The fries machine was everywhere. Did you have a good week?
‘Overwhelming, we could never have dreamt of this. I am still getting calls from four or five journalists every day.’
How did you feel about Pauw categorizing your machine as a useless invention?
‘Well, that kind of news is news too. If I already had 100 machines, I could have got rid of them all this week. You get party poopers everywhere. I think one day a photo will turn up of Jeroen Pauw getting fries out of a machine.’
There was some serious criticism too. It is not an entirely new idea, for instance.
‘We don’t claim that at all, either. There have been dozens of initiatives and none of them have been successful. A machine must make tasty fries, it mustn’t smell and it must be safe. Thanks to technical progress we think we have succeeded now.’
The machine has gone to Germany now for a TV programme. When is it coming back to campus?
‘It will probably be here again from Thursday.’