> Well, it will make a million people unemployed if this tech is rolled out across restaurants, so it'll certainly have a large effect on society.
It won't, so many positions still remain unfilled since COVID that closures due to staff shortages/COVID outbreaks have been normalized; assuming this tech could scale to be above a certain standard (this looks like public school cafeteria food at best) all it would do is lower labour costs by putting downward pressure on current wages--which are barely at livable levels and will not yield a lower consumer cost as shortages for ingredients keep occurring.
There is no real advantage, and the threat of SV titans disrupting the Food Industry is was all smoke and mirrors.
The truth is that COVID revealed that this job (cooking) was not just grossly underpaid and undervalued for what it was, but those who were able to used the opportunity to leveraged the skills they learned to move on to a less exploitative/demanding Industry and that the tech was simply not there to do much--even Ghost Kitchens, which still rely on Human labour, have a greater chance at capturing these job losses from brick and mortars than anything else as the effective cost savings are clear (lowering overhead to it's bare essentials and offering many menus in one location).
Despite being a proponent of automation in the food industry, specifically at it's origin on the Farm, I doubt this tech will ever be a real threat and will remain a novelty at best and is at it's core just cashing in on the froth of vC money leftover from these last 2 years. You can repeat all the mistakes and losses Doordash/UberEats et al have made to gain marketshare in a captured market, but without a Softbank backing you and really only wanting a sweet IPO exit it simply doesn't seem as lucrative or feasible to disrupt anything.
Presumably they will need drivers – I'm not holding my breath for self-driving vehicles – and people to work on the vehicles and the pizza-assembling machines. Probably, much like Lime scooters, they will need daily maintenance, for cleaning and restocking. Not a recipe for increasing unemployment, just moving people from one kind of job to another.
Also worth noting is that this puts large, heavy vehicles on the road, with all the attendant externalities for that. They'll be out there with the Amazon, FedEx, UPS, and whoever trucks.
If the truck is still manned, then does this operating model make any more sense than delivering dog food via the internet ? Why do I need the level of personalization associated with delivering an entire food truck to my doorstep ?
45 second bake time can't possibly produce a pizza that is "healthy". What kind of additives do you have to add to the dough to get that kind fo speed?
At 900 degrees it might be? I have my pizza's (which use a super wet dough) at that temp for 90 seconds. I could see it working with a drier dough and with some ingredients partially pre-cooked.
> 45 second bake time can't possibly produce a pizza that is "healthy". What kind of additives do you have to add to the dough to get that kind fo speed?
Honestly, it doesn't look that appetizing [0]; it looks like something between a Dominoes and a frozen pizza that you'd have to be really limited on options to even consider, which if you're pulling doubles and everywhere is closed is a likely scenario and it's a stand-alone option.
Personally, I think it's an engineer(s) leveraging on their SpaceX backgrounds and doing something fun outside of aerospace to raise funds and their CVs than revolutionizing pizza making as it looks remarkably similar in execution/quality to that of a race to the bottom cost-cutting Dominoes product/process, with albeit more automation at the assembly stage (toppings are done by hand in all the demos I've seen [1]).
SpaceX has lots of food trucks that support their food program in addition to their mezzanine kitchen/cafe(s) (Starbase has food trucks only to support its dining-meal program) so maybe this is one former engineer's take on what he would have done differently during COVID is my best guess at explaining the 'how,' but the why still eludes me since their are way better options on and off site.
Update: It is, and is guided by former SpaceX Head Chef Cizma: it's likely a PR stunt/fun project more than anything else [2].
Stellar Pizza, founded by ex-SpaceX engineers Benson Tsai, Brian Langone and James Wahawisan, is a food truck that will serve pizzas made by robotic arms that dress and bake the pizzas, which customers will be able to order via the company’s app. Former SpaceX executive chef and director of culinary services Ted Cizma is overseeing the recipes with aid from consultant and Slow Rise Pizza Co. founder Noel Brohner.
My guess is they want some of Ono Food's Marketshare who launched and raised in 2019 [3].
Stellar says one selling point of its pies is that no human hands touch them; they’re made entirely by machines, all the way through to being slid into a box, which a delivery driver passes on to customers.
I don't consider that a selling point since the imperfection is part of the experience. Give me a hand tossed New York slice sitting under a lamp for a couple hours and re-baked just when I order it. The air bubbles in the dough and uneven crispiness make each bite just a little different.
