Replicated food vs real food

[Madner Kami]

Thoughts? And any other ideas of your own?

It's very simple. People go to real restaurants, for the ambiente and the service.

[Dînadan]

Thoughts? And any other ideas of your own?

It's very simple. People go to real restaurants, for the ambiente and the service.

Having a replicator doesn’t preclude ambience; one of the eating establishments on Deep Space Nine was the ‘replimat’ and I don’t recall seeing/hearing mentioned of a kitchen in Quark’s, but there is a visible replicator. Unless replicated food has a different effect on people than real food, there shouldn’t really be much difference in the ambience between a restraunt with replicators and one without; at most it’s be like Pa Sisko where part of the ambience comes from the showmanship of the head chef/other staff (and come to think of it replicators would allow the staff more time to indulge in showmanship).

[SlackerinDeNile]

The Star Trek universe has transporters that can, supposedly, recreate a human being 100%, with brain patterns and everything intact. If they can do something that complicated, then perfectly replicating a filet mignon should be a walk in the park. If they can't make a replicated steak taste exactly like the original, then I sure as hell never want to step into a transporter.

In regards to this, I've always wondered just how transporter technology is able to teleport matter to any unshielded location (also without other radioactive, electrical or magnetic interference) within a certain distance. It would make sense if they were teleporting between transporter devices that can wirelessly connect to each other like in that episode of TNG where Barcley overcomes his fear of transporters, but how do these devices recreate matter hundreds or thousands of miles away from their source?

I don't mean to derail the thread but given that we're talking about both replicator and transporter technology in Trek, which are seemingly connected, I just thought I'd throw it in.

[Durandal_1707]

The Star Trek universe has transporters that can, supposedly, recreate a human being 100%, with brain patterns and everything intact. If they can do something that complicated, then perfectly replicating a filet mignon should be a walk in the park. If they can't make a replicated steak taste exactly like the original, then I sure as hell never want to step into a transporter.

In regards to this, I've always wondered just how transporter technology is able to teleport matter to any unshielded location (also without other radioactive, electrical or magnetic interference) within a certain distance. It would make sense if they were teleporting between transporter devices that can wirelessly connect to each other like in that episode of TNG where Barcley overcomes his fear of transporters, but how do these devices recreate matter hundreds or thousands of miles away from their source?

I don't mean to derail the thread but given that we're talking about both replicator and transporter technology in Trek, which are seemingly connected, I just thought I'd throw it in.

A wizard does it.

[SlackerinDeNile]

Thoughts? And any other ideas of your own?

It's very simple. People go to real restaurants, for the ambiente and the service.

Many characters in the Trek franchise comment on how most replicated food just doesn't taste or 'feel' as good as the 'real' organic stuff so I kind of doubt this. Ben Sisko and his Dad seem to quite dislike replicated food and prefer to use 'real' ingredients when they can, given that other characters have made similar complaints they're probably right. I mean. people still go to restaurants for the ambience and service in this universe no doubt, who wouldn't?

Klingons also seem to hate replicated food, I'm not sure if live food such as gagh can be replicated.

[Dînadan]

A wizard does it.

Don’t be silly...a Scotsman does it!

[Independent George]

The Star Trek universe has transporters that can, supposedly, recreate a human being 100%, with brain patterns and everything intact. If they can do something that complicated, then perfectly replicating a filet mignon should be a walk in the park. If they can't make a replicated steak taste exactly like the original, then I sure as hell never want to step into a transporter.

That's only if Dînadan's idea of there being a 'master' template for each item being replicated. The problem comes when you decide you want to change the recipe, and the replicator has to predict what the food is going to be like at the end. It'd be the same reason you don't use the transporter/replicator to perform surgery, where you program in your desired body modifications - when you go from making an exact copy to making 'improvements', somebody ends up having to squeegee the transporter room.

Now, what if instead of replicating a complete product, you replicated the raw ingredients and then cooked it fresh? You get the best of both worlds - fresh meat/produce of consistent quality, and no worries about supply lines or spoilage.

[SlackerinDeNile]

A wizard does it.

Star Trek doesn't have wizards, just say Prophets or Q.

[Dînadan]

Now, what if instead of replicating a complete product, you replicated the raw ingredients and then cooked it fresh? You get the best of both worlds - fresh meat/produce of consistent quality, and no worries about supply lines or spoilage.

I imagine that’s how any restraunts that want to boast of actually cooking, but who aren’t snobs to the extent of looking down on replicated food would operate.

And there’s probably a lot of people that enjoy cooking recreationally so they’d probably just replicate the necessary ingredients rather than source real ones. And even if they did source fresh real fruit and veg, they probably still replicate meat considering how a few early TNG episodes got all high and mighty over how humans no longer kill animals.

And considering replicators didn’t come in until some point between TOS and TNG, I imagine in the early days of replicators they replicated the raw ingredients and then they had to actually cook rather than going straight to having finished meals already programmed in.

[SlackerinDeNile]

Now, what if instead of replicating a complete product, you replicated the raw ingredients and then cooked it fresh? You get the best of both worlds - fresh meat/produce of consistent quality, and no worries about supply lines or spoilage.

I imagine that’s how any restraunts that want to boast of actually cooking, but who aren’t snobs to the extent of looking down on replicated food would operate.

And there’s probably a lot of people that enjoy cooking recreationally so they’d probably just replicate the necessary ingredients rather than source real ones. And even if they did source fresh real fruit and veg, they probably still replicate meat considering how a few early TNG episodes got all high and mighty over how humans no longer kill animals.

And considering replicators didn’t come in until some point between TOS and TNG, I imagine in the early days of replicators they replicated the raw ingredients and then they had to actually cook rather than going straight to having finished meals already programmed in.

Unless we've retconned Enterprise as non-canon (I wouldn't blame you at all) they had 'protein sequencers' in the 22nd century which seemed to function like a more primitive, slower and less efficient version of a culinary replicator. Obviously it couldn't replicate plates or utensils but it could create quite a few different food items, particularly those involving artificial meat. I forget exactly what the characters thought of this device in comparison to natural food.