Where Code Meets the Kitchen: Seattle’s Next Chapter of Food, Tech, and Soul
At AI House this week, founders, chefs, and engineers gathered for Where Code Meets the Kitchen, a salon-style evening hosted by Topi Ventures exploring how artificial intelligence is reshaping the food and hospitality industries.
Before the evening talks began, participants joined a Vibe Coding session led by Adam Burgh: a hands-on lab where small teams built prototype AI tools designed to solve real challenges in food and restaurant operations.
One standout project came from Matt Becker and Annie Kuo Becker, who built a Seasonal Menu Generator inspired by their favorite Kenmore restaurant, De La Soil, known for its ever-changing, three-entrée menu. Their AI tool helps chefs design menus around what’s local, fresh, and cost-efficient: reducing waste and optimizing purchasing power. The demo showed how entering a city and season could instantly generate ideas like Houston in July (watermelon, Gulf Coast shrimp, feta salad) or Madrid in November (autumn produce and regional seafood). Future iterations could include ingredient substitutions or budget parameters to make the tool even more useful for restaurateurs.
The main program that followed focused on how data and hospitality can coexist without losing their humanity.
Ryan Conti, Co-Founder of PeasyOS, opened with a behind-the-scenes look at how data chaos (from spreadsheets to fragmented supplier systems) slows down fast-growing CPG brands. His argument: lightweight AI tools can help founders regain visibility and scale without the enterprise bloat.
Lee Kindell, Founder of MOTO Pizza, shared his unconventional path from a 500-square-foot experiment to one of the Pacific Northwest’s fastest-growing restaurant groups. His robots were also on display that evening, serving freshly made pizzas to guests—a tangible taste of what automation looks like when infused with artistry. “Stay weird,” he told the audience. “That’s the strategy.”
Meng Wang, Co-Founder of Artly.ai, demonstrated how humanoid barista bots (trained via motion capture from award-winning baristas) are already serving more than a million cups of coffee nationwide. His next frontier: humanoids capable of replicating complex cooking motions to expand human creativity in the kitchen.
Maria Zhang, CEO and Co-Founder of Palona.ai, emphasized practical implementation. Her company builds AI agents that manage restaurant operations—from order tracking to catering logistics—helping hospitality teams increase efficiency while keeping the human element intact.
The evening closed on a human note with Linda Milagros Violago, former Wine Director at Canlis, who reminded the crowd that hospitality’s true magic lies beyond data. “Hospitality isn’t data-driven,” she said. “It’s soul-driven.”
Dinner, provided by Herban Feast, featured PAOW! plant-based protein from Future Foods and Oshi plant-based salmon—examples of innovation already reshaping menus.
Event partners included Corient, Databricks, CIBC, and AI House. The night’s takeaway: Seattle’s food-tech scene isn’t just experimenting with AI — it’s defining how technology and humanity can grow together.
About Joann Jen
Joann Jen is the Co-Founder and CEO at Topi Ventures, a boutique venture studio dedicated to incubating sustainable CPG brands. With a career marked by successful brand leadership, a commitment to social equity, and a deep-seated belief in the power of innovation, Joann is a driving force in the global CPG landscape.
