3D Printer Makes Perfectly Symmetrical Pizza



3D printing seems like a technology that has come to the 21st century too soon. The machine that, for all I know, was sent to 2013 via time machine has fabricated products like bones and other body parts (seriously, they can make organs), instruments, clothing, shoes, gadgets, and gizmos galore. But Barcelona-based startup Natural Machines has invented a printer to satisfy and sate rather than shock and awe: The Foodini.

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Foodini, invented by Barcelona-based startup Natural Machines, is a food printer that aims to eliminate the laboriousness of cooking. Lynette Kucsma, co-founder and chief marketing officer, explains that the machine hopes to promote home cooking in an era of an obesity epidemic where people eat too much pre-packaged and processed food. "The harder part of cooking is assembling the food, not making the ingredients," she tells Yahoo Shine.

More on Yahoo Shine: Perfect Pizza? There's a Formula for That

Natural Machines' latest output has enticed foodies, geometry-enthusiasts alike, and anyone that enjoys pizza, which is basically the entire population minus vegans. The company claims that the hardest part about making homemade pies is shaping the dough and putting on an even layer of sauce, and the Foodini solves this uneven issue.


So is having equilateral dough and sauce really necessary? I still have dreams of becoming a professional dough tosser. I mean, isn't the most entertaining aspect of making pizza pretending to be one? Ay, Mamma Mia, what a culinary conundrum! But, if picking up the phone to order delivery is too deleterious, buying pre-made dough for a DIY pie is overly demanding, reheating flash frozen Elios or D'Giorno options in the oven or microwave don't stand up to your high pizza standards, or your type of obsessive compulsive disorder demands everything to be perfectly symmetrical and concentric, then the Foodini may be your sustenance savior.

You may not be convinced into spending the proposed retail price of $1,300 when the Foodini is expected to hit the market in the middle of 2014 based on the device's pizza crafting capabilities, but that only touches the crust of what the device can make. The kitchen appliance that's in the process of pursuing FDA-approval can decorate cakes, make tarts, print buns and meat for cheeseburgers (and sliders for those that prefer mini-food), swirl out some pumpkin gnocci, print cheesecake bites and more. Foodini works with dough, pastes and stiff liquids (a.k.a yeast) so the possibilities of what this kitchen counter-ready little machine can make are practically endless.

The tool can also customize food and plates with designs making photo cakes seem so vintag. Thank you, but I'd rather have a quiche printed in my likeness.

Natural Machines isn't alone in its attempts to print food. Earlier this year, NASA awarded a $125,000 grant to mechanical engineer Anjan Contractor to create a prototype of a printer that uses powder and oil cartridges to make food. NASA hopes that Contractor's invention will one day act as a sustenance system for astronauts on very long space missions. Marcelo Coelho and Amit Zoran at Massachusetts Institute of Technology created the "Cornucopia," a series of 3D printing models that use food canisters to assemble a meal at the touch of a screen.

None of these inventors have yet to reach sci-fi dystopian status where food magically appears on a plate. "Our machine is not one button push technology like the Star Trek "replica,"" Kucsma says. Something to look forward to, I guess.

You'll still have to sprinkle on the mozzarella and herbs yourself, but any machine that can make my novice kitchen skills look like expert five star restaurant level work is worth it.