<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5c1a98c756cdcf0a6450a29b-1500/81twpdrkp3lsl1500.jpg" border="0" alt="avocado slicer" data-mce-source="Amazon" data-mce-caption="OXO Good Grips 3-in-1 avocado slicer." data-link="https://www.amazon.com/OXO-Good-Grips-Avocado-Slicer/dp/B0088LR592" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/OXO-Good-Grips-Avocado-Slicer/dp/B0088LR592">Amazon</a></span></p><p class="caption">The OXO Good Grips 3-in-1 avocado slicer.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><strong>In most cases, if a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/products">product</a> seems too good to be true, it probably is and will underperform when used in real life.</strong></li><li><strong>But sometimes a given <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/products">gadget</a> really can simplify your life; when it comes to cooking products, that can mean meal prep that's quicker, cleaner, and safer, too.</strong></li><li><strong> From an avocado slicer to non-stick pans, these ten <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/products">cooking products</a> might seem like gimmicks that over-promise results, but try them yourself and you'll see they really are a cut above.</strong></li></ul><p> </p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Certain pieces of kitchen accouterment are indispensable. No kitchen is complete without a few great knives and a good set of pots and pans, for example, and there's really no way to improve upon a sharp knife and a large pan. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Still other kitchen tools are basically useless, adding layers of complexity to the culinary process for no appreciable reason. (Banana slicer, I'm looking at you. Also garlic presses make a wretched mess - just use your knife and slice away.) </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">There are, however, a plethora of kitchen <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/products">gadgets</a> that might seem like gimmicks but really do work, making cooking and meal prep faster, cleaner, and safer, too. Some can even help you cook healthier foods without sacrificing flavor. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If you love preparing food at home but wouldn't mind a few hacks to make your time in the kitchen more efficient, then treat yourself to a few of these kitchen <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/products">products</a> that actually work.</span></p>

10 'As Seen On TV' cooking products that actually work

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Bill Clark's <keyword id="6358351" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="pizza">pizza</keyword> <keyword id="10135730" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="babka">babka</keyword> recipe went viral on social media earlier this year. </li><li>While Clark wasn't the first to make it, he popularized this savory take on the baked good.</li><li>Gadi Peleg, who makes <keyword id="197002" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="nyc">NYC</keyword>'s best babka, loves the creativity and welcomes all riffs on the treat.</li></ul><p>Pizza babka <a href="https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeM6GRXd/">went viral</a> after it landed in the inboxes of everyone who subscribes to Bill Clark's newsletter, <a href="https://apieceofcake.substack.com/p/coming-soon">A Piece of Cake</a>.</p><p>Though it's now a social-media trend that's eventually bound to go the way of early pandemic <a href="https://www.insider.com/banana-bread-recipe-common-baking-mistakes-photos">banana-bread baking</a>, Clark, a baker and co-owner of <a href="https://ny.eater.com/2020/11/12/21563404/memes-diner-prospect-heights-queer-restaurant-closing-coronavirus">the now-closed MeMe's Diner</a>, told Insider his recipe is something of a gastronomic ode to New York City.</p><p><a href="https://www.insider.com/new-yorkers-bakers-react-to-prue-leith-babka-comment-2020-10?utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=facebook.com&amp;utm_campaign=sf-insider-art&amp;fbclid=IwAR3DE-7xTXjAbXoKpgMR3fCqjuw3ti7b5FtFdYPo3BwFUf7I6LEFr8vqdhMI6LEFr8vqdhM">Babka</a> is as much an icon in the New York <keyword id="6181" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Food">food</keyword> scene as pizza. So much so that some people have come to equate the twisted baked good <a href="https://www.delish.com/food-news/a25949161/breads-bakery-babka/">with the city</a> just as much as with its Jewish roots.</p><p>For some, like Gadi Peleg, the owner of NYC's <a href="https://www.breadsbakery.com/">Breads Bakery</a>, babka takes them back to childhood and family memories. For others, like Clark, it's a symbol of the city's culinary influence on all who visit and come to call this place their home.</p><p>"Yes, I know that babka is absolutely Jewish food, and as with so many Jewish food traditions, it's deeply ingrained in the fabric of New York food," Clark told Insider. "New York is really where I found my footing as a professional baker and started to consciously consume pastry. Babka being some of my favorite!"</p><h2>For his pizza babka, Clark was inspired by a recipe from his mother, another from a fellow baker, and by New York itself</h2><p>"Like all the recipes on A Piece of Cake, pizza babka started with a question: 'What do I want to eat right now?'" Clark told Insider. "And back in December 2020, what I wanted was my mom's pizza bread."