To most of us, the idea of being served a meal by a friendly-looking autonomous robot might sound like a fun and novel addition to the dine-in restaurant experience. And as demonstrated more than adequately by our own Keenon Dinerbotrange, the age of service robots waiting on us in restaurants, bars, hotels and more is very much here.
But what about robots cooking our meals, too? Some might turn their nose up at the idea, arguing that it removes the artistry from high-quality cuisine. In response, it’s worth pointing out that automated production lines have been processing most of the food available in our supermarkets for decades.
Granted, that’s still not quite the same as cooking a high-quality meal from scratch. But as robotics technology has progressed, so have the culinary capabilities of food processing and prepping machines, while also simultaneously shrinking in both size and cost. That has led to ‘robot chefs’ becoming more common in restaurant kitchens than you might expect.
The Robot Chefs are Coming
Examples include US-based Mexican cantina chain Chipotle, which now uses different robots to cut and season fries, peel and core avocados for guacamole, and even to automate the assembly of burritos. Taking automated food prep to another level, salad chain Sweetgreen has pioneered what it calls its Infinite Kitchen technology, capable of assembling entire salad bowls to order from unprepared ingredients.
As you might expect, speed is a key motivating factor behind the development of robotic chefs. In Tokyo, the E Vino Spaghetti restaurant boasts that its pioneering pasta robot can prepare dishes in just 45 to 75 seconds – even using image recognition AI to make sure the final plate looks spot on! The benefits of robot-powered ultra-fast food are also being harnessed in the food truck and mobile service sector, too. In Los Angeles, a group of former SpaceX engineers have used their robotic skills to create Stellar Pizza, an automated pizza truck that can churn out freshly assembled pizzas every 45 seconds!
But as well as speed, another of the big attractions of robot chefs is precision. Unlike human chefs, however skilled and experienced they are, machines never forget a key ingredient or accidentally put the wrong amount in – they are programmed to follow a recipe exactly. Even better, with modern AI capabilities, you can programme a robot to ‘learn’ pretty much any number of recipes you want.
This combination of consistency, precision and variety opens the door to exciting new levels of choice for the diner. A great example of this is RoboChef, an automated quick-service restaurant (QSR) concept currently operating in outlets in Dubai and Singapore. Diners get to customize their own dishes from a list of ingredients, and the AI-controlled system prepares and cooks what they want, their way, again in just a few minutes.
While you’re still more likely to encounter a robot bringing your meal to your table than lurking in the kitchen prepping your meal, there’s no doubting the opportunities automated systems open up to the restaurant industry both front and back of house.
If you’re interested in learning more about robots in your business, contact our team to find out how we can help.