Let’s start with an easy question, with potentially confusing answer. What’s actually your name?

Yes, it can be confusing  indeed :) My first name is Przemek, but I often present myself as Jacek, which is my second name, much easier to pronounce for people outside of Poland. That’s why on my business card you can see Przemek Jacek Stachura.

What your business card also says is that you’re a “3D Food Printing Expert”. The position as such is mentioned more and more often as one of the top jobs of the future! Can you explain what does such an expert do?

In short, a 3D Food Printing expert should know WHAT to print, HOW to print and WHY to do it.  At byFlow, I investigate how different ingredients should be prepared to be 3D-printable, which gives us the spectrum of over 50 various foods that we know how to print. While some are very simple to use, like butter, which doesn’t require any preparations, others, such as chocolate, can be very tricky and need months of scientific research. Results of all our tests are transformed into simple recipes, so our customers can easily benefit from them.

To optimize the 3D Food Printing process  I also work with the settings, for example to increase the speed while keeping the best quality of the prints. Thanks to that, some models that were printed in 15 mins a few months ago, can be now printed in 8 mins, which is very important for end-users of the 3D Food Printer.

So you’ve answered the HOW question, but you’ve mentioned earlier that you work also on WHAT and WHY.

Yes, a 3D Food Printing expert should also combine the knowledge of ingredients that can be printed with the expertise in designing shapes that can be printed with food. I do a lot of experiments to define the principles and borders for geometries that can be obtained in the 3D printing process. Consequently, we also provide our customers with various designs.

Next to that, I look for new applications of the technology byFlow develops. Obviously, all those activities are done in collaboration with chefs and experts from the food industry,  who know best what are the needs of the market.

Can it be said then that you are a translator between chefs, designers and engineers?

I try to be, but sometimes it’s a ‘mission impossible’. I have to understand and build a bridge between the artistic minds of designers, independence of chefs and high intelligence of our engineers ;) I keep on learning how to have a versatile mind that can encompass that different aspects of creation process.

In which of those fields do you have the most of experience? What is your background?

I have a master degree in materials science, which gives me the skills to conduct the professional experiments with food materials, mainly chocolate. But my passion for food and design drive me to do my interdisciplinary work.

Where do you see 3D Food Printing today and tomorrow?

While each company related to 3D Food Printing has their own visions for using the printer, byFlow’s is to provide people with the unique food experience, by creating beautiful and intriguing food shapes that are not possible to achieve with a mold or by hand. We also want to help bakers and catering companies in making personalised cakes and dishes for their clients, by enabling them to print logos, text or images with fresh and natural ingredients. In my opinion these are the main applications for the next 5 years.

In the meantime, we are also working on the projects that will bring effects in 5-10 years. We believe that 3D Food Printing will evolve to the industrial scale, where the printers will be used in production lines requiring frequent customisation as the importance of personalisation is increasing in the food industry.

What is your main motivation to do what you do?

Being a 3D Food Printing engineer is obviously very exciting. What I like most about what we do here at byFlow is that we really discover something new that hasn’t been known so far to anyone. And I don’t mean that we do it to show off and be proud of ourselves to be the first.  We just really want to show the world these new amazing possibilities of creating the food and share our innovation.  

You've celebrated lately your second anniversary in byFlow, which means that you were one of the first employees of the company. Wasn't it difficult to join such a small family business, which byFlow was back then?

As byFlow is a family business, the main values of the company lie in its credibility, respect for people and the  ‘warm’,  respectful approach . I really mean it. Two years ago, I not only started working in a new company, but I also moved to another country for that. With all the potential inconveniences, I had a great welcome here and since then we have kept those fundamental values to create what I see as a GOOD enterprise.