</p><p>Growing up, he remembers his mother used to make pizza bread with store-bought frozen pizza dough, jarred sauce, pre-sliced pepperoni, and shredded mozzarella.</p><p>"I thought about how to take pizza bread a little further," he said. "I'd made <a href="https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/pull-apart-sour-cream-and-chive-rolls">Claire Saffitz's sour cream and chive rolls</a> for Thanksgiving (as did half the internet) and it's such a great dough. I changed it up, but that was the dough recipe inspo."</p><p>Clark loves to see subscribers try his recipes at home and said his pizza babka is "definitely the most made and shared one so far."</p><p>While it is creative, Clark notes that he's certainly not the first to try this savory collaboration of flavors.</p><p>During his time working at MeMe's Diner, which <a href="https://ny.eater.com/2020/11/12/21563404/memes-diner-prospect-heights-queer-restaurant-closing-coronavirus">shuttered in November</a>, Clark turned out a lineup of other savory babkas, including one inspired by the flavors of an everything bagel.</p><p>Though the flavor profile may sound sacrilegious to anyone who grew up eating <em>any</em> singular variety, chances are your preferred variety is considered "inauthentic" to someone else.</p><blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:540; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px); data.width~540;"><div style="padding:8px;"><div style="background:#F8F8F8; line-height:0; margin-top:40px; padding:62.4537037037% 0; text-align:center; width:100%;"><div style="background:url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAACwAAAAsCAMAAAApWqozAAAABGdBTUEAALGPC/xhBQAAAAFzUkdCAK7OHOkAAAAMUExURczMzPf399fX1+bm5mzY9AMAAADiSURBVDjLvZXbEsMgCES5/P8/t9FuRVCRmU73JWlzosgSIIZURCjo/ad+EQJJB4Hv8BFt+IDpQoCx1wjOSBFhh2XssxEIYn3ulI/6MNReE07UIWJEv8UEOWDS88LY97kqyTliJKKtuYBbruAyVh5wOHiXmpi5we58Ek028czwyuQdLKPG1Bkb4NnM+VeAnfHqn1k4+GPT6uGQcvu2h2OVuIf/gWUFyy8OWEpdyZSa3aVCqpVoVvzZZ2VTnn2wU8qzVjDDetO90GSy9mVLqtgYSy231MxrY6I2gGqjrTY0L8fxCxfCBbhWrsYYAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); display:block; height:44px; margin:0 auto -44px; position:relative; top:-22px; width:44px;"></div></div><p style="margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CHYrG2tHNYO" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank"></a></p> <p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by Breads Bakery™ (@breadsbakery)<time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime=""></time></p></div></blockquote><h2>Even Breads <keyword id="55166" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Bakery">Bakery</keyword> gets flak for its non-traditional babka, though it's also known as one of New York's finest</h2><p>Peleg, who owns<a href="https://www.breadsbakery.com/">Breads Bakery</a>, told Insider that, when it comes to babka the battle of authenticity is "one you cannot win."</p><p>Though his bakery is known for making <a href="https://www.grubstreet.com/bestofnewyork/best-babka-in-new-york.html">one of the city's best babkas</a>, he still fields complaints that it's not what an "authentic" babka should be.</p><p>"You know, 'authentic' is like 'normal,'" Peleg said. "Normal is what <em>your</em> perception of normal is. It's what <em>you</em> saw. It's a very narrow-minded perception of the world that 'My way is normal.' And the same thing with authentic."</p><p>"But maybe your grandmother went to the shop to get babka that was to the left," he added, "and maybe the shop that was to the right that she didn't go to did it a different way. "</p><p>He admits that, although it's <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2009/04/babka-trans-atlantic-jewish-delight/716/">tough to distinguish the precise history</a> of this particular baked good, he knows his bakery's version of authentic babka is likely not the same as the way his own family in Eastern Europe once made it - and he's perfectly fine with that.</p><p>"I don't think my ancestors in Poland had chocolate," Peleg laughed. "I spoke to many of them when they were still alive and, may they rest in peace, they had way bigger problems than going to chocolatiers and finding chocolate to put in their babka. So we're all riffing."</p><div type="image" title="pizza babka" height="2636" width="3514" msid="81358722" hostid="261"></div><h2>Peleg welcomes the mash-up of these two quintessential New York foods</h2><p>When he created the chocolate babka for Breads, Peleg wanted to breathe new life into a treat he felt was stale. His memories of babka were interwoven with memories of his childhood, going shopping for the weekly bundt-shaped bread that he said was too often "associated with old people."</p><p>Peleg said he's thrilled that he, in some way, played a part in turning babka into something "young, fresh, and relevant, to the point that now it's being riffed on by so many people."</p><p>"And where else and at what other time on planet Earth do pizza and babka get to meet, other than 2021 New York City?" he said. "That's sort of, to me, what New York is all about. The different cultures that come here to mix their food - what could be better? It's really a beautiful thing."</p><p>"I'm just hopeful that there's some kid out there getting inspired to make the next great babka idea," he added. "What's the one after the pizza babka? I can't wait to find out."</p>

'Pizza babka' may sound sacrilegious to some, but it's just the latest incarnation of the ever-evolving Jewish treat

We're having loyal Costco shoppers share their grocery lists with us. Here are their favorite things to buy there.

