Some ideas need space to flourish. Others thrive with a team that thinks alongside you. And some simply require the right conditions to move from your mind to the cooking pot. At the Kitchen Lab, you’ll find all of this – and more.
Our experimental kitchen is a space for creators. For those who don’t just think about new food products, but want to test, refine, and evolve them. Here, ideas are chopped, stirred, tasted, discarded, and reimagined. Whether you’re working solo or with a team, we provide the environment that helps you focus on what truly matters: your idea.
We support you with experience, curiosity, and a keen ear. Our interdisciplinary team combines expertise from culinary arts, science, quality management, and product development, offering support exactly where you need it.
The Kitchen Lab is part of NOI Techpark, South Tyrol’s innovation district, and embedded in a network that makes progress possible. You bring the vision – we provide the space it deserves.
Kitchen Lab: Where Ideas Grow
Space: 50 square metres for marketable ideas
A fully-equipped, 50m² test kitchen with a cooking and workshop area are ready and waiting. You can bake, mill, flash freeze, steam, vacuum, dehydrate, ferment or 3D print food with us anytime. Hired equipment and ingredients can be easily delivered using the freight lift and stored here if you use the lab for multiple days. We know that time is of the essence: our team at Tech Transfer Food Technologies will give you a brief introduction, after which you will receive an NFC key card that gives you unlimited access to the lab during your booked period. And away you go!
Or would you like more information before making your decision? In that case, here are five useful things to know:
Our mission is to ensure maximum food safety. Therefore, all Kitchen Lab users must pass through a hygiene lock upon entering the test and experimental kitchen. This standard hygiene procedure must be repeated each time the lab is entered. In the clearly marked hygiene area, you must remove your jewellery and excess clothes and put on protective clothing, including a hairnet, overshoes, and an apron. Then, thoroughly wash and disinfect your hands and forearms. Depending on the activity you intend to carry out, you can get disposable gloves or a puncture-resistant apron from the hygiene trolley.
The Kitchen Lab is equipped with the latest technology, and we want you to make the most of it. The cooking area’s basic features include a stove with two electric burners and two induction burners, a flash freezer, a steamer that can be converted into a smoker, two refrigerators and a freezer, plus several countertops, a large dishwashing area and outlets for several types of countertop equipment. And there are plenty of those to choose from, including equipment for cooling, heating, measuring, and analysing food and a wide range of pots, pans, bowls, trays, and food storage containers. If we forgot to list something, do not worry, you can most likely find whatever you are looking for in the kitchen drawers or across from the stove.
You can book the Kitchen Lab for workshops and seminars or participate in one of the many workshops hosted here. We will prepare the necessary hygienic clothing and a workstation with a cutting board and a cooking knife. Thanks to the overhead outlets, the worktables can be arranged with induction plates or countertop equipment. In addition, they can be lowered and used as desks for seminars and workshops. An adjustable monitor, a whiteboard, a flip chart, and a facilitator kit with supplies are also available.
How many people will you be hosting? A maximum of twelve can cook in the Kitchen Lab. If you go straight into presentation mode, there is room for 18 people when the tables are removed.
Do you have special requests? For example, do you need to generate pressurised steam or connect a particular oven for baking? We have you covered. With two high-voltage outlets (4-prong and 5-prong with 16A each) and two 220V outlets, a 3/4" connection for water supply and a 40mm drainage pipe for wastewater, we can accommodate a wide range of equipment used in the food industry.
A basic set of equipment is provided in the Standard Package. Access to our full range of equipment and kitchenware is provided in the Full Optional Package. For anything else you need, you can either bring it yourself or hire it from us and take advantage of attractive funding opportunities.
Equipment: we have got you covered.
The Kitchen Lab includes everything you need to perform all standard cooking methods, including equipment for boiling, baking, milling, cooling, vacuuming, dehydrating, sous vide cooking, fermenting… have we missed something? A range of equipment is also available to develop innovative products, including an autoclave, a 3D food printer, a vacuum mixer, and a smoker. You can find all relevant information and an equipment map on our equipment page. In addition, most units have a QR code that will take you directly to the product description. All you have to do is scan the code with our tablet, which is yours to use while working in the Kitchen Lab. This way, you can learn the ins and outs of the equipment before using it. Are you more of a visual learner? No problem! We also have video tutorials.
Pricing info: Our Standard Package gives you access to our basic equipment. Our Full Optional Package includes our full range of equipment. See what you need here.
Working with us is as easy as pie…
... and not just when it comes to making jam, baking pizza or crafting salsa. As Food Innovation Specialists, we bring together what belongs together: quality and taste, innovation and sustainability. What unites us as a team? Our enthusiasm for experimentation, precision and a passion for delicious food. Our versatile know-how in all aspects of food preparation and preservation. And our insatiable curiosity: about the future of ingredients, recipes and methods.
We are:
- Ben Schneider, chef with a degree in Food Management
- Doris Gschnitzer, nutritional scientist with extensive experience in quality management
- Lisa Althuber, nutritional scientist and food scientist
- Lena Franke, food scientist with many years of experience in quality management
Keeping pace with the times: NOI Techpark
NOI Techpark is South Tyrol’s growing innovation hub. Companies, research institutions and the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano work here on the ecological and economic advancement of society. They establish strong networks and provide the infrastructure and know-how to conduct research and development.
NOI does not just stand for Nature of Innovation; we live and breathe it. So, while the world inundates us with questions, we transform it with solutions. This is how innovation thrives at NOI, one moment it can be steady, the next – disruptive. But there is one constant in the work we do: sustainability. Our focus is on four core areas: Green, Food, Digital and Automotive & Automation. Around 2,400 entrepreneurs, start-ups, researchers and students work here every day to ensure that business and research are closely linked – creating a forward-looking region and sustainable progress.