I understand the sentiment, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to add a little randomized imperfection to the robot’s programming. Or is it that after you know the pizza has been made by a robot, you’re expecting a perfect pie? Ahh, the future will be interesting indeed…
As far as I know, Little Caesars has fresh hot pizzas in the $7-$10 range this company is targeting. It seems like that's going to be their main competition, assuming they get off the ground. Is "made by a robot" a good differentiator? What's the advantage of robot-made-on-demand -- greater customizability? If so, inventory management for all the different toppings would be a big challenge, as well as designing robots that can handle all the different toppings.
Or, like many SV companies, is pizza the proof-of-concept and they're shooting to be the global juggernaut of robot food-making and license to the other fast food places? I suspect that's the long-term vision.
Or, like many SV companies, is pizza the proof-of-concept and they're shooting to be the global juggernaut of robot food-making and license to the other fast food places? I suspect that's the long-term vision.
This was hilarious, not sure if that was your intention ha
I don't know why people are starting these companies with such unattractive economics and stiff competition. As noted in the Article, Zume raised 375m and failed (plus their pizza was almost comically awful). From the photo it looks like this company makes a better pizza but there are still some serious problems:
1) Margins on pizza are not very high. Dominos has a 30% gross margin and that's with all the non-pizza crap they've convinced people to buy over the years. The quote a $10 price in the article (though it's not clear if that's their cost or what they're selling for). Say their magical pizza robots instead allow for a 50 or 60% gross margin. If they're selling for $10, you still gotta sell a crap-ton of $10 pizzas to make any real money. That might not be impossible except for the fact that...
2) Competition is incredibly difficult. There are a zillion pizza places everywhere in the US. In addition to the major chains, there are also mom and pop pizza stores too. They are not going to sit idly by while this company scoops up marketshare with its cheap pizzas. They're going to market aggressively (which hurts net margin) and cut prices (which further compresses gross margin). It's going to be especially hard for this company because they're going up against established brands that everyone already knows - they're going to have to outpromote these giant companies.
If you really have this magic pizza robot tech, go sell it to Dominos. They will happily pay you vast amounts of money and you can juice your margins with a subscription model for parts and service.
They might be relying on “made by a robot” gimmick. And then if the taste is good and it’s extremely easy to order I could see making it my default “cheap” pizza option.
Granted I don’t order pizza that often, I do a cast iron version myself. But if they can switch to be the “default cheap” pizza for these who order it once every week or two it could work.
At 5-6 years you break even… idk seems like a pretty weak ROI especially Since you didn’t include cost of capital. A pizza joint doesn’t get very favorable interest rates
I don't follow your numbers to get 6 years. I get like 2.5. Seems like 450k/yr is a pretty great return on capital. Good luck finding 45% annual return on an investment.
Aren't frozen pizzas already made using automated processes? How is this any better? Couldn't you just cook frozen pizzas on the way as well? Is the sell that these pizzas are going to taste far better?
I am certain you could order, from an industrial machine manufacturer, a nearly completely automated fresh pizza production line. You just skip the freezing step and extend the cooking period.
The time consuming part of pizza is the dough. It is really making a pizza when they're using premade dough balls? They are also not proofing to room temperature?
Also the headline should be "bake a pizza in 45 seconds" as the article states, but I guess it doesn't sound that impressive when consumer pizza ovens can already bake one in 60 seconds.
My approach to pizza is intended to be
good on cost, preparation time, flavor,
and nutrition and in my view is terrific
on all four.
Table of Contents
=== Steps Forward
=== Making the Pizza Dough
== Equipment
= Stainless Steel Bowls
= Other Equipment
== The Water and Yeast
== The Flour
== Mixing in the Salt and Flour
== Dough Kneading
== Dough Rising
== Eight Pieces
=== Tomato Sauce
=== Making a Pizza
== A Teflon Circle
== Forming the Pizza
== The Toppings
== Cooking
== Slicing
=== Steps Forward
For my success and my situation, here are
five steps forward:
First, I make the pizza at home and, thus,
cut out some time delays and lots of
costs.
Second, I make my own dough. Key here are
the simple, bold, blunt facts (a) pizza
dough is just bread dough, actually
especially simple bread dough, and (b)
making pizza dough is fast, fun, and
easy.
Third, to cook the pizza, I use just a
covered cast iron frying pan on a stove
top so save on heating a whole oven.
Fourth, my pizza is for one, about 7 1/4"
in diameter. For larger pizzas, nearly
all of the content here can still apply.