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5c4d9f1d2bdd7f3af60d0714-2222/best1dollarfish 1 of 2.jpg" border="0" alt="Best1DollarFish (1 of 2)" data-mce-source="Harrison Jacobs/Business Insider" data-link="https://www.instagram.com/harrisonxjacobs/" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.instagram.com/harrisonxjacobs/">Harrison Jacobs/Business Insider</a></span></p><p class="caption">Good food doesn't always come with frills.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>What I have found after traveling to dozens of countries and eating at restaurants both fancy and not is that good food doesn't have to be complicated. Most often, you're paying for the setting and the ambiance at a top-notch restaurant.</li><li><strong>I recently visited one of the most decorated<span> </span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/luxury-hotels">luxury hotels</a><span> </span>in the world, the<span> </span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/burj-al-arab-dubai-worlds-most-luxurious-hotel-2018-12">Burj Al Arab</a><span> </span>in<span> </span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/dubai">Dubai,</a><span> </span>to try its flagship restaurant, Al Mahara, an over-the-top spot where checks that can easily top $400 for two people.</strong></li><li>A month later, I ate at a small local fish restaurant in <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/morocco">Morocco</a> that served up what I'd consider to be some of the world's best sardines for $1 a plate. It was a better meal than the $266 fish I had in Dubai.</li><li>If all you care about is good food, you can find that anywhere, so long as you are willing to explore and take the risk. It just has to have good, fresh ingredients.</li></ul><p>Like a lot of <keyword id="6354692" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Travel">travel</keyword> addicts, I have found that my chief pleasure on the road is not being waited on hand-and-foot at some <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rihanna-kate-hudson-atzaro-ibiza-agrotourism-hotel-review-2018-9">gilded hotel</a>, or marveling at a thousand-year-old <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/egypt-pyramids-of-giza-look-like-2019-1">stone monument</a>. </p><p>Instead, it is trying to see through the eyes of someone who appears to have nothing in common with me and finding, a bowl of ramen or a stick of suya beef later, that we're looking for the same thing.</p><p>The most accessible connector is usually food. As dozens of travel writers have observed, food <em>is</em> culture. It is an unfiltered expression of a people's values, language, and history, served up on a plate or in a bowl or, in some cases, on a banana leaf.</p><p>There's a reason <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/best-chinese-food-in-china-authentic-photos-2018-5">Chinese meals</a> are almost always served communally. There's a reason nearly every culture has a dumpling-like dish. There's a reason the hottest places in the world tend to have the spiciest food.</p><p>At this point, I've eaten at more than a few mind-numbingly fancy restaurants: places with Michelin-starred chefs, tasting menus longer than an essay, and tabs that could pay most people's rent. I'd be lying if I said there isn't a guilty thrill in eating a perfectly seared foie gras or scooping caviar onto a blini with a dollop of sour cream.</p><p><em><strong>Read More:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/travel-tip-find-healthy-good-cheap-food-2018-11">I've been traveling the world for 6 months and I use the same trick in any city I visit to make sure I find amazing food</a></em></p><p>There are certainly chefs who earn their hefty price tags. Often, they turn meals into works of art, where every flavor is complemented and balanced. Other times, the price is justified by the rarity and freshness of the ingredients. </p><p>As often as not, though, you aren't missing anything by opting to not sell your kidney and skipping the latest uber-hyped restaurant. The tastiest and most revealing meals I've had are almost always at the street cart, the fisherman's stall, or the hole-in-the-wall, whether in New York or in some far-flung destination.</p><p>I've experienced what I would call culinary whiplash many times: that moment where you realize the $5 grub was better than the fancy meal you just spent a whole bunch of money on. Most recently it happened in Morocco.</p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5c250235bd7730408f0ca598-2222/dubai-burj-al-arab-most-luxurious-hotel 11 of 74.jpg" border="0" alt="Dubai Burj Al Arab Most Luxurious Hotel (11 of 74)" data-mce-source="Harrison Jacobs/Business Insider" data-link="https://www.instagram.com/harrisonxjacobs" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.instagram.com/harrisonxjacobs">Harrison Jacobs/Business Insider</a></span></p><p class="caption">Al Mahara is the flagship restaurant at the&#xa0;Burj Al Arab&#xa0;in&#xa0;Dubai.</p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><h2>Nathan Outlaw is considered one of the best seafood chefs in the world</h2><p>In November, I stayed at the<span> </span><a href="https://www.jumeirah.com/en/hotels-resorts/dubai/burj-al-arab/">Burj Al Arab</a>, a Dubai hotel frequently described by travel writers and critics as the most luxurious in the world. The Burj's flagship restaurant, Al Mahara, is currently helmed by the Michelin-starred British chef<span> </span><a href="https://nathan-outlaw.com/">Nathan Outlaw</a>. Staying at the Burj for a story, I had to eat there.</p><p>Outlaw's main restaurant, Restaurant Nathan Outlaw in the United Kingdom, has two Michelin stars and is considered one of the best restaurants in the world. <span>Outlaw is known for his pared-back approach to seafood. </span></p><p><span>While I can't speak to his main restaurant, I suspect that his culinary ethos is chasing that feeling of eating fish pulled by a fisherman straight from the sea to the grill. Seafood that shines because of its freshness.</span></p><p><span>Al Mahara appears to have a slightly more maximalist take on seafood, perhaps to better fit the golden surroundings of the Burj.</span></p><p><em><strong>Read More:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nathan-outlaw-al-mahara-burj-al-arab-2018-12">I ate at the flagship restaurant of the $1 billion hotel considered the most luxurious in the world and quickly realized the $500 price tag wasn't for the caviar and oysters</a></em></p><p><span>The centerpiece of the dining room, designed before Outlaw took over, is a floor-to-ceiling, 260,000-gallon aquarium filled with fish. The entrance to the restaurant is a golden seashell. The menu is marked by oysters, caviar, lobster, and a </span>vividly orange Porthilly crab sauce, a concoction used at all of Outlaw's restaurants that tastes like a buttery bisque. Checks can easily top $500 for two people. </p><p>While there on assignment, I ordered the salt-baked whole sea bass ($266). It was both simple and theatrical, arriving encased in salt and filleted tableside.  