with porcini, thyme & parmesan · Farro aux champignons
A grain dish that tastes like restaurant food but cooks itself. Pearled farro carries the texture of a serious meal — chewy, nutty, satisfying — and porcini mushrooms rehydrate in the cooking process to perfume everything around them. The cell that proves BDRC isn't only rice.
Eight ingredients plus a six-card recipe deck. Total cell weight ~320g including envelope. Sourcing prioritizes Italian importers for the farro and porcini; bulk goods from studio-vetted suppliers.
| Component | Quantity | Source | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pearled farro (vac-pac) | 280 g | Italian importer | Contains wheat · the bulk of the cell |
| Dried porcini mushrooms | 12 g | Italian importer | Whole pieces, not powder · liquid-gold soak |
| Dried thyme | 2 g | Bulk · studio source | Whole leaf, not ground |
| Garlic flakes | 3 g | Bulk · studio source | Granulated |
| Black pepper (cracked) | 1 g | Bulk · studio source | Coarse grind |
| Bay leaves | 0.3 g | Bulk · studio source | 1 whole leaf |
| Sea salt | 1.5 g | Bulk · studio source | Fine grain |
| Recipe deck | 6 cards | Studio production | 4×6 archival, lives in customer 1646 |
The recipe is engineered for low active time. Stage 1 (porcini soak) is 15 minutes of waiting after 2 minutes of setup. Stage 3 (toggle) is 35 minutes of waiting after pressing one switch. Total active cooking time: 8 minutes.
Open the porcini packet. Place porcini in a heat-safe bowl with 1 cup hot water (just-boiled from the kettle). Cover.
Let soak 15 minutes. Strain through a fine mesh or coffee filter to remove any grit. Reserve the liquid — it is liquid gold and goes into the cooker.
Chop the rehydrated porcini roughly.
Open the farro vac-pac. Pour into the RC503 cooking bowl.
Add the chopped porcini, garlic flakes, thyme, bay leaf, black pepper, sea salt.
Add the reserved porcini soaking liquid + an additional 1.5 cups water (so 2.5 cups total). Add 1 tbsp olive oil.
Place bowl in cooker. Press CONTROL switch down.
Walk away. Farro takes a bit longer than rice — the cooker may cycle once and continue cooking, then settle to WARM.
If after 35 minutes the farro is still tighter than you'd like, press CONTROL down once more for an additional cycle.
When the toggle pops up, immediately stir in 30 g grated parmesan and optional 1 tbsp butter. The residual heat melts them into the farro.
Cover and rest 3 minutes.
Plate. Top with additional parmesan, fresh thyme, optional truffle oil drizzle (a few drops only — it's potent).
Cell 09 is engineered to meet Canada's 2026 front-of-package nutrition rules without triggering the warning symbol. As-sold, the cell is clean across all three thresholds (sodium under 15% DV, saturated fat under 10% DV, sugar under 15% DV). What the customer adds at home is the customer's choice — but the cell as shipped is honest.
Health Canada's 2026 front-of-package rules require a black-and-white warning symbol on any food where sodium exceeds 15% Daily Value, saturated fat exceeds 10% DV, or sugar exceeds 15% DV per serving. The symbol is intentionally prominent — designed to be the first thing a shopper sees on the package.
Most processed foods now carry one or more symbols. The studio's catalogue is engineered to avoid all three thresholds. Cell 09 ships at 9% sodium, 1% saturated fat, 1% sugar as-sold. The customer can add parmesan, salt, or butter at home — that's their choice and doesn't affect the cell's label.
Engineering FOP-clean meals at this level requires careful sourcing of bulk ingredients (low-sodium dried herbs, no MSG/glutamate enhancers, no added sugars in tomato powders) and conservative seasoning in the cell itself. Customers can always season up; they can't easily season down.
Cell 09 is engineered as a natural microsystem connector. The recommended serving pairs explicitly with two other studio cells. A customer running the full microsystem cooks this cell entirely from studio infrastructure plus parmesan and olive oil. The catalogue is designed for this kind of cross-reference.
Every BDRC cell ships with a CFIA-compliant bilingual label. Ingredients in English and French, allergen flags, Nutrition Facts table calculated on the as-sold dry mix, batch code, and the studio's hanko mark with the kanji 食 (shoku · "food").
The full label artwork is rendered in the printable cell mockup (PDF · pending). Cell 09's label is the canonical reference for the BDRC line — Cells 03 and 06 follow the same template with cell-specific ingredient and nutrition data.