Food Tech Is Having a Tough Week and More A.M. Intel

Juicero lays off a quarter of staff, promises cheaper juicer

Juicero, the maker of Silicon Valley’s much-mocked $400 juicer, will lay off 25 percent of its sales and marketing staff and build a less expensive product. An exposé this spring claimed to show that Juicero packets could be squeezed just as effectively by hand, without the help of the company’s wi-fi enabled juicer.

AMA with an In-N-Out staffer

An In-N-Out Burger associate had the answers to burning customer questions on Reddit in an “Ask Me Anything” thread. Yes, the uniforms are uncomfortable, she says — the pants get hot — and no, you don’t get a free meal if you go through the drive through backwards, so don’t try it.

Inside Budweiser’s Bay Area tasting room

At Budweiser’s brewery and tasting room in Fairfield — which is either an attempt to imitate the popularity of craft beer taprooms or an effort to parody them — drinkers can sample flights of Ab-InBev beers like Budweiser, Rolling Rock, Stella Artois, and even innovations like Bud Light Lime and Bud Cherry-Ahh-Rita. Expect food pairing suggestions — Bud Light, for example, calls out for “light pastas or a triple-creme brie” — but not actual food service. Instead, tasting room visitors are encouraged to pack their own lunch.

The entire board of vegan mayo maker Hampton Creek has resigned

The CEO of vegan food company Hampton Creek, Josh Tetrick, is the only remaining member of the company’s board of directors after four others reportedly resigned over “deep discord” with him. Another resigned separately several months before. In a statement, the departing board members say they’ll continue to advise the company. It’s just the latest shake up at Hampton Creek: In June, Tetrick fired three senior managers, reportedly for staging a coup to change the company’s governance structure. What does this palace intrigue mean for the company’s recently announced plans to pursue lab-grown meat products? Stay tuned.

New details emerge in death of Sons & Daughters cook

According to autopsy details recently made public, the SF Medical Examiner’s Office was unable to determine the cause of death of Frank Galicia, a 28-year-old line cook at decorated Nob Hill Restaurant Sons & Daughter whose body was found in a stairwell at the Westfield Centre last August. Alcohol and methamphetamine were in Galicia’s system, but not in high enough quantities to kill him. He had sustained blunt force wounds, had a rope around his head that had been tied to a rail, and his body appears to have been dragged by another person.