Fifth, I settle on one pizza with just the
same ingredients and then buy the
ingredients in bulk quantities at Sam's
Club. The ingredients for one pizza cost
about $1. All the ingredients can be
stored, depending on the ingredient, at room
temperature, in a refrigerator, or in a
freezer, and be fine for months.
=== Making the Pizza Dough
The usual short version of pizza dough is
flour, yeast, salt, and water, and so is
my pizza dough.
For flour, I get the 25 pound bags of
bread and pizza flour from Sam's Club.
For yeast, I use
Fleischmann's Instant Dry Yeast.
My last purchase was from Amazon, 2
pounds, as one purchase, in two packages,
each one pound. The yeast comes as loose,
small granules. After opening a package,
I cover and refrigerate the rest.
== Equipment
= Stainless Steel Bowls
I use two stainless steel bowls. I
believe the bowls, at least the larger
one, are now sold at Walmart.
The larger bowl has at its top outside
diameter 12 1/4" and inside diameter 11
1/8". The inside depth is 6 1/2"
The smaller bowl has top outside diameter
11 1/2" and inside diameter 10 1/2". The
inside depth is depth 3 1/2"
= Other Equipment
1 T (tablespoon) measuring spoon
large wire whip
large cooking spoon
spatula
pastry board (white plastic, 20" x 15")
chef's knife
a second supply of flour, not large, say 1
cup or so, for dusting as helpful -- see
below.
== The Water and Yeast
Add to the larger bowl (accuracy here and
with the flour is likely important)
650 ml
water at room temperature and 1 T
(tablespoon) of the yeast. Cover and
wait, also at room temperature, an hour or
so for the water to soften the yeast (this
waiting is likely optional).
== The Flour
In the smaller bowl, using some digital
scales, add
1000 grams
of the flour.
== Mixing in the Salt and Flour
Add 1 T of ordinary table salt to the
water and yeast. (There are suggestions
that should add the flour right away or
the salt might kill the yeast.) With the
wire whip, mix the yeast and salt until
uniform in the water.
Dump into the large bowl with the water,
yeast, and salt roughly, just by eye,
2/3rds of the flour and use the wire whip
to mix to a smooth viscous cream. Here
are trying to get the ingredients as
uniform as can while there is still little
enough flour in the mixture to have the
mixing, with just the wire whip, easy.
Really, if want, can just keep adding the
flour and mixing with the wire whip until
the mixture is too stiff (viscous) to mix
with the wire whip. If add too much
flour, the wire whip can be difficult to
clean!
Then dump the remaining 1/3rd or so of the
flour into the large bowl and mix with the
large cooking spoon.
Yes, I started by buying frozen dough balls from Sam's Club, the same dough the Sam's little pizza restaurant uses.
Then I started just making my own dough. Net, as in my post, it's easy!
Notice that as in my post:
(1) There are no electric motors. So there is no electric mixer. Really for working with just 1 Kg of flour per batch of dough, there is no need for an electric mixer. Even if have an electric mixer, it is not worth the effort even to move it to the countertop and plug it in or the extra effort in cleanup.
(2) For adding the yeast, I don't bother with the advice to use warm water or to add sugar. I just do all that at room temperature, and within reason it doesn't matter what the temperature of the room is.
(3) All the dough rising is just at room temperature, and within reason at whatever temperature the room is. So, in particular, I don't bother with the stuff about using some warm area for rising the dough. There is also advice, perhaps for generating special flavors, for letting the dough rise very slowly in cold temperatures -- I ignore that also. Then there is the advice to have own starter dough of sour dough have cultivated yourself -- yup, I ignore all that, too, and let Fleischmann's worry about the strain of yeast.
(4) Then there is the advice about kneading to "develop the gluten". I make no effort to consider the gluten, whatever the heck it is. My kneading is just to make the mixture of flour, water, yeast, and salt more uniform. Maybe the company that mills the flour pays attention to the gluten, but I assume it will take care of itself and ignore it.
For what I do, maybe the good flavors are mostly from the pepperoni, the yeast in the puffy crust, and the browning of the bottom. I have no idea what is in pepperoni and guess that I don't want to know!
There is a whole range of considerations I ignore, a range we could call artisanal. But then the pizza startup doesn't sound very artisanal either!
Since you have been buying pizza dough, you have been doing much of the work of making a pizza yourself. E.g., you can make the toppings simple or complicated. Maybe now with my post, you will also make your own dough.
