Homaro Cantu, aged 29, is the executive chef at Moto, a Chicago eatery noteworthy for its self-styled “post-modern cuisine.” That’s his side gig. The work that earned him the May 2006 cover of Fast Company is his primary occupation—thinking up ways to change the foodservice paradigm. He does this through Cantu Designs.

Cantu’s regular collaborators are bio-chemists, animators, aerospace engineers, and fellow chefs. He uses lasers to cook and nitrogen to turn salad into sorbet. That to-go packaging problem fast casual has? Cantu has beginnings of a solution in an inches-wide polymer box that acts as a portable, self-contained oven. Food, in the world Cantu is creating in his inventor’s kitchen, will be better for the body and planet. And it will taste amazing.

Several foodservice companies have al-ready visited Cantu’s lab. They have some idea of what’s coming. He thought you should too.

Is it possible to apply scientific principles you’re using in the kitchen at Moto to the quick-service kitchen? From a food-processing standpoint, I can break down protein quicker and more sanitary without complex robotic machinery. Quick-serve relies on large commissary kitchens or food-processing plants in order to distribute foods to the franchise stores. They process food at the central location utilizing the human element, or butchers. Sometimes they utilize robotic machinery. What we have are systems and methods to process meat and/or fish in ways that are much quicker, more efficient, and more cost effective.

Can you give details about those systems without giving away trade secrets? Um, it’s hard. Bear in mind we get a lot these big companies coming in here wanting to work with us, and we don’t work unless we have [non-disclosure agreements] in place. I wish I could tell you everything.

Are any of those big companies in the quick-service field? Yeah, tons of them, 440 plus units in the U.S. alone on most. I’m not just talking about food processing; that’s just one of countless examples.

What I can tell you [about] is a software program that’s going to track profits in real time. It’s going to factor in your taxes, your bottom line, and all that stuff. We’re going to be taking this thing to market.