Listen to your grandmother...

There is a particular memory from my childhood that won't go away, and it's one shared by millions of Americans: Dinner with my grandmother at a restaurant where she would annoy the crap out of the waitress (who invariably had limited English skills) with all of the things that my grandmother couldn't eat and why.

"No salt. I have high blood pressure. And no MSG - it gives me a headache. And take it easy on the chili peppers - they give me gas." And so on.

The point is not that my grandmother was every Chinese restaurant's worst nightmare; The point is that my grandmother knew WITH GREAT PRECISION what she could and could not take. And she knew it in the 1970s. AND ... the restaurant was adept at handling these requests (in fact, they knew their customers and expected those requests.)

I have long believed that mass customization and food belonged together to create the ultimate taste experience, but there is a higher calling down the road. Food allergies have been increasing over the years, along with specific diets as our population ages. And as people get older, their sensitivity to "ordering errors" will go up. It may be that 50 years from now, in countries like Japan that have rapidly aging populations, automation may be the only way to serve food to so many older adults without risking their lives!