Maybe one point of my post was, there is a lot of advice on how to make pizza, but since many points in the advice are more complicated than necessary maybe the people giving the advice want to add the complexity to look like they have something special to say. Maybe they do have something special, but I don't think it is very important.
Fundamentally pizza making started out really simple, was originally Italian peasant food, is a version of pan bread, and is often still close to such peasant food.
Gee, now to make it complicated could add shaved truffles! Could serve it with a good Barolo and for dessert have an Italian rum cake with a bottle of Asti Spumanti in some tall flutes with gold decoration!!!
Maybe the main point of my post was, why have a startup, with all the considerable expenses of people, equipment, transportation, packaging, etc., for something so easy for people to do themselves at home?
I'm doing a startup but it is to help people do something they want done but can't easily do for themselves, should cost much less to bring to good profitability than the pizza startup, and should have much better profit margins -- nearly all the revenue pre-tax earnings!
Back to my startup, fueled many days by some Italian peasant food!
you may never see this, but i just made some dough from scratch. it was delicious, and your advice about not using electric mixers worked out very nicely. i think i enjoyed the experience more because of it aswell. best of luck with your startup
Is this what the singularity is really all about? We have major problems facing the world, but at least we can have a pizza delivered 5 minutes faster than before.
Let's assume pizza is just the start, and the real goal is robotic chefs. Ok, that's great. Please say that is what you are doing and why. I don't know that robotic chef is in huge demand. How would having robotic chef's make the world a better place, maybe it's possible, but I just don't see it.
Well first of all, it is a robotic chef. It's goal is to make the world a better place. It does that by providing faster pizza, something that is apparently important and the world holds in high demand.
I interviewed with one of the cofounders. brilliant team - asked him why pizza and he basically said it’s a market with infinite demand, so easy to scale. I guess we’ll see.
48 comments
[ 2.5 ms ] story [ 86.9 ms ] threadA mobile pizza assembly line. This is what counts for innovation dragging us towards the singularity now?
It won't, so many positions still remain unfilled since COVID that closures due to staff shortages/COVID outbreaks have been normalized; assuming this tech could scale to be above a certain standard (this looks like public school cafeteria food at best) all it would do is lower labour costs by putting downward pressure on current wages--which are barely at livable levels and will not yield a lower consumer cost as shortages for ingredients keep occurring.
There is no real advantage, and the threat of SV titans disrupting the Food Industry is was all smoke and mirrors.
The truth is that COVID revealed that this job (cooking) was not just grossly underpaid and undervalued for what it was, but those who were able to used the opportunity to leveraged the skills they learned to move on to a less exploitative/demanding Industry and that the tech was simply not there to do much--even Ghost Kitchens, which still rely on Human labour, have a greater chance at capturing these job losses from brick and mortars than anything else as the effective cost savings are clear (lowering overhead to it's bare essentials and offering many menus in one location).
Despite being a proponent of automation in the food industry, specifically at it's origin on the Farm, I doubt this tech will ever be a real threat and will remain a novelty at best and is at it's core just cashing in on the froth of vC money leftover from these last 2 years. You can repeat all the mistakes and losses Doordash/UberEats et al have made to gain marketshare in a captured market, but without a Softbank backing you and really only wanting a sweet IPO exit it simply doesn't seem as lucrative or feasible to disrupt anything.
Also worth noting is that this puts large, heavy vehicles on the road, with all the attendant externalities for that. They'll be out there with the Amazon, FedEx, UPS, and whoever trucks.
Honestly, it doesn't look that appetizing [0]; it looks like something between a Dominoes and a frozen pizza that you'd have to be really limited on options to even consider, which if you're pulling doubles and everywhere is closed is a likely scenario and it's a stand-alone option.
Personally, I think it's an engineer(s) leveraging on their SpaceX backgrounds and doing something fun outside of aerospace to raise funds and their CVs than revolutionizing pizza making as it looks remarkably similar in execution/quality to that of a race to the bottom cost-cutting Dominoes product/process, with albeit more automation at the assembly stage (toppings are done by hand in all the demos I've seen [1]).
SpaceX has lots of food trucks that support their food program in addition to their mezzanine kitchen/cafe(s) (Starbase has food trucks only to support its dining-meal program) so maybe this is one former engineer's take on what he would have done differently during COVID is my best guess at explaining the 'how,' but the why still eludes me since their are way better options on and off site.
