The Spoon Podcast

24:54

How One Japanese Entrepreneur Built a Food Business...

The Spoon Podcast ·

2026/08/26

In this episode of The Spoon Podcast, Mike talks with Yuta Katsuyama, co-founder of Chicago-based Onigiri Kororin, about his journey from Japan to building an onigiri business in the U.S. They discuss how a graduate school project turned into a startup, the years of experimentation it took to find the right business model, why calling onigiri a “sushi sandwich” helped win over American retailers, and how frozen onigiri could help the company expand beyond Chicago. Learn more about your ad

en-us

38:41

Building an AI from Scratch for Taste and Smell

The Spoon Podcast ·

2026/07/13

In this episode, Mike sits down with Kai Schaeffner and Andreas Nicklas, who have been spending the last couple of years building an AI to better understand and predict individual taste and smell preferences. Kai and Andreas talk about how they've built their platform using scientific cohort and patient data, why taste is often the missing link between healthy eating recommendations and real behavior change, and how personalized taste profiles could eventually power everything from recipe

en-us

39:36

Reimagining The Future of Farming With Neal Carter

The Spoon Podcast ·

2026/06/25

In this episode of The Spoon Podcast, Mike talks with Neal Carter, founder and CEO of Okanagan Specialty Fruits, about buying back the company he and his wife Louisa founded nearly 30 years ago. Carter reflects on the long journey behind the Arctic apple, the company’s nonbrowning apple created to reduce waste and get “more apples in more places,” and explains how OSF’s early work with RNA interference is giving way to a new generation of genome-edited fruit. He also lays out his bigger vision for

en-us

44:05

The Rise and Fall of Brava

The Spoon Podcast ·

2026/06/08

This week's guest is former Brava executive Travis Rea, who reflects on building one of the more interesting kitchen startups over the past decade. Rea shares the story behind Brava's light-based cooking technology, the challenges of creating an entirely new appliance category, and the lessons learned about consumer adoption, hardware startups, and innovation in the kitchen. The conversation also explores Brava's unexpected impact on accessibility and independent living, why the company

en-us

19:44

Can Fermentation Help Save Coffee & Cocoa?

The Spoon Podcast ·

2026/05/22

In this episode of The Spoon Podcast, Michael Wolf talks with Jake Berber, the cofounder and CEO of Prefer, a Singapore-based startup that uses fermentation to create coffee and cocoa extenders from ingredients like rice and chickpeas. Berber explains why rising coffee and cocoa prices, climate pressure, and growing global demand convinced him there was a massive opportunity to help future-proof some of the world’s favorite foods, and his journey from Texas to Israel to Singapore led him into the

en-us

49:18

Creating the Open AI of Food Robotics With Rajat...

The Spoon Podcast ·

2026/04/28

In this episode of The Spoon Podcast, Mike sits down with Chef Robotics CEO Rajat Bhageria to unpack how the company quietly went from years in stealth to assembling more than 100 million meals. Bhageria explains why assembly, not cooking, is the real bottleneck in food production, how Chef is using its ChefOS platform to build a data-driven approach to food manipulation, and why the messy, variable nature of food has historically made automation so difficult. The conversation also explores Chef’s

en-us

26:32

Is AI an Enemy or Ally for Recipe Creators?

The Spoon Podcast ·

2026/04/07

In this episode of The Spoon Podcast, Mike catches up with Will Templeton, co-founder and CTO of Allspice, about how the traditional recipe blog model, laden with ads, pop-ups, and static content, is breaking down as users increasingly “lift” recipes into apps, screenshots, or AI tools. The conversation explores how Allspice is building a new infrastructure layer for recipes, using structured ingredient data and vector databases to make sense of messy, inconsistent inputs from across the web. They

en-us

34:28

Talking About Nature's Trickster Protein With Ali Wing

The Spoon Podcast ·

2026/04/02

In this episode of The Spoon Podcast, Mike catches up with Oobli CEO Ali Wing to discuss what Wing calls "nature's trickster protein", the sweet proteins they develop for products like ice teas and chocolate bars. Wing talks about how the company is positioning its sweet protein technology at the center of two major shifts reshaping the food industry: the rise of GLP-1-driven dietary behavior and the growing demand for protein-forward, lower-sugar products. She also explains why the company has

en-us

30:03

Where Are Grocery Stores With AI Adoption in 2026?

The Spoon Podcast ·

2026/03/25

Mike is joined by Matthew Schwarz, CEO of Afresh, who discusses the company’s expansion from fresh produce to an all-in-one AI solution for the entire grocery store. Matt explains how the company's AI tech has prevented 200 million pounds of food waste annually and explores the rise of agentic AI, the balance between automation and humans, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

en-us

46:04

Why The Future of Food Testing May Be in Your Brainwaves

The Spoon Podcast ·

2026/03/13

In this episode of The Spoon Podcast, Michael Wolf talks with Mario Ubiali, founder and CEO of neuroscience company THIMUS, about how brainwave data and AI could reshape how food companies develop new products. Ubiali explains how his company uses wearable EEG technology to measure consumers’ neurological responses to food, capturing signals around liking, familiarity, and emotional engagement that traditional surveys often miss. The conversation explores why consumers frequently say one thing

en-us

40:27

From Wallaby Milk to AI: Nora Khaldi on Decoding...