The fish was as fresh and tender as you'd expect in a dish the price of a smartphone, but it wasn't like I was licking the plate. It was, more or less, just that: a big fish. There was plenty left over. My mother is somewhere screaming about the money I wasted.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5c4d9a592bdd7f2f82528163-2222/dubai-burj-al-arab-most-luxurious-hotel 47 of 74.jpg" border="0" alt="Dubai Burj Al Arab Most Luxurious Hotel (47 of 74)" data-mce-source="Harrison Jacobs/Business Insider" data-link="https://www.instagram.com/harrisonxjacobs" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.instagram.com/harrisonxjacobs">Harrison Jacobs/Business Insider</a></span></p><p class="caption">I ordered the salt-baked whole sea bass ($266) while dining at Al Mahara.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>But I found the fish at a modest restaurant on the Moroccan coast even better</h2><p>Then last month, I visited Essaouira, a quiet gem of a city on the Moroccan coast. Just about anywhere in a place like Essaouira, there is fresh, tasty fish. Many Moroccans vacation there simply to enjoy the seafood. It's much the same in other seaside locales, whether it's Busan, Korea, Taganga, Colombia, or Fujian, China. Fresh seafood is a way of life.</p><p>As I ventured outside the tourist-filled medina, I spotted a small restaurant. There was a smoky grill out front and a butcher and fish seller on either side. If you wanted, you could buy a fish or a slab of meat and pay the cook at the restaurant to grill it up for you. </p><p>Locals sat on plastic stools at small tables underneath a tarpaulin and drank mint tea while waiting for the cook to bring over heaping plates of fresh sardines. Moroccan sardines are <a href="https://www.waystocap.com/blog/how-to-import-canned-sardines-from-morocco-2/">considered by many to be the best in the world</a>.</p><p>After fumbling through terrible French and Spanish, my partner and I had ordered two plates of sardines and two bowls of harira, a typical tomato-based lentil soup. The total price for each of us was $1.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5c4d9e032bdd7f3b03741e74-2222/best1dollarfish 2 of 2.jpg" border="0" alt="Best1DollarFish (2 of 2)" data-mce-source="Harrison Jacobs/Business Insider" data-link="https://www.instagram.com/harrisonxjacobs/" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.instagram.com/harrisonxjacobs/">Harrison Jacobs/Business Insider</a></span></p><p class="caption">Moroccan sardines are considered by many to be the best in the world.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>A high price tag doesn't always signify a great meal, but neither does a low one</h2><p>There's a danger to glorifying authenticity and cheapness in food. As Eater's Sara Jay <a href="https://ny.eater.com/2019/1/18/18183973/authenticity-yelp-reviews-white-supremacy-trap">recently wrote</a>, authenticity is often code for cheap and has racial implications (for example, the connotation that all Asian or Mexican food <em>should</em> be cheap).</p><p>It's a little different when traveling. The fish was $1 because it's the fair price for Moroccans, most of whom earn a fraction of what Americans do. Not because New Yorkers refuse to pay more than a $1 a taco unless the guacamole is made <em>table-side</em>. I would have happily paid far more for it.</p><p>The fish was exquisite. It had been fished that day. The only seasoning was a splash of salt and, if you wanted, a squeeze of lime. Each small fish had a perfect char. I ate the whole plate, despite being full halfway through.</p><p><em><strong>Read More:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/best-travel-advice-skip-attractions-that-dont-interest-you-2018-10">I traveled the world for 6 months, and here's the single best piece of advice I can give you for any trip you take</a></em></p><p>When it comes to seafood, there is no substitute for fresh fish cooked simply. No amount of money can change that.</p><p>What you're usually paying for in a luxury restaurant like Al Mahara is the ambiance, the setting, and the excellent service. There's no doubt that many people, when celebrating a special occasion or wanting to have a romantic night out, want that atmosphere. There's nothing wrong with that. Outside a handful of restaurants with truly sublime chefs, that's why you're paying the higher price tag. </p><p>The local grill has an ambiance, too. It's smoky and cacophonous, with tea glasses slammed down and plates served up without ceremony. For me, it's a more fun place to eat. Occasionally, the food is bad. That's the risk you take. More often, the food is better. </p><p>As Anthony Bourdain wrote in his seminal "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Kitchen-Confidential-Adventures-Culinary-Underbelly-ebook/dp/B002UM5BXW">Kitchen Confidential</a>," <span>"Good food is very often, even most often, simple food." What he meant is that you don't need a lot of frou-frou cooking or complicated recipes to eat well. Just good, fresh ingredients.</span></p><p><span> You can get that anywhere, if you know where to look and what to order.</span></p><ul class="read-more-links"><li><strong>More about visiting Dubai from Business Insider's international correspondent:</strong></li><li><section><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nathan-outlaw-al-mahara-burj-al-arab-2018-12">I ate at the flagship restaurant of the $1 billion hotel considered the most luxurious in the world and quickly realized the $500 price tag wasn't for the caviar and oysters</a></p><section><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/burj-al-arab-dubai-worlds-most-luxurious-hotel-2018-12">I didn't think the $1 billion hotel considered 'the most luxurious in the world' could live up to the hype. I was wrong.</a></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dubai-united-arab-emirates-art-middle-east-africa-2018-12">Dubai is already a tourist favorite, and now the city's sights are set on the next milestone: becoming the center of art in the Middle East and Africa</a></p><section><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dubai-development-tourism-workers-problem-2018-12">Dubai's futuristic metropolis came at the cost of hundreds of thousands of workers. Recommending it to tourists feels wrong.</a></p><section><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/middle-east-falcons-uae-training-2019-1">I woke up at dawn to follow a top falconer training the fastest creatures on earth to compete for $7 million in prizes, and found the Middle East's oldest pastime grisly and thrilling</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cairo-most-polluted-city-in-the-world-americans-air-pollution-2018-11" data-read-more-link="" data-e2e-name="read-more-link"></a></p></section></section></section></section></li></ul>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-earth-supervolcano-apocalypse-2019-1">NASA has a $3.5 billion idea to save Earth from a supervolcano apocalypse</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/qXw1AYG5-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