Update: It is, and is guided by former SpaceX Head Chef Cizma: it's likely a PR stunt/fun project more than anything else [2].
Stellar Pizza, founded by ex-SpaceX engineers Benson Tsai, Brian Langone and James Wahawisan, is a food truck that will serve pizzas made by robotic arms that dress and bake the pizzas, which customers will be able to order via the company’s app. Former SpaceX executive chef and director of culinary services Ted Cizma is overseeing the recipes with aid from consultant and Slow Rise Pizza Co. founder Noel Brohner.
My guess is they want some of Ono Food's Marketshare who launched and raised in 2019 [3].
Best of luck to them all!
0: https://www.eatstellarpizza.com/
1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu9cWMQ9sWg
2: https://www.latimes.com/food/story/2021-11-30/with-stellar-p...
3: https://www.nrn.com/technology/food-truck-powered-advanced-r...
I don't consider that a selling point since the imperfection is part of the experience. Give me a hand tossed New York slice sitting under a lamp for a couple hours and re-baked just when I order it. The air bubbles in the dough and uneven crispiness make each bite just a little different.
Or, like many SV companies, is pizza the proof-of-concept and they're shooting to be the global juggernaut of robot food-making and license to the other fast food places? I suspect that's the long-term vision.
This was hilarious, not sure if that was your intention ha
1) Margins on pizza are not very high. Dominos has a 30% gross margin and that's with all the non-pizza crap they've convinced people to buy over the years. The quote a $10 price in the article (though it's not clear if that's their cost or what they're selling for). Say their magical pizza robots instead allow for a 50 or 60% gross margin. If they're selling for $10, you still gotta sell a crap-ton of $10 pizzas to make any real money. That might not be impossible except for the fact that... 2) Competition is incredibly difficult. There are a zillion pizza places everywhere in the US. In addition to the major chains, there are also mom and pop pizza stores too. They are not going to sit idly by while this company scoops up marketshare with its cheap pizzas. They're going to market aggressively (which hurts net margin) and cut prices (which further compresses gross margin). It's going to be especially hard for this company because they're going up against established brands that everyone already knows - they're going to have to outpromote these giant companies.
If you really have this magic pizza robot tech, go sell it to Dominos. They will happily pay you vast amounts of money and you can juice your margins with a subscription model for parts and service.
Granted I don’t order pizza that often, I do a cast iron version myself. But if they can switch to be the “default cheap” pizza for these who order it once every week or two it could work.
What's the ROI on a million dollar machine and regular services?
Either way, good luck to them. There is a lot of competition in both spaces.
Also the headline should be "bake a pizza in 45 seconds" as the article states, but I guess it doesn't sound that impressive when consumer pizza ovens can already bake one in 60 seconds.
My approach to pizza is intended to be good on cost, preparation time, flavor, and nutrition and in my view is terrific on all four.
Table of Contents
=== Steps ForwardFor my success and my situation, here are five steps forward:
First, I make the pizza at home and, thus, cut out some time delays and lots of costs.
Second, I make my own dough. Key here are the simple, bold, blunt facts (a) pizza dough is just bread dough, actually especially simple bread dough, and (b) making pizza dough is fast, fun, and easy.
Third, to cook the pizza, I use just a covered cast iron frying pan on a stove top so save on heating a whole oven.
Fourth, my pizza is for one, about 7 1/4" in diameter. For larger pizzas, nearly all of the content here can still apply.
Fifth, I settle on one pizza with just the same ingredients and then buy the ingredients in bulk quantities at Sam's Club. The ingredients for one pizza cost about $1. All the ingredients can be stored, depending on the ingredient, at room temperature, in a refrigerator, or in a freezer, and be fine for months.
=== Making the Pizza Dough
The usual short version of pizza dough is flour, yeast, salt, and water, and so is my pizza dough.
For flour, I get the 25 pound bags of bread and pizza flour from Sam's Club.
For yeast, I use
Fleischmann's Instant Dry Yeast.
My last purchase was from Amazon, 2 pounds, as one purchase, in two packages, each one pound. The yeast comes as loose, small granules. After opening a package, I cover and refrigerate the rest.
== Equipment
= Stainless Steel Bowls
I use two stainless steel bowls. I believe the bowls, at least the larger one, are now sold at Walmart.
