Food Fabricators

A food fabricator is a device that uses nanotechnology to produce edible objects from an organic feed stock. On world food fabricators are used to supplement naturally grown and process foods. On spacecraft and stations food fabricators produce almost all of the food consumed. Most food fabricators can also be used to prepare natural food, at least to a limited extent.
The typical industrial food fabricator, such as might be used in a restaurant or mess deck consists of a feed line of liquid organic feed stock, a potable water line, power coupling, a recycle intake, a print stage/extruder, heat pump assembly, LCP, network connection, solid stock input (for natural or processed food), and a control panel. The device is typically connected to a central database of food recipes.
The device operation is as follows:
The user selects a drink or meal using the control panel for an item listed in the database. The LCP initially orders the device to provide the designated container for the meal. this may be a plate, bowl or cup for liquids. The exact design of the receptacle is selectable by the user, or a default item may be used. The container is extruded. It will be constructed of an organic plastic by the fabricator. Alternatively an existing cup or plate may be refilled by placing it on the stage.
Meanwhile complicated ingredient creation will begin. The fabricator is capable of creating both raw and "cooked" versions of foods. Some food, like faux flesh is better produced in its raw version and then cooked through heating. Other foods like starches (near potatoes, pseudo rice, and pastas) are better produced in their cooked forms and then heated.
The heat pump assembly places the food at the proper temperature for serving. It can also cool drinks or serve them hot. Once completed the food or drink is placed or poured into the extruded container.
The food fabricator is better at producing certain kinds of foods rather than others. For example hamburgers or chili is much easier to produce than steak. Chicken is much better in Ratatouille than in sauteed chicken breast, as the breast almost never comes out with the same texture as real chicken. The device won't make chicken drumsticks or wings at all, since fabricating bones to be later recycled is not a good use of resources.
For drinks, water is combined with the organic feed stock to produce coffee, tea or soft drinks. Alcoholic beverages are also possible, though simple mixed drinks are generally considered better tasting than beers, wines, or whiskeys which generally get their character from complex trace elements normally created in their natural brewing or distillation process.
Spices are usually prefabricated in the device and then used to season to the taste of the user.
Once the meal is finished food waste and tableware are then thrown in the recycling intake where it travels to the reclamation plant and joins the human waste provided by the fresher systems to be converted into organic feed stock to be reused by the fabricator systems.
Smaller convenience food fabricators, which are located in staterooms, conference rooms and convenience drink dispensers, often located in hallways and control areas, typically have a smaller selection of offerings, typically to reduce the time between delivery, as it takes only seconds to create a coffee or pack of pseudo carrot snacks, but ten minutes or so to make a complete meal consisting of meat, starch and vegetables. A typical industrial food fabricator can make a dozen meals at the same time, a convenience unit usually only one at a time.
Some industrial units are self serve, but often for sit down meals a range of similar dishes are fabricated to be served by household drones once everyone is seated. In that case food is stored in heater boxes or refers between when it is fabricated and when it is served.
 In a pinch a food fabricator can be used to synthesize other kinds of organics, but it will typically take hacking its LCP to do that, since there are food quality and safety protections built in.