The Spoon Podcast

On this episode of The Spoon podcast, catches up with with longtime food tech innovator and friend of The Spoon Scott Heimendinger about the hidden challenges of U.S. manufacturing, the future of kitchen robotics, and why tooling expertise has all but disappeared in America.

Scott shares insights from his stealth startup Seattle Ultrasonics and his experience navigating domestic vs. overseas prototyping. The two also explore whether a new wave of robot-ready kitchen appliances is coming, what makes Thermomix a surprise hardware juggernaut, and how AI is powering everything from sous vide to smart food storage.

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In this episode, Michael Wolf chats with Zevia CEO Amy Taylor about her journey from helping to shape Red Bull into a cultural force to leading Zevia, a mission-driven brand making zero-sugar, clean-label sodas. They explore Zevia's evolution as one of the better-for-you sodas, its strategy for staying relevant in a competitive beverage market, and its commitment to affordability and authenticity. Amy also shares insights on emerging health trends, ingredient transparency, and how Zevia leverages AI and innovation to build trust and scale impact.

Amy will be at our virtual event Smart Kitchen Summit in July. Make sure to get a ticket at www.smartkitchensummit.com and use the discount code PODCAST for 15% off tickets.

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We were live this week at ReFED's Food Waste Solutions Summit in Seattle. We had an interview stage on the show floor, where we caught up with a number of great folks to hear their thoughts on innovation in food waste and beyond.

This conversation is with Andrew Shakman, the CEO of Leanpath. You can read my article about this conversation at The Spoon.

You'll also want to check out Eva Goulbourne's conversations with folks from the ReFED conference over on her podcast, Everything But The Carbon Sink.

Finally, make sure to check out The Smart Kitchen Summit, our virtulal event in July where we'll talk to leaders across the food system about the state of food tech and much more! Use discount code PODCAST for 15% off tickets.

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In this episode we sit down with Mesh Gelman, the founder and CEO of Cumulus Coffee, to talk about reinventing the cold brew experience. A former Starbucks innovation executive, Gelman shares how his journey from coffee burnout to cold brew evangelist led him to build a sleek countertop system that delivers barista-quality nitro cold brew and cold espresso in under 60 seconds, without the need for nitrogen tanks. The two dive into the challenges of building a hardware startup, the evolution of consumer coffee habits, why cold is the future, and how Cumulus is positioning itself as both a coffee company and a tech innovator.

Check out our upcoming virtual event, Smart Kitchen Summit 2025 at www.smartkitchensummit.com. Podcast listeners can use the discount SPOONPOD for 20% off of tickets.

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This episode's guest is Brian Canlis, a third-generation co-owner of the famed Canlis restaurant in Seattle. Brian's last day at Canlis was last week as he looks to launch a new adventure with his college roommate Will Guidara, owner of Eleven Madison Park and author of Unreasonable Hospitality.

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In this episode of The Spoon Podcast, host Michael Wolf sits down with Carl-Emil Grøn, CEO and co-founder of Reshape Biotech, a Copenhagen-based company transforming the world of biotech research. While much of the tech industry has embraced automation and AI, Carl-Emil realized that biotech labs were still operating like it was the 1990s. Reshape is changing that by bringing robotics, machine learning, and a vast proprietary dataset to the lab bench—helping major companies like Unilever and Nestlé run millions of experiments and drastically accelerate the development of safe, natural ingredients. This conversation explores how AI is being used to reengineer food, personal care, and health products—and what it means for the future of the global food system.

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This episode's guest is Eva Goulbourne, founder of Littlefoot Ventures and one of the most insightful voices at the intersection of food, climate, and finance. Eva’s career has taken her from the halls of the World Economic Forum to the launch of ReFED, where she helped build one of the most influential organizations in food waste reduction. Through her work at Littlefoot, she advises brands, foundations, and startups on how to drive meaningful change across our global food system. She’s also the host of the new podcast Everything but the Carbon Sink, where she dives deep into the tough, often-overlooked challenges facing the future of food.

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We catch up with Andrew Simmons to chat about his new pizza subscription platform and to hear what his thoughts are after a year of change.

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On this episode of The Spoon Podcast, host Michael Wolf sits down with food futurist and innovator Mike Lee to talk about the launch of The Tomorrow Today Show, his new long-form podcast exploring the future of food. The two Mikes trace Lee’s journey from corporate innovation at American Express to building immersive concept experiences like The Future Market and launching the storytelling-driven magazine Mise. Mike shares how improv, design, and dinner parties shaped his unique lens on the food system, and why he believes corporate boardrooms need more narrative thinking.

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In this week's episode, Mike chats with George Peppou, founder and CEO of Vow, the Australian startup pushing the boundaries of cultured meat. George shares how his background in science, food, and invention led to building a company that creates entirely new types of meat, like quail foie gras and even a woolly mammoth meatball. George dives into Vow’s bold approach to scaling production, including the in-house design of the world’s largest food-grade bioreactor, and how they’re defying industry trends by continuously selling cultivated meat in Singapore. George also discusses regulatory progress in Australia and New Zealand, what it takes to bring cultured meat to grocery shelves, and why others are now approaching Vow in the space for manufacturing support.

Check out our big virtual event in July, the Smart Kitchen Summit! www.smartkitchensummit.com

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