There is always a first time for everything, we have been waiting for this one for a looooong time!

During the 3D Food Printing Conference we got the chance to meet the mastermind behind 3D Chef. Julian Sing we shared great conversation but on top of that by the end of the event he gave us the chance to taste one of his creations.

Following our experience in first person.

Sugar Polygons wireframe by 3dChef

For me (Luis), I have been hearing a lot of contradictory things about how these powder based (most of them sugar) 3d food prints taste. And my opinion is clear, it was awesome. First we must accept what kind of 3d printed food we are talking about. It is something made out of sugar =  a sweet/a candy. Within this context there is no argue possible about the fact that the technique and results that Julian Sing and his team gets out of it is a whole new dimension for the segment. I was really surprised about how fast the whole sweet melted and how rapidly it felt gone. I was not expecting such a thin mouthfeel. Definitely I am looking forward to taste more flavours and shapes!

For me (Jason) the experience was something a little different as far as eating the actual candy from 3DChef.  I’ve been following Julian for a long time and I got very nervous when I saw all of his cool shaped and beautiful candy covered by glass domes (basically glass jailhouse bars!) that were protecting the precious sugar art.  It made me feel as if I would have had to wait for another day to get a sampling of some real 3D printed candy from one of our pioneering Digital Cooks when we arrived the morning of the event.

BUT.. as the show dwindled down after all the hub-bub was over at the end of the day, and only the hardcore of the hardcore were lingering around geeking out about how cool the event was and brainstorming different ways we could apply the things we learned throughout the day in other applications; Julian came through big time.  As he offered us the chance to sample some of his work the biggest smile appeared on my mug. I couldn’t hold back and almost shouted with glee… I kind of started to feel like Golum, and almost didn’t even want to eat the hollow dodecahedron or whatever shape it was that I had picked. A weird feeling came over me for a moment and I felt like putting it on a chain and wearing it under my clothes for the next few days until it overtook my soul and I turned to a life of scavenging and spear fishing… But then I realized I still have a wife and daughter to report to and they might not like scraping up roadkill to cook for dinner with me while I stare at “Maddie” (the name I gave the 3D printed candy for those few precious seconds before ingesting it) all day and night.

As I fondled the printed precious it had a pretty smooth outer shell to it and was very interesting to look at.  It had a silky-chalky feeling but I didn’t notice too much rubbing off on my fingers, although there was a tiny bit of residue afterwards on my fingertips probably due to my nervours fingertips testing it.  It felt firm and I couldn’t find any reason it would fall apart, it was stable and well built.

So…finally I through it in my grinning face and start to see how my mouth will handle it.  Mine didn’t melt right away as Luis described his.  It stayed firm even through sitting in my mouth for a few moments before I made my first chewing attempt.  Not cracking or breaking completely apart, it was a little chewy and did take a while to dissolve… probably because I was trying to savor and memorize the moment.  It was light, somewhat fluffy and tasted good.  I filmed Luis’ experience and he filmed mine and I agree that the flavor and texture while eating it reminded me of the candy cigarettes from yesteryear, and immediately took me back in time to when I would wait in the candy shop trying to figure out how much candy I could buy with the 25 cents my mom gave me and looking at the latest baseball card packs that were released at the Thriftway while my mom was shopping.

There were NO side-affects except more smiles, handshakes and thank you’s. It was awesome as Luis already stated and I can’t wait for the next time we can share some 3D printed candy with some really cool and inspiring people again.  Thank you Julian.