We met the lovely Brett Graham and Nik Hill at the Audi Polo Event in July. After having a chat about what we’ve been up to (and spending the evening loudly singing along to Ella Eyre) Nik, the head pastry chef, invited us to the renowned restaurant to show the chefs our Kitchen Robot.
The Ledbury is a two Michelin star restaurant in Notting Hill, currently ranked number 20 in San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2015 and has won numerous awards for delicious food and innovative cooking, so naturally we were very excited.
Nik prepared us some liquids he wanted to experiment with, ranging from molten chocolate to truffle juice, and all completely delicious. We did a little bit of testing in our studio kitchen… and then off to London we went!
A quick coffee whilst setting up and soon we had an audience of about fifteen chefs. We got Nik to design a shape he wanted to print and while the Kitchen Robot was working its magic, Vaiva explained how the Kitchen Robot works, how we’ve developed it and its potential for future use. All prompted some interesting questions from the chefs and was a great sounding board for discussions about equipment requirements for the kitchen in both a domestic and professional sense.
Et voila! The Kitchen Robot finished printing a large chocolate and wild honey pyramid and then it was time for the tasting. Unsurprisingly the chefs were quick to their feet and gathered to try some of the robot’s efforts. We can’t take credit for the taste, as this was crafted by Nik’s hands but the technique was of intrigue to the chefs. Like us, they see the potential for the printer to not only enhance dining experiences and thrill diners but also to solve some of the problems they encounter as professional chefs; from correctly portioning the consumption of dishes for best flavour, to maintaining natural flavours without preservatives.
The Ledbury have kindly offered to trial the newest Blueberry Edition Kitchen Robot in their restaurant kitchen and we’re very much looking forward to seeing the wonderful things they create with it.
We finished our visit with a tour of the compact but incredibly well organised kitchen, where amazing smells were permeating as all the chefs started to prepare for the evening service.
A great experience all round, with some good points for us to focus on in the development of the next version of the 3D food printer. A massive thank you to the Ledbury for having us, we’ll definitely be visiting again soon!