After a $500 meal at the world's most luxurious hotel, I stumbled across a $1 fish restaurant on the Moroccan coast - and I'd pick the cheaper one every time

<p><span class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><span><span data-post-image="" class="image on-image"><a href="http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/cognitivecooking" target="_blank"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5494811269bedd9615e024d5-1200-924/ibm-watson-drink.jpg" alt="IBM Watson Drink" border="0" /></a><span class="source"><span>BI Studios</span></span><span class="caption">A software invented this cocktail: French champagne punch made with apple juice, honey, banana nectar, and ground ginger.</span></span><p></p></span></span></p>
<p><em>This post is sponsored by <a href="http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/cognitivecooking" target="_blank">IBM</a>.</em></p>
<p>Deciding what to make for dinner can be a headache, but there may be a game-changing solution: Chef Watson.</p>
<p>This chef doesn't have a restaurant or cooking show. Chef Watson isn't even a person. Rather, it's software that creates original recipes by using algorithms to pair ingredients - often in ways you wouldn't expect.</p>
<p>IBM invited us to sample three Chef Watson-inspired dishes during a tour of the company's new Watson headquarters in the heart of New York City's Silicon Alley.</p>
<h3>How Chef Watson Started</h3>
<p>In some ways, Chef Watson is like a person. It's an extension of Watson, IBM's cognitive technology that processes information like a human, understands languages, and gets smarter as it goes. You may remember Watson as the supercomputer that won "Jeopardy!"&#xa0;in early 2011. The victory showcased Watson's enormous potential to the world, and IBM began brainstorming other uses for it.&#xa0;</p>
<p>By the end of 2011, the company decided to apply Watson's capabilities to a task used in everyday life - cooking - to explore whether computers could enhance human creativity and discover new combinations. We spoke with Florian Pinel, the lead software engineer for Chef Watson, to find out how it all came together.</p>
<p>"A colleague suggested creating a computational creativity system to make new recipes that had never been seen before," said Pinel, who also has a culinary degree. "When I heard about the project, I thought it was perfect for me."</p>
<p>Working with chefs from the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE), Pinel and his team compiled a database of 30,000 recipes to figure out which ingredients were used together and in which cuisines, and they parsed Wikipedia pages to get more information about the cuisines.</p>
<p><span class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><span><span data-post-image="" class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/549870206da811d117affb51-1200-924/chef-watson-sausage-empanadas.jpg" alt="Chef Watson sausage empanadas" border="0"><span class="source"><span>BI Studios</span></span><span class="caption">Watson-inspired Creole shrimp-lamb dumplings.</span></img></span><p></p></span></span></p>
<p>They designed Chef Watson to blend cuisines by identifying the common ingredient in both, enabling it to make recipes like Peruvian potato poutine, Indian turmeric paella, and Creole dumplings.&#xa0;</p>
<p>Last March, the team unveiled Chef Watson at a food truck during the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. It analyzed several recipes to give ICE chefs Michael Laiskonis and James Briscione something to work with. The process produced an unexpected hit: Vietnamese apple kebab made with pork, mushrooms, apples, and strawberries.</p>
<h3>How The App Works</h3>
<p>After the food truck's success, IBM <a href="http://asmarterplanet.com/blog/2014/06/ibm-allies-bon-appetit-show-watsons-creative-side.html" target="_blank">announced a beta version</a> of the app last June, in partnership with Bon Appétit. Chef Watson learned more about ingredient pairings and cooking styles from reading more than 9,000 Bon Appétit recipes. The app uses these existing recipes to generate its own.</p>
<p>When you open the app, you start with the main ingredients. Let's say you're preparing for a dinner party and enter "shrimp" and "tomato" as your base ingredients. Chef Watson will prompt you with other ingredients that might go well with it - perhaps lemons, olives, or polenta. After adding the suggested ingredients and excluding the ones you don't want, you select a "dish" (e.g. pasta, rice, or paella) and a theme or style (in this case, you'd go with "party").</p>
<p>Chef Watson generates millions of ingredient combinations but narrows it down to the 100 best variations. It even ranks them according to their element of surprise. That means you'll have 100 complete, step-by-step shrimp-and-tomato recipes to choose from.</p>
<h3>The Future Of Chef Watson</h3>
<p>Since the app is still in beta phase, there are a few kinks to be worked out before its official release. One time Chef Watson came up with a recipe for mushroom stroganoff that Pinel thought was "boring." And sometimes ingredients simply don't work well together. It also can't identify which foods are in season yet.</p>
<p>"You can definitely make disasters with Chef Watson," said Pinel. "You could type 'oysters' and 'chocolate,' but it will probably go downhill from there. It's there to inspire you, but not everything will work."</p>
<p>As its core, Chef Watson is a tool for discovery that could potentially change how people approach cooking. Unlike conventional cookbooks and recipe apps, the software tailors recipes to each individual by factoring in taste buds, dietary constraints, and health conditions. That means if you're gluten-free, allergic to seafood, and avoiding dairy, you won't need to scour the web for hours to find something you can eat. Chef Watson will do the work for you.</p>
<p>At the Chef Watson event, we tried Portuguese lobster rolls, Creole shrimp-lamb dumplings, and a cocktail made with apple juice, banana nectar, and ground ginger. We were suprised how well the textures and flavors in each dish complemented one another, especially in the dumplings. It demonstrated the intuition - as well as a strong grasp of different cuisines - you'd expect in an actual (read: human) chef.</p>
<p>Ultimately, Chef Watson could not only help us with our daily cooking plans, but it could also expand our own notions of what food should taste like. After all, one of Pinel's favorite Watson-inspired dishes, a "chocolate burrito made with edamame, apricot puree, and ground beef," didn't sound too appetizing to us. But maybe Chef Watson will make us all a little more daring.</p>
