New tool to boost your food’s fun factor

Customizing menu items or related products for a guest can add to your brand’s wow factor and increase your Instagramability. Think chocolates molded into the name of a child celebrating a birthday with you or drink garnishes molded into the shape of the numbers of a couple’s wedding anniversary. That has traditionally required some investment or outsourcing but a new tool called the Mayku Formbox is leveling the playing field for those looking to customize the items they sell (and it’s gaining a following among foodservice brands). The Spoon reports that the product, which has a similar footprint to an open laptop, softens a thin sheet of food-safe material and forms it around an object up of to 7.8 square inches in size. After the sheet sets, it can be removed and then used as a mold for anything from plastic to molten sugar. It currently retails for $699, including 40 moldable sheets.