle of next year, 2014, so our dreams of automated cooking are still far off.
Then again, the creators of the food 3D printer, Natural Machines, say that this thing doesn't actually cook food per se.
A pizza is easy enough to make, because it's ultimately just a bunch of ingredients on top of each other and subjected to heat for a while.
By contrast, the Foodini can't do any sort of complex cooking tasks, although it should have an easy enough time keeping food hot and streamline the process for straightforward recipes, which pizza qualifies as.
On that note, Foodini can make chocolate fingers, ravioli and anything else from the designs on the machine's control panel.
Parents could use the thing to make meals in the shapes of animals or cartoon characters, or customizing a message on a cake.
Not that Natural Machines expects consumers to leap for the Foodini, or even have access to it at first. Retail food stores might have to open the doors first, so to speak.
“Retail food stores have shown an interest. They can both print food in-store to sell to consumers as well as sell pre-filled food capsules for consumers to take home to use in their machines,” said Lynette Kucsma, co-founder of the Barcelona-based company. “It could be an option to buy pre-filled capsules, put them in the machine and print.”
If nothing else, Foodini will offer a good alternative to dry and tasteless army rations, adding a touch of art and flavor to life. It will also deal with frozen or semi-prepared quickly, without you having to stay in the kitchen for it. Definitely a step up from instant soup packets.
