The Food Printer Has a Bad Day

It was Thursday in the year 2085, and Thursday was pizza day. Tariq was very hungry. He had a math test after lunch, and he wanted a big, hot slice of pizza first. In his school, nobody cooked. A food printer made every meal in thirty seconds.

Tariq pressed the button for pizza and waited. The machine hummed, and a tiny plate came out. On it was a pizza the size of a coin. It was perfect, with cheese and little red tomatoes, but it was smaller than his thumbnail.

"That can't be right," he said.

Behind him, his friend Inka pressed the button for peas. The printer hummed again, and one green pea came out. It was as big as a football. It rolled off the counter and across the floor, and three first-graders ran after it.

Soon everybody had a problem. One boy got a single noodle as long as the room. A teacher asked for a coffee and got a cup smaller than a button. The cafeteria was full of laughter, but Tariq wasn't laughing. You can't take a math test on one tiny pizza.

Then the robot cook rolled out of the kitchen. Its name was Chef 7, and it was tall and silver, with a white hat on its round head. "Please be calm," it said. "I must fix the printer." It opened a small door on the machine and looked inside. It pressed a red button and a blue button. The printer hummed loudly, and an apple as big as a car came out and blocked the door.

Chef 7 looked at the giant apple for a long time. Then it went back into the kitchen and came out with something very old: a phone. It pressed some numbers with one silver finger.

"Good afternoon," it said. "I would like two hundred tacos, please. Normal size."