<p><a href="http://chef.watson.ibm.com/" target="_blank"><strong>Sign up to try Chef Watson now.</strong></a></p>
<p>Find out <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sponsor-posts">more about Sponsored Content</a>.</p>

We Tasted Three Recipes Created By A Hot New Chef (That Isn't Human)

<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5894d3a26e09a8f2208b4dec-2400/undefined?maxX=423&amp;maxY=317" alt="Christina Tosi.JPG" width="423" height="317" data-mce-source="Christina Tosi" data-mce-caption="Christina Tosi at Kellogg's Cafe in Times Square."><p class="source"><span>Christina Tosi</span></p><p class="caption">Christina Tosi at Kellogg's Cafe in Times Square.</p></img></div><p></p></div></span><span style="font-weight: 400;"></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">It's National Cereal Day, and how Americans consume the food is changing thanks to one imaginative chef.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Christina Tosi is famous for the innovative creations she serves at the 10 Milk Bar bakeries she owns across the US and Canada. They have imaginative names, like compost cookies, cereal milk, and crack pie. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">She says her love of baking goes back to her childhood. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"I grew up amongst matriarchs: grandmas and moms and aunts that love to cook and love to bake, so the kitchen was a big part of my upbringing," Tosi recently told Business Insider during an interview at the Kellogg's Cafe in Times Square, where she created a menu of inventive cereals last year. "Baked goods were sort of a vehicle for nurturing and care and love, and that's [why] my happy place is in the kitchen baking."</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">After culinary school, she started working with Momofuku's David Chang, helping him create a dessert menu for his restaurants. Chang sensed that Tosi needed a project she could channel her energy into even further. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">She opened Milk Bar in 2008. Tosi has since won two James Beard Awards and has written two cookbooks that explain how to make the Milk Bar treats that have become cult favorites. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"It's been a wild ride," Tosi said. "I was just staying true to who I was." </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">One of the first items put on the menu at Milk Bar was an ice cream-like dessert called cereal milk. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Tosi had created cereal milk as a type of panna cotta for Momofuku back in 2006. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"I was trying to make a flavor of milk that was delicious and interesting, but was more than milk," she said.</span></p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_left"><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5894d4346e09a824008b50e2-2400/kelloggs006.jpg" alt="Christina Tosi 2.JPG" width="414" height="311" data-mce-source="Christina Tosi"><p class="source"><span>Christina Tosi</span></p></img></div><p></p></div>"There's just something about the flavor of milk that tastes like what's left in your bowl, after you eat all the cereal out of it, that is infinitely gettable to anyone and everyone."</span></p><p><span>Tosi was on to something. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Milk Bar's original cereal milk recipe used Kellogg's Corn Flakes. Kellogg's, puzzled by the person who kept making such large orders of Corn Flakes, reached out to Tosi. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"I'm really passionate about using those staple grocery items where you don't need a lot of fancy things to make a really incredible, show-stopping dessert," she said. "There was something about my approach to creating and innovation, along with my love for cereal, that Kellogg's was like, 'Maybe this girl has a little something to her.'"</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Tosi convinced Kellogg's that it would be a great idea for them to work together. In 2014 they opened the Recharge Bar in New York City, and in summer 2016, they launched a Kellogg's cafe in the heart of Times Square. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the same vein as the creations at Milk Bar, the Kellogg's cafe's offerings go far beyond your average bowl of cereal and bananas.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"I found a way to put my creative lens over a bowl of cereal and make it something that was fun, accessible, gettable, but still quirky, and feeding the creative spirit of whoever was eating it," she said.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On February 3, Tosi debuted the cafe's winter menu, which includes three new bowls of cereal: Pucker Up, Baklava, and Do the Twist. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5890af0a713ba11b008b5a5c-2400/img5975.jpg" alt="Kelloggs Winter Menu" data-mce-source="Amanda McKelvey"><p class="source"><span>Amanda McKelvey</span></p><p class="caption">(from left) Pucker Up, Baklava, and Do the Twist.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Pucker Up is based on a specific ingredient: grapefruit. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"I remember as a child my folks were super retro and would eat grapefruit for breakfast. Right? You have a half of grapefruit and a little bit of salt and that was a breakfast trend for a while. So I was like, 'Alright, I gotta find a way to bring grapefruit into this,'" she said. Pucker Up combines grapefruit jam, tarragon, salt, and sugar in the raw.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Baklava is based on a deconstructed dessert. "It's basically taking a dessert that I know and love, that's very classic and everyone knows and thinking about it through the lens of a bowl of cereal," Tosi said. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Baklava is Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats, toasted walnuts, pistachios, honey and Kosher salt. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And for Do the Twist, Tosi combined milky coffee, the classic combination of chocolate and pretzels, and bright passion fruit. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Despite all of her training in the most sophisticated of restaurants, Christina Tosi is happiest when she is staying true to herself, whether it's making cereal milk and compost cookies at Milk Bar, or combining ingredients for cereal bowls with Kellogg's. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">I know how to do all of the most refined, fanciful, beautiful desserts but what makes me the most happy is feeding as many people as many cookies as possible," she said.  </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Or cereal bowls for that matter.</span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/little-cupcake-bakeshop-fruity-pebble-bars-2016-3">These Fruity Pebble bars are the best way to eat cereal</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="FjY2MyMjE6z0wtdfvRdn8-DkPwrkUbOJ" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'FjY2MyMjE6z0wtdfvRdn8-DkPwrkUbOJ',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

