Third Annual Food Innovation Conference Delivered Food
Experiences, Innovations, and Tensions between Tradition and Trend
St. Helena, CA – More than 350 guests filled The Culinary Institute
of America at Greystone November 4–6 for the third annual conference. A collaboration between the CIA and
the MIT Media Lab, reThink Food has become a hub for
thought leadership at the intersection of food, technology, behavior, and
design. Attendees included food industry leaders; academics and innovators in
R&D, technology, and consumer package goods; marketers; and others in
related fields.
From demonstrations of robotics in the kitchen and diagrams
of culinary genetics to discussions about harnessing technology to transform
food systems, reThink Food provided provocative
insights and sparked lively conversations around the central themes of
disruption, innovation, and advancement. Attendees were treated to a sneak peek
at some of the most cutting-edge advancements in food innovation, including artificial
intelligence (AI), robotics, virtual reality, big data, and genetics.
According to Greg Drescher,
vice president of Strategic Initiatives and Industry Leadership at
the CIA, “reThink Food provides a platform to review shifts in food
culture, behaviors, and science; to spark ideas for designing nimble
business
strategies; and to develop value-based, interconnecting networks in
order to
become successful entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs—in
food production, distribution, and service—today and in the future.”
Timely issues presented at reThink Food also included healthcare and sustainability. David Katz, founding director
of True Health Initiative and founding director of Prevention Research Center
at Yale University, inspired the crowd with a comprehensive overview of the
power of diet to extend lifespan and quality of life, concluding with a call to
action for the healthcare sector to finally unite around science that proves
that healthy diet and lifestyle are in fact our best medicine. Gilonne d’Origny of New Harvest
took the stage with Ryan Pandya of Perfect Day to outline their commitment to finding
more humane and sustainable ways to address consumer demand for animal protein.
Remarking on the massive amount of carbon emitted by the conventional meat
industry, d’Origny said, “Energy-wise you're better
off driving your Hummer to a vegan dinner than a Tesla to a barbecue.”
Highlights of this year’s conference also included:
- The first celebrating eight disruptive startups that are
shaping how we will grow, produce, and distribute food in the future. These
companies participated in a Startup Studio where they sampled or demonstrated
their products.
- A look at how traditional farmers work with urban
agriculturalists to use big data to share insights, create a transparent
system, and work towards producing enough food to feed nine to ten billion
people by 2050.
- An argument by UC Davis’ Matthew Lange for the development
of the Internet of Food (IOF), an extensive digital web that will “tip the
balance” from greatest-good-for-greatest-number policies to a focus on personalized
nutrition and prevention.
- And several interactive sessions:
- Food designer and artist Emilie Baltz (Pratt Institute) took the audience through a powerful multi-sensory exercise
to demonstrate the relationship between emotions and our conscious minds as we
create new food and beverage experiences that are essential to behavior
changes.
- An exploration of “Creative Tensions” was led by a team
from IDEO and became a forum for healthy debate and conversation.
- Henry Wedler of UC Davis led a
truly blind wine tasting to prove how flavors and aromas in wine are accented
by simply turning off the lights.
“The future of food is not about arguing, or illuminating,
or creating camps about what is wrong. That time is past, that's ten years
ago,” said Caleb Harper, principal research scientist and director of the Open
Agriculture initiative at the MIT Media Lab. “If we’re going to rethink food,
it’s about creating the tools that empower people to be curious and just simply
ask the question, what if.”
The webcast of all general sessions from reThink Food can be seen on the . Information about next year’s
conference, which will take place at the CIA at Greystone November 3–5, 2017,
will be available on re-thinkfood.org in January.
reThink Food is made possible, in part, by the generous contributions of our sponsors.
They include our platinum sponsor IDEO; gold sponsor Chobani;
silver sponsors Google and the National Pork Board; copper sponsors TerraVia, Unilever Food Solutions, and Vitamix;
premier presenting webcast sponsor Rich’s Foodservice and presenting webcast
sponsor Unilever Food Solutions.
Photo Captions and Hi-Res Images:
Photo 1 (top photo): Henry Wedler of UC Davis, who
is blind, led reThink Food attendees in a wine tasting to demonstrate
how our perception of flavors
and aromas can be enhanced when you can’t see what you are
tasting. (Photo credit: CIA/Kristen Loken)
Photo 2: According
to Dr. David Katz, founding director of True Health Initiative and a presenter
at the 2016 reThink Food conference, it’s not what we
don’t know about diet that most threatens our health; it’s the constant wild
misinterpretations of what we do know. (Photo
credit: CIA/Kristen Loken)
Photo 3: Peter Klosse is the creator of a wine and food pairing concept
that has evolved into an innovative and comprehensive theory on flavor and
tasting. At reThnk Food, he spoke about how we
perceive flavors and discussed some of his theories with other attendees during
one of the many networking opportunities. (Photo
credit: CIA/Kristen Loken)
Media Contact:
Jan Smyth
Marketing Manager—Industry Leadership and Advancement
845-451-1457
j_smyth@culinary.edu
About The Culinary Institute of America:
Founded in 1946, The Culinary Institute of America is the world’s premier
culinary college. Dedicated to developing leaders in foodservice and
hospitality, the independent, not-for-profit CIA offers bachelor’s degree
majors in management, culinary science, and applied food studies; associate
degrees in culinary arts and baking and pastry arts; and executive education
through its Food Business School. The college also offers certificate programs
and courses for professionals and enthusiasts. Its conferences and consulting
services have made the CIA the think tank of the food industry and its
worldwide network of 49,000 alumni includes innovators in every area of the
food business. The CIA has campuses in New York, California, Texas, and
Singapore.
About the MIT Media Lab:
Actively promoting a unique, antidisciplinary culture, the MIT Media Lab goes beyond known boundaries and disciplines,
encouraging the most unconventional mixing and matching of seemingly disparate
research areas. It creates disruptive technologies that happen at the edges,
pioneering such areas as wearable computing, tangible interfaces, and affective
computing. Today, faculty members, research staff, and students at the Lab work
in more than 25 research groups on more than 350 projects, from digital
approaches for treating neurological disorders, to a stackable, electric car
for sustainable cities, to advanced imaging technologies that can “see around a
corner.” The Lab is committed to looking beyond the obvious to ask the
questions not yet asked whose answers could radically improve the way people live,
learn, express themselves, work, and play. For more information, visit .
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