Two Arms and Three Stars

 

Cutting, Chopping and Stirring

Industry experts have no doubt that robots will soon be moving into kitchens in growing numbers, for the same reason that they are widely used in the food industry. Robots can handle routine tasks such as cutting, chopping or stirring at very high speeds – and their hygiene and precision are impressive. That makes them an attractive prospectfor the food industry with its standardized processes. 

“Spyce,” a restaurant in Boston, has had a fully automatic kitchen since 2018. Ingredients are mixed and stirred there – and the cooks are only responsible for assigning the recipes and for adding a splash of dressing on the food at the end. It arrives almost exclusively in bowls, and the meals are mostly finely chopped potpourris with mixed ingredients. The automated equipment cannot handle more complex menus. The restaurant advertises meals that start at $8 and that are ready in “less than three minutes.”

Customized Ingredients: No Problem   

In 2015, the British startup Moley introduced a prototype for a fully automated kitchen with two robot arms that hang from the ceiling, stir sauces and cut vegetables. They can also operate several burners. The robot kitchen has mastered more than 5,000 recipes and went on the market this year for about 300,000 euros. With this kitchen, the promise has been realized: It can handle more complicated dishes and different cooking steps automatically.

The automated robotic kitchen has struck a chord: Customers simultaneously expect speed and individuality. Special requests don’t confuse robot cooks, whether they involve special ingredients, peanut allergies or low-salt dishes. All it takes is the push of a button. By the end of 2021, an Illinois-based company called Nala Robotics plans to open its first automated restaurant where a robot arm will team up with artificial intelligence to prepare thousands of recipes. The company is still not talking about the technology behind the plans.

Robots Can’t Taste Their Cooking

In the future, will the next two-star restaurant be run by a chef with circuit boards and a processor? At least no one is ruling out the possibility of an actively “creative” artificial intelligence that can invent completely new dishes – thanks to Big Data and deep learning. But for now, robotic cooks will come up short in one area: They can neither taste nor smell the foods they prepare. They know how to cook low-salt meals, but they don’t know what “salty” taste like.

The “Robo Restaurant” in Tokyo has now closed its doors permanently. The pandemic has delivered a death blow to the stage show. The guests had been almost exclusively tourists, not locals. As lucrative as the idea was, the owners might have been better off betting on a real robotic kitchen.