It's National Cereal Day- and 1 chef is changing the food like never before

<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5894d3a26e09a8f2208b4dec-2400/undefined?maxX=423&amp;maxY=317" alt="Christina Tosi.JPG" width="423" height="317" data-mce-source="Christina Tosi" data-mce-caption="Christina Tosi at Kellogg's Cafe in Times Square." /><p class="source"><span>Christina Tosi</span></p><p class="caption">Christina Tosi at Kellogg's Cafe in Times Square.</p></div><p></p></div></span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Christina Tosi is famous for the imaginative creations she serves at the 10 Milk Bar bakeries she owns across the US and Canada. They have imaginative names, like compost cookies, cereal milk, and crack pie. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">She says her love of baking goes back to her childhood. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"I grew up amongst matriarchs: grandmas and moms and aunts that love to cook and love to bake, so the kitchen was a big part of my upbringing," Tosi recently told Business Insider during an interview at the Kellogg's Cafe in Times Square, where she created a menu of inventive cereals last year. "Baked goods were sort of a vehicle for nurturing and care and love, and that's [why] my happy place is in the kitchen baking."</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">After culinary school, she started working with Momofuku's David Chang, helping him create a dessert menu for his restaurants. Chang sensed that Tosi needed a project she could channel her energy into even further. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">She opened Milk Bar in 2008. Tosi has since won two James Beard Awards and has written two cookbooks that explain how to make the Milk Bar treats that have become cult favorites. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"It's been a wild ride," Tosi said. "I was just staying true to who I was." </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">One of the first items put on the menu at Milk Bar was an ice cream-like dessert called cereal milk. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Tosi had created cereal milk as a type of panna cotta for Momofuku back in 2006. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"I was trying to make a flavor of milk that was delicious and interesting, but was more than milk," she said.</span></p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_left"><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5894d4346e09a824008b50e2-2400/kelloggs006.jpg" alt="Christina Tosi 2.JPG" width="414" height="311" data-mce-source="Christina Tosi" /><p class="source"><span>Christina Tosi</span></p></div><p></p></div>"There's just something about the flavor of milk that tastes like what's left in your bowl, after you eat all the cereal out of it, that is infinitely gettable to anyone and everyone."</span></p><p><span>Tosi was on to something. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Milk Bar's original cereal milk recipe used Kellogg's Corn Flakes. Kellogg's, puzzled by the person who kept making such large orders of Corn Flakes, reached out to Tosi. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"I'm really passionate about using those staple grocery items where you don't need a lot of fancy things to make a really incredible, show-stopping dessert," she said. "There was something about my approach to creating and innovation, along with my love for cereal, that Kellogg's was like, 'Maybe this girl has a little something to her.'"</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Tosi convinced Kellogg's that it would be a great idea for them to work together. In 2014 they opened the Recharge Bar in New York City, and in summer 2016, they launched a Kellogg's cafe in the heart of Times Square. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the same vein as the creations at Milk Bar, the Kellogg's cafe's offerings go far beyond your average bowl of cereal and bananas.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"I found a way to put my creative lens over a bowl of cereal and make it something that was fun, accessible, gettable, but still quirky, and feeding the creative spirit of whoever was eating it," she said.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On February 3, Tosi debuts the cafe's winter menu, which includes three new bowls of cereal: Pucker Up, Baklava, and Do the Twist. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5890af0a713ba11b008b5a5c-2400/img5975.jpg" alt="Kelloggs Winter Menu" data-mce-source="Amanda McKelvey" /><p class="source"><span>Amanda McKelvey</span></p><p class="caption">(from left) Pucker Up, Baklava, and Do the Twist.</p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Pucker Up is based on a specific ingredient: grapefruit. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"I remember as a child my folks were super retro and would eat grapefruit for breakfast. Right? You have a half of grapefruit and a little bit of salt and that was a breakfast trend for a while. So I was like, 'Alright, I gotta find a way to bring grapefruit into this,'" she said. Pucker Up combines grapefruit jam, tarragon, salt, and sugar in the raw.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Baklava is based on a deconstructed dessert. "It's basically taking a dessert that I know and love, that's very classic and everyone knows and thinking about it through the lens of a bowl of cereal," Tosi said. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Baklava is Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats, toasted walnuts, pistachios, honey and Kosher salt. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And for Do the Twist, Tosi combined milky coffee, the classic combination of chocolate and pretzels, and bright passion fruit. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Despite all of her training in the most sophisticated of restaurants, Christina Tosi is happiest when she is staying true to herself, whether it's making cereal milk and compost cookies at Milk Bar, or combining ingredients for cereal bowls with Kellogg's. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">I know how to do all of the most refined, fanciful, beautiful desserts but what makes me the most happy is feeding as many people as many cookies as possible," she said.  </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Or cereal bowls for that matter.</span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ramen-noodles-nyc-ivan-orkin-restaurants-soup-2017-1">A master chef shares his secrets to making the perfect bowl of ramen</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="N2bTZ5czq6UpXMpVlTakzAnmQwdK577C" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'N2bTZ5czq6UpXMpVlTakzAnmQwdK577C',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

