Israeli Tech Kitchens Cook Up Future of Animal-free Food

The “robot chef” was whirring away when a group of reporters and photographers filed into the kitchen at the Rehovot offices of Israeli food tech startup SavorEat. The company had prepared a burger stand manned by a chef who would assemble the meal once the machine signaled that SavorEat’s plant-based burger patties were ready. The chef would take each patty and place it on the bottom half on a fresh bun, add a slice of cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, and purple onion topped with mayo and ketchup and serve it. It was 9 a.m.

As the group members waited for their burger breakfast, SavorEat co-founder and CEO Racheli Vizman explained that the company was looking to deliver an eating “experience, not just food,” pointing to the large washing-machine-sized “robot chef,” as she calls it. The machine combines additive manufacturing technology, plant-based ingredients in cartridges, and a unique, plant-based cellulose fiber that binds the ingredients together, creating a meat-like texture.

The result is a kosher, vegan, gluten-free, allergen-free (including soy) burger patty made of pea and other plant-based proteins with sunflower and coconut fats that looks and smells like a beef burger.