This is the Whiffle machine. A story below outlines its history. It was at the Fancy Food Show in San Francisco yesterday. I shot this with the Kodak V610 and each time the Whiffle came out of the machine it overloaded the mic with a loud explosion. It took a few seconds for the camera to readjust the sound. Interesting all around
Water freezes at 32 degrees, nuclear fusion in stars occurs at 15 million degrees, and wheat kernels expand into Whiffles at 297 degrees.
The latter reaction at present takes place only in San Mateo, where the countrys sole Whiffle machine has been puffing out 19-calorie wheat snacks for the last three weeks inside a local grocery store.
“This is good stuff — its light. It tastes like a Rice Krispie, but better,” said Joey Cocchi, who stocks Budweiser at the San Mateo Mollie Stones market.
The Whiffle machine is the linchpin of Food Tree, the business started by 27-year-old local entrepreneur Tal Levy-Chen just a few months ago.
“I went on a trip around the world and saw this machine in Europe. I decided to bring it over here because I thought Americans would appreciate it,” said Levy-Chen, who emigrated from Israel to teach dance in New York six years ago.