How milk at the bottom of a cereal bowl inspired award-winning chef Christina Tosi to create a cookie empire

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5558b64069bedd5b5fa5f2a4-798-598/global-challenge-cup-winners.jpg" border="0" alt="Global Challenge Cup Winners"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://twitter.com/1776/status/599732698463219712">twitter.com/1776</a></span></p><p class="caption">1776 Global Challenge Cup winners display their awards.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div>Over the past week, 1776, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/1776-startup-incubator-2015-1">a startup incubator focused on public good</a> brought startups from 16 cities in 11 countries to Washington D.C. to compete in the <a href="http://www.1776.vc/challenge-cup/">Challenge Festival</a>.</p><p>The week-long startup competition focused on four areas of public innovation: education, energy &amp; sustainability, health, and transportation.</p><p>Unlike other well-known incubators and seed funds, 1776 solely funds startups that are focused on making a major impact in heavily regulated industries. </p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">At the Challenge Festival, startups like as </span><a href="http://1776dc.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c572b47cc798dd3d0847c9fea&amp;id=b15a6dbbb3&amp;e=9e1b2c06ba" target="_blank">BaseTrace</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, which "uses DNA-based tracers to track where industrial fluids are going in large, complex environments" and </span><a href="http://1776dc.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c572b47cc798dd3d0847c9fea&amp;id=5fceb6cd8b&amp;e=9e1b2c06ba" target="_blank">Reliefwatch</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, a cloud-based system that uses smartphone technology to track inventory and diseases for healthcare organizations in the developing world, battled it out on stage for a grand prize of </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">$150,000 in investment</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">. </span></p><p><a href="http://twigafruits.com/">Twiga Fruits</a>, a Kenya-based startup that builds fair and sustainable <span>distribution systems to export fresh fruit from the country without going through a middleman. The company aims to treat farmers fairly while helping to distribute their goods to the widest network. <span>Twiga Fruits is currently </span><span>Kenya's leading exporter of bananas, pineapples and avocados</span></span></p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5558b6da6da81177402f122f-1024-560/cfkoxhrwmae7hoz.jpg" border="0" alt="Challenge Cup"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://twitter.com/1776/status/599698887952175105">twitter.com/1776</a></span></p><p class="caption">A packed house at the finals.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p><span>"Over the past six months, we've traveled the globe to find the world's most promising startups working to develop innovative solutions to fundamental challenges in education, energy &amp; sustainability, health, and cities &amp; transportation," says </span>Donna Harris<span>, co-founder of </span><span class="il">1776. </span></p><p><span>"After going against stiff competition throughout the Challenge Cup, Twiga Fruits emerged </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1892538165"><span class="aQJ">tonight</span></span><span> as this year's most promising, problem-solving startup, and we look forward to helping them innovate and improve the Transportation &amp; Cities industry for years to come."</span></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5558b754ecad04a541fb8bd0-800-400/ce5dbr-wiaaatjn.jpg" border="0" alt="Challenge Cup"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://twitter.com/USChamber/status/598518135088611328">twitter.com/USChamber</a></span></p><p class="caption">It wouldn't be a startup festival without t-shirts.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div>Along with fresh funding, Twiga Fruits and other finalists will receive the "<span>swat team" of support from mentors, government officials, and institutional market partners that 2-year-old 1776 has become known for. </span></p><p>Here are a few of the other finalists:</p><ul><li><a href="http://1776dc.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c572b47cc798dd3d0847c9fea&amp;id=ebb34e759b&amp;e=9e1b2c06ba" target="_blank">Cognotion</a> identifies talent, delivers functional utilization of knowledge, and decreases employee churn rate by using gaming and video tools to teach entry level millennials about personal finance.</li></ul><ul><li><a href="http://1776dc.us9.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=c572b47cc798dd3d0847c9fea&amp;id=3e5f92b8fe&amp;e=9e1b2c06ba" target="_blank">Handsfree Learning</a> helps students, teachers, and institutions learn and teach hands-on technical skills by applying a range of hardware and software solutions to expand possibilities in subjects like dentistry, medicine, culinary arts, fine arts, cosmetology, and lab sciences. </li></ul><ul><li><a href="http://1776dc.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c572b47cc798dd3d0847c9fea&amp;id=6685daa913&amp;e=9e1b2c06ba" target="_blank">LearnLux</a> creates online learning tools to teach people personal finance and allows companies to empower their employees to become financially autonomous by giving them the skills and knowledge they need to make the best financial decisions. <span> </span></li></ul><ul><li><a href="http://1776dc.us9.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=c572b47cc798dd3d0847c9fea&amp;id=cdfc3522f4&amp;e=9e1b2c06ba" target="_blank">Radiator Labs</a> uses a unique patent-pending product offering to improve radiator's heating efficiencies and turn them into smartphone-controlled climate systems.</li></ul><ul><li><a href="http://1776dc.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c572b47cc798dd3d0847c9fea&amp;id=2adf789432&amp;e=9e1b2c06ba" target="_blank">Unima</a> is a biotechnology startup that developed a fast and low-cost diagnostics technology for global health data collection and analytics in real time. </li><li><a href="http://1776dc.us9.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=c572b47cc798dd3d0847c9fea&amp;id=feb5f71306&amp;e=9e1b2c06ba" target="_blank">EverCharge</a> <span>has created a proprietary device and service for drivers of electric vehicles who park in common-area garages, enabling users to charge their vehicles at their convenience.</span></li></ul>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mathematical-breakdown-uber-vs-taxis-money-transportation-2015-4">We did the math: Is Uber really cheaper than a taxi? 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