The larger bowl has at its top outside diameter 12 1/4" and inside diameter 11 1/8". The inside depth is 6 1/2"
The smaller bowl has top outside diameter 11 1/2" and inside diameter 10 1/2". The inside depth is depth 3 1/2"
= Other Equipment
1 T (tablespoon) measuring spoon
large wire whip
large cooking spoon
spatula
pastry board (white plastic, 20" x 15")
chef's knife
a second supply of flour, not large, say 1 cup or so, for dusting as helpful -- see below.
== The Water and Yeast
Add to the larger bowl (accuracy here and with the flour is likely important)
650 ml
water at room temperature and 1 T (tablespoon) of the yeast. Cover and wait, also at room temperature, an hour or so for the water to soften the yeast (this waiting is likely optional).
== The Flour
In the smaller bowl, using some digital scales, add
1000 grams
of the flour.
== Mixing in the Salt and Flour
Add 1 T of ordinary table salt to the water and yeast. (There are suggestions that should add the flour right away or the salt might kill the yeast.) With the wire whip, mix the yeast and salt until uniform in the water.
Dump into the large bowl with the water, yeast, and salt roughly, just by eye, 2/3rds of the flour and use the wire whip to mix to a smooth viscous cream. Here are trying to get the ingredients as uniform as can while there is still little enough flour in the mixture to have the mixing, with just the wire whip, easy. Really, if want, can just keep adding the flour and mixing with the wire whip until the mixture is too stiff (viscous) to mix with the wire whip. If add too much flour, the wire whip can be difficult to clean!
Then dump the remaining 1/3rd or so of the flour into the large bowl and mix with the large cooking spoon.
==...
Then I started just making my own dough. Net, as in my post, it's easy!
Notice that as in my post:
(1) There are no electric motors. So there is no electric mixer. Really for working with just 1 Kg of flour per batch of dough, there is no need for an electric mixer. Even if have an electric mixer, it is not worth the effort even to move it to the countertop and plug it in or the extra effort in cleanup.
(2) For adding the yeast, I don't bother with the advice to use warm water or to add sugar. I just do all that at room temperature, and within reason it doesn't matter what the temperature of the room is.
(3) All the dough rising is just at room temperature, and within reason at whatever temperature the room is. So, in particular, I don't bother with the stuff about using some warm area for rising the dough. There is also advice, perhaps for generating special flavors, for letting the dough rise very slowly in cold temperatures -- I ignore that also. Then there is the advice to have own starter dough of sour dough have cultivated yourself -- yup, I ignore all that, too, and let Fleischmann's worry about the strain of yeast.
(4) Then there is the advice about kneading to "develop the gluten". I make no effort to consider the gluten, whatever the heck it is. My kneading is just to make the mixture of flour, water, yeast, and salt more uniform. Maybe the company that mills the flour pays attention to the gluten, but I assume it will take care of itself and ignore it.
For what I do, maybe the good flavors are mostly from the pepperoni, the yeast in the puffy crust, and the browning of the bottom. I have no idea what is in pepperoni and guess that I don't want to know!
There is a whole range of considerations I ignore, a range we could call artisanal. But then the pizza startup doesn't sound very artisanal either!
Since you have been buying pizza dough, you have been doing much of the work of making a pizza yourself. E.g., you can make the toppings simple or complicated. Maybe now with my post, you will also make your own dough.
Maybe one point of my post was, there is a lot of advice on how to make pizza, but since many points in the advice are more complicated than necessary maybe the people giving the advice want to add the complexity to look like they have something special to say. Maybe they do have something special, but I don't think it is very important.
Fundamentally pizza making started out really simple, was originally Italian peasant food, is a version of pan bread, and is often still close to such peasant food.
Gee, now to make it complicated could add shaved truffles! Could serve it with a good Barolo and for dessert have an Italian rum cake with a bottle of Asti Spumanti in some tall flutes with gold decoration!!!
Maybe the main point of my post was, why have a startup, with all the considerable expenses of people, equipment, transportation, packaging, etc., for something so easy for people to do themselves at home?
I'm doing a startup but it is to help people do something they want done but can't easily do for themselves, should cost much less to bring to good profitability than the pizza startup, and should have much better profit margins -- nearly all the revenue pre-tax earnings!
Back to my startup, fueled many days by some Italian peasant food!
Let's assume pizza is just the start, and the real goal is robotic chefs. Ok, that's great. Please say that is what you are doing and why. I don't know that robotic chef is in huge demand. How would having robotic chef's make the world a better place, maybe it's possible, but I just don't see it.