The Spoon Podcast ·

2026/02/12

In this episode, Mike sits down with Dr. Nora Khaldi, founder and CEO of Nuritas, to explore how a postdoctoral epiphany about wallaby milk led her to build one of the first AI-powered molecular discovery platforms in food. They discuss how Nuritas uses AI to uncover, validate, and scale molecules into clinically validated ingredients, why ingredient discovery has historically taken decades, and what she's learned over the past decade building Nuritas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit

en-us

64:08

How AI is Changing Agriculture

The Spoon Podcast ·

2025/12/12

In this episode, Mike is joined by Tim Beissinger (CTO of Heritable) and Charlie Andersen (CEO of Burro) to explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping agriculture. The conversation explores everything from AI-driven plant breeding to how autonomous robots are tackling labor shortages, improving yields. Both Tim and Charlie will be at CES in January, so make sure to check the CES Ag Tech conference (produced by The Spoon and MIke!) out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit

en-us

25:37

Eliot Horowitz Wants to Reinvent Robotics Like He Did...

The Spoon Podcast ·

2025/11/11

In this episode, Michael talks with Eliot Horowitz, founder of MongoDB and now CEO of Viam, about why the physical world is lagging behind the AI revolution and how Viam is building the foundational platform robotics has been missing. Eliot shares why robotics needs its “AWS moment,” how better tools can shrink development timelines from years to months, and why practical automation, from kitchen assistants to back-of-house restaurant robots, will arrive long before humanoids. Learn more about

en-us

30:14

Building a Social Impact Food Company With Anna Hammond

The Spoon Podcast ·

2025/10/29

In this episode, Mike is joined by Anna Hammond, founder of Matriarch Foods, a social-impact food company that turns farm surplus and manufacturing byproducts into shelf-ready ingredients and meals for food banks, disaster relief, and food service. Anna has an interesting career journey, going from museums and art publishing to building a triple-bottom-line food startup tackling food waste at industrial scale. Mike and Anna discuss her career path, the economics of upcycling, and how food waste is

en-us

39:06

The State of All Things AI in 2025 (Part 1)

The Spoon Podcast ·

2025/10/19

This episode features a wide-ranging conversation between The Spoon's Michael Wolf and his old friend, long-time veteran tech journalist Derrick Harris, about the state of AI in 2025.Topics discussed include: The evolution from the early cloud and big-data era to today’s generative-AI boom How Nvidia became dominant on the training side How inference is becoming the true infrastructure bottleneck, Why ChatGPT was a consumer inflection point How the AI ecosystem is stratifying

en-us

31:41

Are Food Companies Really Embracing AI?

The Spoon Podcast ·

2025/10/06

In this episode of The Spoon Podcast, Mike welcomes Shiru CEO Jasmin Hume to the podcast to catch up on where things sit within the AI and food space in the context of Shiru's own evolution over the past couple of years.The highlights include: Talking about how VCs and entrepreneurs talk differently about how AI is being embraced in food Who will own the foundation models for food in the future How Jasmin and Shiru have evolved their company and how they talk with food brands about

en-us

38:32

The Good (and Bad) of AI-Powered Food Tracking Systems

The Spoon Podcast ·

2025/08/14

In this episode of The Spoon Podcast, Mike talks with Steve Statler, CEO and co-founder of AMB.AI, about the rise of ambient AI and energy-harvesting Bluetooth beacons could transform the supply chain. Steve shares his journey from pioneering Bluetooth beacons at Qualcomm to envisioning a future where everyday items like food, medicine, and clothing are connected and continuously monitored for location, temperature, and even freshness. The conversation explores the potential for reducing food

en-us

46:50

A Conversation With Mark Cuban

The Spoon Podcast ·

2025/08/02

In this episode of The Spoon Podcast, Michael Wolf sits down with Mark Cuban for a wide-ranging conversation recorded live at the SKS 2025. Mark and Mike discuss the transformative power of AI, exploring why Cuban believes it's more disruptive than the internet, mobile, or streaming, and how it's already reshaping education, jobs, and entrepreneurship. Cuban shares his views on the broken U.S. healthcare system, his motivations behind launching Cost Plus Drugs, and how GLP-1s might reshape food and

en-us

48:03

From Reality TV Producer to Recipe AI Entrepreneur...

The Spoon Podcast ·

2025/07/29

In this episode, Mike catches up with Babette Pepaj, founder of Bakespace and the new AI-powered platform BakeBot. Babette shares her journey from reality TV producer to social media pioneer, launching one of the first food-focused social networks in 2006. She reflects on the rise of food bloggers, the shifting digital landscape, and how she’s using AI to create more responsive, accessible, and personalized cooking tools for home cooks. Babette will be at Smart Kitchen Summit. Head over to

en-us

40:15

From Surfer to Robot Delivery CEO With Coco's Zach Rash

The Spoon Podcast ·

2025/07/21

This episode's guest is Zach Rash, the co-founder and CEO of Coco Robotics. Mike talks to Zach about his journey from aspiring professional surfer to becoming of a robot delivery company backed by OpenAI's Sam Altman. Zach shares how he and his co-founder started building robots out of their UCLA dorm room during the pandemic, why they focused on human-piloted delivery over full autonomy, and how Coco has grown into a multi-city operation. Zach will speak at Smart Kitchen Summit. You can get

en-us

All Episodes

Similar Podcasts

Lead With AI

Tamara Nall

Two Blokes Talking Tech

Trevor Long and Stephen Fenech

Pioneers of AI

WaitWhat

The Brave Technologist

Brave Software

The Good Tech Companies

HackerNoon